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Now that Lagos State has witnessed a smooth and successful transfer of power from a one-term governor to a new governor from the same political party, all that remains is seeing a seamless transition of promising policies to the new government and a review of not-so-good policies that were introduced by the out-going administration. Not forgetting, people also expect brand new governance strategies and novel ideas.
I believe Lagosians want a better Lagos where they could live sustainably and raise their children happily. They may not carry placards and raise hell in order to say this, but in the heart of every Lagosian, the cleanliness and green innovativeness of any administration is high priority for them. The out-going Ambode administration definitely failed to consolidate on the green gains of the past Fashola government. I sincerely hope that the in-coming governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, recognises this manifest truth.
In the past couple of years, there emerged symptoms of a rapidly collapsing environmental infrastructure in the country’s former capital territory. In a sudden twist of trend, trash and rubbish there began to appear on the streets again. The road medians were piled high with bin bags. The gutters began to smell. The previously contained leachate-havens began to seep toxic liquids into human habitats. Lagos became pathetically dirty.
Then, environmental professionals and sanitation operators began to murmur; the government was changing the environmental governance superstructure. Their murmur soon became a howl. They were no longer happy. And their work suffered. Their relationship with the government has broken down. Soon, the Olusosun dumpsite caught fire. Residents around the hazardous conflagration began to flee. The atmosphere was fraught with poisonous carbon and sulphur.
The next trauma was in building cave-ins. Lagos became the talk of the town. Houses were collapsing right, left and centre. Almost around the same time, members of the Lagos Landscapers Association, who were responsible for the maintenance of green public spaces in the state, began a protracted protest, lamenting the non-payment of their retainership fees by the state government. The contractors demanded the payment of their fees for the third and fourth quarters of 2018, as well as the first quarter of 2019. The association was operating under the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency.
Many would naturally gloss over the plight of the Lagos green workers, considering the widespread cases of nonpayment of diverse government contractors. However, it should be recognised that the plight of this set of workers is directly linked to why Lagos is suffering the way it is today. Everything environmental has direct link to our visual senses and once, the immediate environment is not clean, while other ecological concerns start going south.
For instance, if the streets and roads of Lagos are not properly groomed and cleaned, the little boy down the street will not have any qualms in squatting to answer Mother Nature’s call right in the middle of the traffic carvings. So will the orange seller, who will simply upend her orange-peels filled basin, right there on the median. The same goes for the private waste collector, who will – after furtively looking right and left – quickly dump his payload on the road, knowing that because of the already squalid environmental condition, people will naturally look the other way!
The truth is that environmental malpractice is like a bad habit. It is very easy to pick up and very hard to drop, as well as easy to pick up again once the individual is not ready to fight temptations. The Lagos sanitation experience is like fighting temptations, we can never afford to drop the oar for a second. Governor-elect Sanwo-Olu must abide by this dictum, if he wants to succeed.
To be sure, one of the reasons why Lagosians allowed Ambode to go is that the governor allowed Lagos to slide back to its gory days of squalor. Period.
Where his predecessor failed, there are several green options Sanwo-Olu could adopt in order to write his name on the ecological hall of fame. I am positive that he would not find it difficult to deploy green strategies in tackling the state’s challenges. For one, he used to be the Vice-Chairman of the Lagos State Committee on Building Collapse which led to the creation of the agency, Lagos State Building Control Agency.
LABCA was empowered to identify structural challenges and ensuring that builders adhered to standard codes and environmental health dictates in construction. No doubt, therefore, that he could go back to his 2009 work and identify the loopholes that enabled builders continue in their old ways, then strictly use his new powers to strengthen old laws and apply new rules without pandering to sentiments.
Secondly, Sanwo-Olu has to orient himself on the best approach to going green, which is philosophical angle as opposed to business stance. Ambode tried the business approach and it backfired. In order for Lagos to earn the title of a Green Mega City, its people has to see a chief executive that believes in green as a lifestyle, and telegraphs the same message to the people everyday, through a governance that is hinged on sustainable development.
The government’s core aims should be to inculcate a subsisting eco-consciousness in Lagosians, create green jobs, improve the green-capacity of youths, clean the carbon from the atmosphere, and then inspire an across-board, universal participation in sustaining progress made through lasting partnerships and collaborations.
Lagos is a mega city that is crying for sustainable development, bearing in mind that its population is growing in alarming geometric leaps. Of course, its major attribute and asset is its population. Green mega cities of this world always go the extra mile to educate its citizens on eco-values, waste-to-wealth know-how, and all-inclusive participation in developing the ecosystem. It is not a money-making venture per se, but a deliberate policy-driven strategy to safeguard the futre of the city in question.
Thirdly, Sanwo-Olu must seek every little opportunity to link Lagos to the wider world and international community, in the area of fighting climate change, and ocean pollution – these are the hot issues of today. He should do this by actively inspiring and partnering with the civil society, especially youth based and community based ones. He should penetrate the education sector like former governor Fashola did through his Climate Change Clubs in government secondary schools. Sanwo-Olu should consult further, and raise the bar in such education based projects.
Importantly, the incoming governor should ensure that green businesses in Lagos State are happy. This is the way the developed world has been able to mainstream green lifestyle; it is not rocket science. Once the green business community enjoys small, but strategic, incentives from the government, they will carry the green gospel free-of-charge for the administration.
Today, the country is privileged to have the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria. And, as Lagos, naturally, has the preponderance of practitioners in this emerging but critical sector, Sanwo-Olu can engage the organised green business sector via this and other platforms. Mega cities are known to leverage their population and mixed citizenship to experiment on critical innovations and complex system interfaces. Therefore, Lagos, under a green visionary leadership, has all it takes to catapult itself to new developmental heights.
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