Environment: Environmental Sanitation: Why Lagos Won’t Restrict Movement – Commissioner
The monthly sanitation exercise reintroduced by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will hold between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. every last Saturday of the month, beginning from April 25, 2026.
Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has explained why the state government will not restrict movement for environmental sanitation.
“The restriction is not what makes you imbibe the culture. We have to separate it here. The approach and the advocacy are to sit back and look at your environment yourself.
“We have a strategy in place, we won’t disclose here but we’ve engaged enough to know there are ways to go about it,” Wahab said.
His comment follows the concerns of Lagos residents on how the reintroduction of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise will be made effective with no restriction of movement in place.
He said the Thursday environmental sanitation had not been discontinued in the markets, as it was effective from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
“How were they able to do it? There’s a strategy behind it, so we have a strategy to put in place, and we’ve already put it in place to see how we can implement this without taking away anybody’s fundamental rights,” he disclosed.
READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Lagos Reintroduces Monthly Environmental Sanitation After 10 Years
The commissioner noted that Lagos had also grown exponentially within the past 10 years in population.
“So now it’s for us to sit back and say, ‘No, we can’t go on this trajectory any longer.’ In this state, we can’t allow it to go this way. Let us build a culture, and that’s what we want to do. Look, people who are saying why are they doing this, they travel, most of them do,” he added.
Speaking further, Wahab cited environmental culture in other parts of the world.
“In the UK, you know, on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or a Thursday you have to bring out your waste baskets? You must bring out your waste basket around midnight because you know by 6 a.m, 7 a.m, 8 a.m., they are coming to cart them away.
“In Singapore, you can’t chew gum and throw it out. You can’t. It’s an offence, and there are consequences,” Wahab stated.
“So why can’t we build a culture of cleanliness? If the two main religions in this country, Islamic and Christian, preach cleanliness is next to godliness and we want to be godly, why can’t we be clean?” he added.
Sanitation
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had reintroduced the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, put on hold about 10 years ago due to a court order on movement restrictions.
Speaking at the ceremony, Sanwo-Olu noted that the sanitation exercise would take place between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. every last Saturday of the month, starting from April 25, 2026, to keep the state clean.
