IBRAHIM QUADRI
As Lagos State government revived the monthly environmental sanitation, Lagosians adhered to the rule in compliance to the directive for enforcement.
The First Lady of Lagos State, Mrs Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu accompanied by the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab together with other state officials went round Ikoyi-Obalende area to monitor the exercise.
Also, the State Head of Service, Mr Olabode Agoro in company of the chairman of Agege Local Government, Abdulganiu Obasa and other officials went round Agege council for the enforcement of the law.
Addressing newsmen shortly after the tour, Mrs Sanwo-Olu said, “The investment for this morning is good. It was flagged off last month and we’re having the first incident today. We have seen the residents come out. We have seen them participate. It’s like a gradual process.
“The sanitation that we do on a monthly basis, the last Saturday of every month, and it’s from 6.30am to 8.30am. People adhere to the instructions and the vendors did not put their things out there.”
She added, “People are not working during the time except for those that are cleaning the environment. So for me, the assessment is good.
“For the first time, I think I’m impressed with it. My advice for Lagosians is, going forward, they should clean their environment everyday, you don’t have to wait till we do monthly sanitation.
“And if you have noticed, we had to bring the students out. So we had students, leadership by example, to catch them young. And that’s why we brought students in.”
In his address, the Head of Service, Agoro said, “You know, it’s the very first one, so we need to sensitize people more. Well, I’m very impressed with the turnout so far. The people of Agege, they’re supporting us in what we do and it will get better, definitely. But for the very first day, it’s been very good. And the streets are pretty clean, as you can see.
“Technically, I would say that people could not move because commercial buses are not on the roads. It’s voluntary. But people actually want to clean their environment, that’s why they’re not working.
“Even the bus drivers too, want to clean their environment. So maybe that’s why they’re not moving. But we’re not restricting people from moving.”
He advised people should continue to clean the environment. “Nobody likes a dirty environment. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
“Let us clean our environment so that we don’t fall sick, we don’t bring infection into the society. They say there’s LASSA fever here, this fever there. It’s all because the environment is not clean,” Agoro stated.
The Commissioner for the Environment, Wahab said, “People comply, they want to keep Lagos clean, they want to see Lagos clean and safe. So we thank Lagosians, we thank the government, we thank local government chairmen for the wonderful support because they took the message to the grassroots.
“And I’m glad you all saw the level of compliance yourselves. I want to say thank you to Lagosians. So the last Saturday of the month is just to build that culture. Giving up 120 minutes in a month, it’s not too much to clean our environment and make our state clean and safe.
“After today’s exercise, the jury will be out. We want to know the cleanest local government and then they will have their award within the week.”
The chairman of Agege Local Government, Obasa said, “For us here at the local government, we’ve always been complying with anything from the state government. Even as a local government, we’ve taken a lot of initiatives.
“We have about 250 sweepers. We have two compactors. We have a drainage guy as well that cleans all of our drainages on a regular basis.
“So we are very much compliant. And this monthly environmental sanitation is a great initiative by the state government,” Obasa said.
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