Now that the rains are fully here, sometimes pouring in buckets, the Lagos State government’s reminder of efficient waste disposal could not have come at a better time. The reminder was prompted by the just-concluded Sallah Festivities. With the Festival approaching last week with the attendant preparatory activities, the State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, said: “As we prepare for the Sallah Festivities, which will come up in a few days, a lot of waste will be generated…We urge all residents to maintain a clean and hygienic environment, especially around homes, markets and worship centres. All generated wastes should be sorted, bagged, and handed over to the approved Private Sector Participation operators across all the wards in the state.”

“Do not patronize illegal waste collectors or cart pushers. That is what the provisions of the law state,” Mr. Wahab admonished the Lagos residents. We will be wrong to think the pressing trigger was only a festival event-specific. Not in a state that generates an average of 13, 000 tonnes of waste daily, 870, 000 tonnes of plastic waste yearly. Altogether, the waste generated yearly in the state is 5.46million. Mr. Wahab has long thrown his cap in the ring to do battle with all manner of people who have exhibited brazen disregard for environmental laws and building regulations. Warning residents against dumping refuse or solid waste in drains, medians or setbacks, he said at his Press conference last week that the government would not hesitate in climbing down on residents who defied and disobeyed environmental laws: “Illegal dumping in drains and public spaces causes flash flooding, endangers public health and defaces our city. It is strictly prohibited and under active surveillance. Desist from dumping building materials in the drains or on the roads during the construction process. All such contravening structures will be sealed up, and the owners prosecuted.”

Lagos State Waste Management Board (LAWMA) is in partnership with the private sector referred to by Mr. Wahab as Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators. There are 428 such operators, plying 40 routes, two to three times daily. This cannot be surprising given the population of Lagos. Greater Metropolitan Lagos alone has been put at 21 million inhabitants.

Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, the Managing Director of LAWMA, had told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the PSP operators deploy 102 compactor trucks for waste evacuation, which covered cleaning out of coastlines, lagoons and drainage channels. The compactors are leased to the PSP operators and their operations are subsidised by the government monthly in view of the state of the economy. The government is acquiring more compactors, hopefully before long.

Mr. Tokunbo Wahab said every household and business should patronize the government assigned PSP operator for proper waste collection, adding: “Timely payment of waste bill supports the system and ensures consistent service. Those who generate waste must take responsibility for its proper disposal. Every resident must realise that all residents or tenement should pay their waste bills to keep the PSP operators in business.”

It is elating and laudable that the Lagos State Government is applying itself to the unenviable tasks of waste disposal within the state and with the burgeoning population to boot! It has improved on the work plan and efforts of the state’s old waste disposal template. In 1981 and 1982, the Lagos State Waste Disposal Board under the T. A. Mumuni as chairman, collected 400,000 tonnes of refuse yearly with a fleet of 157 vehicles. At the time, it was record job; the waste load was mind-rending, given the population of Lagos at the period, 43 years ago. The board also boasted of 21 mechanical shovels and about 2,000 movable dustbins. At the time, refuse collection was in the night so as not to hinder free flow of traffic. Several collections centres were established in every major street with the cooperation of landlord associations. The staff strength in the employment of the board was 1,800 men.

Waste disposal in our major cities has been a herculean task. Waste is dumped anyhow and, in any place, a reflection of the inner state, that is, the state of spiritual maturity of a people. The technological wonders of these times are coming to rescue the populace from ugliness. Technology has helped in the recycling of 30 per cent of the waste in Lagos to reduce the load of it going to landfills. According to Free Recycle Limited, 870, 000 tonnes of plastic waste are generated yearly. To demonstrate how crucial efficient waste disposal is in our lives, think of underground water during the rainy season as we have now in places where garbage is not properly kept and treated. It was Chief Bisi Akande who first adverted the minds of Nigerians to the issue this time in 1992. And one could not but ask: ‘How safe is the water you drink? It is a question worth asking the next time you are about to have a glass of water. For you may discover that you have a glass of slow-killing poison in your hands.

Chief Akande raised the alarm when he was chairman of Ibadan South West Local Government. In his characteristic bluntness, he told residents near the refuse dump on Ring Road that large concentrations of nitrates had been found in the soil near their homes and, in their own interest, they should close all deep wells from where many obtained drinking water. The trouble was the refuse dump. Normally, good health regulations forbid the siting of refuse dumps within three kilometres radius of residential abode. Where the dump came first, no one is expected to live within three kilometres of it. Dumps contain all sorts of rubbish from metals and plastics to waste food. As the rubbish degenerates, rain and other forms of ground water take the chemical chips underground water from which many Nigerians obtain drinking water.

Nitrates, the pollutants cited in the Ibadan experience, may come from vegetable and plant waste or from the preservatives contained in convenience fast food, according to scientists. In the human body, these chemicals may be transformed into nitrosamines which cause cancer, genetic and birth defects. But this will not be the only danger over the Ring Road residents for dumps also contain metallic rubbish some of which are converted by microbes to water -soluble forms and thereafter leached into the underground system. The heavier these metals are the more dangerous the leachates. The parade is frightening: Aluminium leachate from aluminium cooking pots or cans; mercury; cadmium; lead etc. Heavy metals collect in tissues and organs for which they have affinity and damage them in the long run, causing death. At risk especially are the liver, kidney and the brain.

I want to believe that the fate of Ring Road must have changed for the better since Chief Akande raised the alarm in 1992. The taps should be running by now. The Chief himself had gone on to be the Governor of Osun State since then. At the time, the same poisoning that afflicted Ring Road, Ibadan, was the unsuspected problem where in Lagos Metropolis a dump sat comfortably between two residential blocks on the Isolo-Egbe Road. Indeed, the infringement was worse in Lagos Metropolis. Another area was the Ijesha bus-stop on the Apapa-Oworonshoki Expressway. As this column pointed out at the time: “There is yet another right at the gates of Gbagada General Hospital. There is also the Delphin residential Estate scheme dump.” Yet as far back as 20 June, 1988, The Guardian had raised an alarm over the federal Ministry of Works discovery that the underground water from which many Lagos families obtained their drinking water in these areas had become poisoned. Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti who later became the Minister of Health was to admit and warn that previously unknown diseases had become big-time killers. This was echoed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that said Third World Countries should be wary of the Western civilization diseases notably heart ailments killing a large number of Nigerians. Water samples were taken from wells and boreholes near even disused rubbish dump at Aina Street, Lawanson; Aborisade Street and Idi-Araba for analysis. The study revealed that the garbage dumps somehow did not have too serious effect on the level of contamination of the well waters in the area, but that it did not obviate the necessity to keep the rules of three kilometres away from rubbish sites.

I have gone this far to demonstrate why Governor Sanwo-Olu and his Commissioner, Tokunbo Wahab, deserve the backing in their unremitted drive to enforce Lagos environmental laws and building regulations to ensure that the NIMET forecast of flooding which is hanging like the sword of Damocles on 32 states out of 36 plus Abuja does not catch Lagos napping. The Kogi unfortunate experience has demonstrated that the elements are serious if you stand in their way. The waterways must be free of what they in their fury will regard as encumbrances on their path.

ABSENSE OF MR. FOOL IN THE CASTLE

Within two years of his ascension to the High Throne, seven public places and institutions have been named after Bola Ahmed Tinubu. At first, I said to myself dismissively that Wole Falodun, the Mr. Wakabout of our ancient and beloved Lagos Weekend, has come again with his gist, with his gossip. Then, I quickly cleared my eyes to authenticate the story in, of course, this newspaper, The Guardian, and then in some online newspapers as well. It is found in The Cable, a credible online newspaper and authored by Samuel Akpan. Please, read with me the beautiful and captivating Akpan’s intro:

“From a bustling highway to a humming airport and barracks, Tinubu’s name is being woven into the fabric of the nation’s public space.”

The monuments are listed as follows:

Abubakar Imam International Airport, Minna, is renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport by Niger State Governor, Umar Bago. Abubakar Imam was the first celebrated publisher/Editor of Hausa newspaper, Gaskia. The airport was named after the journalist in 2023. The rechristening without qualms came less than a year, 10 March, 2024, after Abubakar Imam’s name adorned the edifice.

On 28 May, 2024, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, named the just completed Abuja Southern Parkway after President Tinubu, his appointor. The Parkway is said to be a major artery road in the Federal capital.

On 29 May, the National Assembly management named its library after Tinubu. It was a new library the building of which was nearing completion before Ahmed Lawan 9th Assembly with Femi Gbajabiamila of House of Reps wound up.

On 10 December, 2024, the Immigration Services chose not to be left out. It named its command-and-control centre, Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Complex.

On 16 January, 2025, the new Federal Polytechnic in Gwarrinpa was renamed Bola Ahmed Polytechnic, Abuja.

On 23 January, 2025, a newly constructed Army Barracks in Asokoro, Abuja, was named Bola Ahmed Tinubu Barracks, Asokoro. General Olufemi Oluyede, the Chief of Army Staff, said the barracks was named after Tinubu to “give honour to whom honour is due.”

Last Tuesday, 10 June, 2025, the man who set the tone for the naming ceremony epidemic would not be beaten to it, he stepped forward once more, christening the renovated Abuja International Conference Centre (AICC) after Tinubu.

In the Earl of Gloucester’s Castle once lived a King called King Lear—a play based on mythological Leir of Britain back in 1605. In the palace, King Lear had a man called Fool. As the irony of life goes, Mr. Fool was the wisest man in the land. Enid Welsford in his review of the play King Lear, refers to him as “the sage-fool who sees the truth.”

Shakespearian scholars say the unique feature of Fool lies in how he speaks the truth. “He is an agent who prompts Lear to recognize the bitter truth.” He pushes King Lear to become self-aware and to understand the consequences of his actions. He lets him see the bigger picture of his kingdom and actions. King Lear has three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, for example. The eldest, Goneril is married to the Duke of Albany and Regan to the Duke of Cornwall. According to the instructive play, the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France desired and ran after Cordelia, Lear’s youngest and favourite daughter. Lear asked his daughters to profess their love for him and he would give the largest share of his estate to anyone of them who loves him most. And Fool says: “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. Goneril is vexed that Fool is given special privilege. But Fool observes: “Truth’s dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady the Brach may stand by the fire and stink.” In the end it is Cordial who loves her father most, but the discovery comes too late.

In our land, professional brilliant unreason is domiciled largely in the conclave, in particular, and in the ranks in general, of politicians. In the cheering orchestra, in the midst of clapping, one is already saying that after the Almighty Creator, King Lear comes next for him! Politicians are falling head and toes over themselves to curry the favour of the King in the Palace and I am seeing in the horizon, the emergence of Paul Biya and Kamuzu Banda. I hinted at this in the column captioned, Drift to one-party state. This is how it all started.

Tinubu must, therefore, reverse all the fawning rechristening. They are unethical, obscene and nauseating. He needs a Mr. Fool in the Villa.

SAM AMUKA AT 90

So, my boss is 90. So, Sad Sam is 90. I was woken from my slumber to read Sam Amuka has hit the great milestone –on Tuesday, 10 June. I will be back. In the meantime, see the glittering testimonial our leader, the legendary newspaper wizard, Alhaji Babatunde Jose, wrote about the inimitable editor, columnist and publisher:

“It took me some time, involving changes of editorship, to find an editor who would produce the Sunday Times as I conceived it. That is, like the London Sunday Times—beefy with in-depth feature articles; spicy with entertainment; biting with investigative reports, informative with news; and compelling with power-packed editorials, and ability to produce the paper on schedule for sale. Only three editors achieved that standard—Alade Odunewu, Sam Amuka and Gbolabo Ogunsanwo.”

I must have missed the date because the publisher we call Uncle Sam has a way of running away from the country on occasions like this!! A typical editor, he does want and will not crave any attention.

The absence of Mr. Fool must result in the absence of rationality most times and the collapse of hope.