The Lagos State Government on Thursday urged all residents to conform with the state’s legal identification registration process in order for the government to make adequate preparation in terms of infrastructure in health, education, environment as well as other sectors in order to accommodate the large influx of the people that come into the state on a daily basis.
Speaking while featuring on an X Space programme: “Ask Lagos Live,” with the topic: “Lagos, Why People Keep Coming and the Challenges,” Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, appealed to residents to ensure they register with the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency, saying it will not only allow government to identify them, but also plan for them.
He said on a daily basis, about 6000 people come to Lagos and about 3000 out of them come to stay, adding that in the past, it was not like that but the demography has shifted because of happenings in other parts of the country made people migrate majorly to Lagos.
“Let me give a context. If you know Lagos, even on the map of Nigeria, Lagos has the smallest landmass; It’s just like a dot, the size of Lagos is 3,575 square kilometers of land or thereabout and a third of it is water. The south of Lagos is the Atlantic Ocean and then to the North is Ogun state and Lagos still houses 10% of Nigeria’s population,” he said.
He said the people on a daily basis come into the state knowing fully well they have no shelter, but they come with the mindset of sleeping under the bridge and they rob/ attack innocent individuals during the day as well as in the night.
He said the state has its challenges in waste management because the state generates about 13,000 to 14,000 tons of municipal waste which is the biggest in the sub- region. He added that the government is trying to migrate from the linear to a functional and sustainable waste management system right now.
He emphasized that this sustainability waste management is known as circular economy which is the conversion of wastes to wealth. He said that it gives every individual the opportunity to make money from generated waste and the government remains focused to achieve and sustain it.
He said it has been observed that people have the mindset of disposing of their wastes illegally, they package the waste from their homes and proudly go and dump it on the road median, open spaces, laybys and in the drainages and canals.
He added that there has been the insinuation that Lagos smells but he reiterated that this only happens where dump sites are located within the state and such places include Olusosun, Solus 3, stressing that the government is working on decommissioning of these dump sites in the next 18 months
He explained that most people come into the state with the culture they are used to, by being careless about the environment as such they openly defecate, forgetting the fact that the government had built over 1710 public toilets across the state and the government has not stopped.
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He added that the total number of toilets statewide is about 7,000, including the ones available at various eateries and petrol stations saying with the availability of these facilities, people still choose to defecate openly.
He said legally, the state has no right to enforce open defecation in neighboring states and the state is consulting with other states and their plans will be implemented soon.
“Any state that refuses to enforce its laws and regulate them becomes a failed state. As such, the state becomes an hobbesian state where life becomes nasty, brutish and short. The Lagos State Government ensures that all offenders that are caught in various illegal acts from time to time are taken to courts and given community services,” he said.
Wahab said the government would continue to ramp up its advocacy as well as ensure resilient infrastructure is put in place in order to accommodate the influx of people that come into Lagos on a daily basis.
According to him: “I make bold to say that Lagos has become a victim of its own prosperity but the government would not stop welcoming the people coming into the state on a daily basis. But the present administration has determined to continually put resilient infrastructure in place for residents across the metropolis.”
The Commissioner stated that most people that are not used to environmental sanitation come from another part of the country into Lagos but the government would continue to ramp up its advocacy to meet up orientation and reorientation of newcomers.
He mentioned that the shanties on both sides of the road of the on going coastal road construction have earlier been cleared but the miscreants have returned to the space, adding that until before the end of the project, proper enforcement would have been done in the axis but abatement notices have already been served to them on different occasions to vacate the area.
He also spoke about the ban on Single Use Plastic based on the health implications, adding that enforcement of the ban will officially begin in the month of July after about 18 months window given to manufacturers to mop up and redirect their products to conform with the ban of SUPs
According to him: “I would like to say that the ban does not include pet bottles, water sachets and nylon carrier bags of more than 40 micron thickness but single use plastics consisting of styrofoam food packs and all forms of polystyrene cups ( disposal cups) are banned.
“Other items banned in the single use plastics category are plastic straws, plastic cutlery and all single use carrier bags and nylons that have less than 40 micron thickness.”
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