From a video recording of the tragedy, the hyper media consuming street boys and others readily recognized AJ even as trapped within the badly mangled remains of the SUV they were all travelling in. The car bore no marks to reveal anything yet they shouted ”na AJ ooo!”. Thus commenced rescue operations. But his two friends had breathed their last. Dead.

Governments of both Lagos and Ogun States responded promptly and marshalled all available facilities to support AJ, ensuring his immediate evacuation to Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja GRA. Duly discharged, he managed to fly out to go pay his last respect to the departed lofty souls of his late associates eventually interred Sunday January 4, 2025. What a huge and painful loss, at once, to our dear AJ.

AJ’s accident provoked boundless reactions oozing assorted perspectives including those laced with political colouration with the simplistic thesis that Nigeria happened to Team AJ. But the simpletons were immediately countered. The more sober voices dismissed the unfounded sentiments and also ensured their own voices counted as much as those of the nation’s relentless disparagers.

Notably, Ambassador Designate Reno Omokri cited similar previous incidents around the world including that of Princess Diana of the UK in which the son of the Egyptian born British billionaire, Dodi Fayed died. According to Reno, taking AJ to hospital in government ambulance took far fewer minutes than it took victims of similar accidents around the world. He went further to challenge whoever had contrary information to volunteer such. None since!

This does not amount to an absolutely perfect official attention to such incidents. There are probably countless others compelling some pleasantly revisionist intervention from responsible government agencies like the Tunji Bello-led Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. This Commission is, for instance, doing its best with its campaign slogan of Demand and Insist to alert Nigerians to their statutory entitlement in emergency situations to treatment in public health facilities before being asked to make any payment.If only the rule of law as being advocated by FCCPC, accompanied by compassion had always prevailed…

Tragic trajectories all the way. In April 2010, Nigerians suddenly woke up to the tragic news of the shocking death of that fast rising rapper, Dagrin. He rammed his car into a stationary truck in Mushin, apparently while returning from an all-night show. Dagrin held so much promise, according to his fans making his death send ripples to far and near. Barely one year later, yet another star, of the comedy genre, CD John, died in a similar manner. As recently as October 7, 2025, still in the showbiz world, Chris Jeyibo a music producer, had a collision with a truck park.

Equally strategic in this context are the unmistakably well resourced non-state actors who only need to be properly inspired by relevant state actors to reinforce relevant official activities.

Similar contexts for all, as obvious. No mechanical dysfunction in any of their vehicles. Misuse of road spaces sticks out in all but there is also a peculiar angle especially in AJ’s case. Reinforcing an earlier claim by a Facebook user, a renowned broadcaster, Anike-Ade Funke Treasure who claims to live in Nigeria by choice cautions against heaping all the blames on the bad road conditions. Ironically, according to her, the good condition of some roads tempt into tragedies. “ Overspeeding kills. I ply that road often, it’s a recently reconstructed road. Such a ghastly accident has no other explanation than overspeeding”. Apparently also endorsing Omokri, She continues: “I feel for men of the FRSC who beat the traffic build-up by running to the scene…”. The earlier commenter, a Sayo Aluko, argues: I mean this was a multi-lane expressway with a shoulder…A stationary trailer parked on the shoulder does not , by itself cause a catastrophic collision: such outcomes are shaped by speed, control and judgement on the point of impact. Roads do not create speed, drivers do…this accident could have occurred in (sic) anywhere under the same conditions of speed and recklessness, and the trailer in that could have been a fat oak”.

Incidentally, highway remains the flagship physical accomplishment of the President Tinubu’s administration amply signposted by the innovative duo of the Lagos-Calabar highway and the Sokoto-Badagry highway. Add that to the ingenuity of  the enhanced use of local content of cement for the roads most popularized by a tested engineer himself, the incumbent Works Minister, David Umahi, when he was Ebonyi State Governor.

But the human factor holds sway always, head or tail, with the possibility of harvesting negative results even when positive outcomes are glaringly low hanging fruits. Soyinka’s play, The Road, offers a most convincing, unnecessary mystification of Ogun as killer on the road even as its susceptibility to manipulation by human beings is limitless. Drivers are quick to accuse Ogun, being the Yoruba god of iron embodying vehicles, of being murderous when accidents happen on the road. Forever, they want to wash their hands clean from automobile accidents, in spite of the total control of automobile technology that humans have. The debates could have been endless and in fact globally so with the (dis)advantage of the global spread of the naïve nitwits, if only to be exhibitionist about their fandom for AJ or sheer gullible criticism of the government they loath without limit.

With this global dimension added to the series of the road tragedies in Nigeria in this internet age will probably come some succor to unfounded faultfinding with the nation’s road condition. There are bad roads but there are probably as many bad road users. It is inconceivable for instance how, unlike Lagos, drivers in Abuja relish defying traffic lights in the nation’s capital with impunity. Even in Lagos where it is public knowledge that there are CCTV cameras overlooking highways, unpleasant situations such as had claimed the lives of some of the music producer, Chris Jeyibo, still happen.

Notwithstanding the predictable, largely online criticism of it, the Lagos-Calabar Highway has turned out to be a most precocious or rather ambitious project. Even as it remains far from being fully completed, it now helps to relieve the pre-existing roads on Lagos Island connecting outward, inter-state roads for vehicles heading for southernly Western and Eastern regions of the country. That road project has clearly earned Nigeria a lofty ranking on the world road rating scale with all resultant positive projections of economic benefits beyond what were earlier anticipated thus recommending it easily for robust international funding support

But we cannot continue to sit back without accompanying our civilizational advancement with required or appropriate knowledge democratization efforts. And we can never have enough of these. From the relevant state actors at the national level like the FRSC to those at the subnational level like the Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA, efforts must be stepped up to be more proactive in the discharge of duties. While public education campaigns, especially during festive periods must not be deployed as sheer cosmetic interventions, they must not be seen as yet another opportunity to extort innocent road users either.

Equally strategic in this context are the unmistakably well resourced non-state actors who only need to be properly inspired by relevant state actors to reinforce relevant official activities. The likes of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, and some others with membership encompassing grassroots operators like drivers of tricycles as well as commercial bikers will do well to ensure due percolation of the new consciousness that must accompany the renewal agenda of the Tinubu administration. The doability is pretty real especially with the readiness of the Federal Government to be demonstrative with attention to even affairs at the very base ward level. Non state actors must also seek out allies in the corporate operators of the emerging car rental service companies such as often patronized by the likes of the unfortunate Team AJ.

With the acknowledged, unprecedented road development now, even in the regions, perhaps most exemplified in Imo and Osun States, obviously deriving from substantially improved funding allocation from the revenue mindful Federal Government, safety concerns deserve urgent attention. Indeed, offering a commendable example from Osun State is the Ede ThinkTank, a cell of Ede Descendants Union. Populated by intellectuals with diverse academic and professional leanings, it is currently led by the Obafemi Awolowo University Professor of Medicine, Abubakar Abefe Sanusi. As proactive as ever, the model group formulated a dedicated campaign for enhanced road safety for the community following massive road development. Ede is better for it now even as Ede Think Tank, while monitoring that, has moved on to engage with tech-driven multi-sectoral produuctivity taking advantage of its social clout. For the group, no national or international official is unreachable. Fundamentally however, for the group led by a medical veteran, the right to life is supreme.

Highways therefore must support better lives, not snuff them.

*Professor Akanni is a LASU based Development Communications expert currently on sabbatical tenure at FCCPC, Abuja. Follow him further online on medium.com

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In a country where wealth often masquerades as virtue and philanthropy is too frequently tethered to ego, Tunji Bello’s donation of a 550-seater auditorium to Lagos State University (LASU) is a quiet revolution. It is not the size of the gift that stuns—it is the source. By every reasonable measure—whether by asset declarations, Forbes rankings, or real estate holdings—Tunji Bello is not among Nigeria’s wealthiest citizens. Yet, he has done what perhaps fewer than 10 Nigerians have ever done: build a legacy structure for a public university—not with surplus, but with sacrifice.

The story began in 2021, when Bello turned 60. While many would have marked the milestone with opulence, he chose introspection. He saw the infrastructural gap in LASU—not as a statistic, but as a wound in the national conscience. With no clear funding arc, he took a leap of faith. He made his intentions known to LASU authorities, rallied friends, converted birthday gifts into donations, and when inflation threatened the dream, he sold his house to build an auditorium for LASU. What emerged is not just an auditorium—it is a monument to moral courage, a structure built not on concrete alone, but on conviction.

The Man Behind the Mission

Tunji Bello’s life is a study in purposeful evolution. A journalist, lawyer, environmentalist, and public servant, he has worn many hats—but always with the same thread of integrity. From his early days at Concord Press to his tenure as Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, and now as Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Bello has consistently stood on the side of the public interest.

At FCCPC, he has taken on digital loan sharks, price gougers, and monopolistic cartels with the same fervour he brought to LASU. His mantra is clear: governance must protect the vulnerable, and leadership must be anchored in empathy. Under his watch, FCCPC has become a bulwark against economic feudalism, ensuring that consumers are not crushed under the weight of exploitative practices.

READ ALSO: Why Alaafin does not need to get into any battle for supremacy

Global Echoes of Modest Giants

Bello’s story is not without precedent. In India, Dashrath Manjhi—a poor labourer from Bihar—lost his wife, Falguni Devi, in 1959 after she fell from a mountain ridge and could not reach a hospital in time. The very mountain that blocked access became his adversary. Armed with only a hammer and chisel, Manjhi spent 22 years carving a path through it, reducing a 34-mile detour to just 9 miles. His grief became a gift to generations, and his resolve earned him the name “Mountain Man.”

In the United States, Clara Barton, with no formal medical training or wealth, founded the American Red Cross, driven by a singular passion to serve wounded soldiers. And in Kenya, Wangari Maathai began the Green Belt Movement with a handful of women planting trees—an act that grew into a global environmental crusade.

These individuals, like Bello, did not wait for billions. They acted with what they had: vision, grit, and a refusal to let tragedy or limitation define their legacy.

Auditoriums as Vessels of Nationhood

An auditorium is not just a building—it is a civic altar. It is where ideas are debated, futures are imagined, and communities are forged. In educational institutions, it becomes the heartbeat of intellectual life. Bello’s gift to LASU is therefore not ornamental—it is foundational. It affirms that learning deserves grandeur, that public universities should not be relegated to the margins of aspiration.

A Call to the Rest of Us

Tunji Bello’s gesture is a mirror. It asks each of us: what are you doing with your influence, your network, your modest means? It reminds us that charity is not the exclusive domain of billionaires—it is the province of the willing. In a society often paralyzed by cynicism, Bello’s story is a clarion call to rediscover our moral momentum—to be architects of good even when the moral scaffolding of society is collapsing.

Let this be the story that shifts our national imagination—from wealth as status to giving as stature. Let it be the story that inspires a thousand more auditoriums, scholarships, clinics, and community centers. And let it be the story that reminds us that the most enduring legacies are not built on abundance, but on audacity.

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It is no longer news that the vice-president, Prof. Yemi  Osinbajo, is in the race to succeed his boss, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retired) as president. After a period of what some called dithering and prevarication but which to others was a period of sober reflection, astute consultations and strategic timing, Osinbajo eventually threw his hat into the ring, thereby ending all speculations about his political future. Since then, there has been a war of words between his supporters and those of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the emeritus governor of Lagos State and presumed National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Recall that Tinubu was the very first big fish to announce his intention to contest after, also, a period of flying kites and testing the political waters. Once Tinubu declared, the topic then became will Osinbajo also declare for the same office? Will presumed godson challenge his godfather into a do-or-die battle of political relevance? The food that the “father” desires, will the “son” make an effort to snatch? The prize that the “father” had worked his arse out for in decades of political struggle, will the “son” prise from his hand? For both men, who are of the same Yoruba extraction, shall we witness a situation of either the rat eats the beans or he wastes it?

Remember one of the prostitutes in the biblical story that was used to demonstrate the uncommon wisdom God had gifted King Solomon: The prostitute who, out of carelessness, killed her own child in the night but swapped it for the living child of her colleague before daybreak? When Solomon decreed that both the dead and living child be split into two equal parts and shared for the two mothers, the rogue-prostitute expressed satisfaction while the true mother cringed at the thought and chose, instead, that the liar have the baby. Is it not said that even if falsehood runs ahead for a million years, truth will catch up with it in one day? Truth, they say, will out no matter what and blood will speak. Was that not how Solomon discovered the true mother of the living child while the liar paid dearly with her life? (1 Kings 3:16-28) Between Tinubu and Osinbajo, who will make the sacrifice that the truthful prostitute made? It would appear none is ready to toe that line. Therefore, the battle line appears drawn already between the two, even before the day of actual battle. Supporters of both men are at daggers-drawn already as allegations to and fro rent the air.

I know how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu picked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo because I was part of the process that midwifed his nomination.

Traitor! Ingrate! Treachery! Dictator! Slave driver! Who helped who? Who made who? Who climbed on whose back? The godson denies the godfather and the godfather says he does not have a son old and audacious enough to dare and  struggle with him for the same coveted stool! Between Tinubu and Osinbajo, who owes who a debt of gratitude? Or is this a case of the left and right hands washing one another? There are many stories and counter-stories of how Osinbajo became VP. Did Tinubu make him? Was Osinbajo Buhari’s independent choice? Out of the many names that have now been bandied about in the media as having had a hand in the VP-ship of Osinbajo, which is the truth and which is pure and unadulterated “fabu”? If politics is war by other means as some political theorists posit, then, the first casualty in politics, as in war, is truth. So we may have to search for the truth of how, when, and why Osinbajo became VP as if searching for a needle in a haystack! While we continue that search, it is appropriate to repeat here the note of warning sounded by some Yoruba elders: Quoting ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, the ambition of Tinubu and Osinbajo combined is not worth the blood of a single Yoruba person! The two and their supporters, thus, must not set the South-west on fire. Those of us who were not old enough to witness or understand the Wild, Wild, West political crisis of 1961/62 at least read about them and or witnessed the “Operation Wetie” of 1983, especially in the old Ondo State. There must be no repeat performance of the Awolowo/Akintola feud in the South-west!

Still, the discussion must continue! It is better to jaw-jaw than war-war! Eye-witness and written accounts are very reliable sources of history. This is why I am printing here again today an eye-witness account of who did what between Tinubu and Osinbajo. The eyes that claimed to have witnessed it all were those of Tunji Bello; Tunji was – and still is – in the thick of it all as far as Lagos politics is concerned and can actually speak as an eye-witness. He was, and again now is, the Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment; he had also been the Secretary to the State Government. Besides, he is an accomplished and respected journalist – an editor of editors – who understands and respects the journalism dictum of ‘facts are sacred.’ Nevertheless, allowance must be made for those who will see Tunji as a partisan – and rightly so – because of his affinity with Tinubu. Therefore, the opportunity is hereby extended to anyone with contrary opinion or the other side of the story, as we say, to express them here. We are the apostles of Chairman Mao Zedong who said: “Let a thousand flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.”

Titled: “How Tinubu nominated Osinbajo”, Tunji Bello first published his views on October 7, 2016. Read on: “NOTHING strengthens deceit more than silence. And on an occasion like this, one often wonders why some people twist events and history in order to legitimise a mission. While ruminating over why this should be, it is not impossible to embark on introspection by thinking out so many possibilities that politics is replete with. This line of thought is informed by laughable events of the last few days.

“The news media have become agog with false stories as to how Vice President Yemi Osinbajo came to be. During the launch of a book: Muhammadu Buhari: The challenges of leadership in Nigeria, a biography on President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Monday, 3rd October, 2016, Nigerians were fed with half-truths by the author, Prof. John Paden, on how Osinbajo became the Vice President of the country. I don’t know how the author came about his story but he totally got it wrong because what he wrote basically was based on falsehood that reeks of deliberate misinformation and mischief.

“I know how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu picked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo because I was part of the process that midwifed his nomination. In mid-December 2014, it was a Saturday morning after President Muhammadu Buhari had been picked by the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the party’s presidential primaries at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. I received a phone call from Asiwaju to see him that morning. On my way to his house, I discovered that a car at a reasonable distance was that of former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dele Alake, who was also heading towards Asiwaju’s house in Ikoyi. Asiwaju must have called him, too.

“As soon as we arrived, Asiwaju quickly asked us to join him in his car as we headed to a Guest House. At the Guest House, the former All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Prof. Yemi Osibajo and one renowned pastor joined us. At the meeting, Asiwaju related to us the urgent need to pick a vice presidential candidate for the APC. He advised that we immediately discard the idea of his being nominated for the vice presidential slot as it was no longer possible to pick a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This, he reasoned, made sense if, indeed, we were to be realistic in our bid to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. He reasoned that what was important and imperative at that time was to look for a good Christian nominee to complement President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I remember Baba Akande responded that he would still have preferred that Asiwaju should be the running mate since it had been done before. Baba Akande was obviously referring to the MKO Abiola/Babagana Kingibe nomination. Asiwaju responded by distinguishing the political equation then from what was before us at that point in time. We all voiced our opinions and at the end of the day, it was resolved that we had to get a Christian candidate. It was at this point that Asiwaju reminded us to be fast in coming up with an option because he felt other geographical zones were also jostling for the same position, reiterating the need for the Southwest to get it as a must. Asiwaju audaciously told us that, left to him, he would suggest Prof. Yemi Osinbajo: That Osinbajo, apart from being a brilliant legal luminary, was also a committed progressive and democrat. And having been married to the late Obafemi Awolowo’s grand-daughter, it would not be a problem selling him to the old political establishment of the Southwest. He asserted that Alake and I, having served in his cabinet, could attest to the great works Osinbajo did as attorney-general during his (Asiwaju’s) administration as Governor of Lagos State. He also reasoned that another major factor in favour of Osinbajo was the fact that he was a strong Christian and pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

Asiwaju audaciously told us that, left to him, he would suggest Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

“Osinbajo’s nomination was well received by all of us at the meeting and Prof. Osinbajo was asked to start detailing with us at further strategy sessions; he brought out his laptop and we all commenced a brainstorming session. The rest of the discussion was to strategize on how to contain other likely opponents from the Southwest zone before proceeding to Abuja to battle other regional zones in the coming nomination. The meeting did not end until about 9.00pm when we returned to Asiwaju’s residence (where we met) about six serving governors from different parts of Nigeria waiting to see him.

“What is particularly sad now is that the book launch of President Buhari was deployed to create a make-believe story that puts the society at a disadvantage of history. One would have thought that now that the progressives, through an uncommon alliance in 2015, created an upset by defeating, for the first time in the country’s history, the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it might be taken as given that the role of all active participants in the exercise would be correctly recorded. Surprisingly, and painfully too, such an avenue has been used to create the historical distortion of facts.

“If a political adversary had done this, one would not have been disturbed, but surprisingly and painfully, this historical distortion of facts is coming from unexpected quarters at such an early stage of progressive politics. It becomes a matter of concern when a renowned intellectual writes a book and begins to redefine events in his own way by abashedly evading facts that are bellowing in the public space in order to re-create a world of make-believe for his audience. Sincerely, such an act understandably becomes a matter to seriously ponder about. Let us stop here. It is not all clothes that can be spread out to dry in the sun!”

Like I said, counter views and opinions are welcome!

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com / 0705 263 1058), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, was also Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the TREASURES column in the New Telegraph newspaper and the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune newspaper. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

The post Who nominated Osinbajo for VP? appeared first on Frontpageng.

Today, I feel comfortable raising this subject with you because, as the Honourable Commissioner for The Environment, you are doing your second tenure on the driving seat of this critical ministry, following your initial 2011-2015 stint under Governor Babatunde Fashola. This connotes that you would be well versed about the issue I raise here.

More than that, I remember that at the National Concord, where you as the Political Editor were my boss, you exuded the aura of an amiable, consummate and compassionate persona, traits that you conspicuously demonstrated in the way you subsequently ran the Sunday Concord and National Concord as Editor. Undoubtedly, the heights you have attained in Lagos State’s political and administrative corridors have been propelled by these sterling personality traits. Today, the Tunji Bello brand connotes acumen, dexterity and humaneness in public administration.

This dump has killed at least two well-known industries. Today the carcasses of the Rosellas Amusement Park as well as that of the Lagos State Incubation (Employment/Vocational) Centre lie, deceased in its jaws.

We are confident that all these will come to play as we guide your attention to the dumpsite along Isheri-LASU Road, at Igando in Alimosho Council, operated under the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) arm of your ministry. Whatever its positives, this particular dumpsite, in its location and encumbrance, has degenerated into a nuisance value. It has become an inglorious monument to impunity and totally defeats any claim Lagos makes to urban renewal and mega city aspiration.

This dump has killed at least two well-known industries. Today the carcasses of the Rosellas Amusement Park as well as that of the Lagos State Incubation (Employment/Vocational) Centre lie, deceased in its jaws. These over N2 billion enterprises, now ghosted, are tragic mementos that dumpsites and industries cannot be next-door neighbours. In fact, some interests at the dumpsite currently deploy the two deserted complexes as storehouses for recyclable wastes. Free of charge!

Making a of a 2009 monster

That spot used to be solid dry ground right in the city’s suburb. For years, a government signpost said the sprawling expanse of land belonged to some Lagos State establishment. This notice board effectively prevented the “Omo Oniles” from encroaching. Suddenly, the Chinese encroached. Around 2009, CGGC, the Chinese highway contractor handling the Isheri-LASU-Iyana-Iba road project, swooped on the space with pay-loaders, excavating endless tons of earth for sand-filling portions of the road it was constructing. This created a mammoth ditch. Strangely enough, that burrow pit was dug in that well-developed suburb that hosted a dense population. How could this monstrosity be condoned by a Lagos State that prosecuted people mining sand from lagoons and riverbeds?

For residents it has been a nightmare. The pungent odour. The groundwater pollution. The flies – houseflies and tsetse flies. The mosquitoes. Constant sicknesses caused by the unclean atmosphere indicate that this could be a ticking epidemic time-bomb.

Quickly, the ditch created an erosion problem as it became a receptacle for rainwater, endangering neighbouring buildings and property in the environment. Soon this excavated acreage was converted into a refuse dumpsite. That 2009, residents had quickly raised the alarm, calling the attention of Governor Fashola, then Commissioner of the Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire, and the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Jide Idris, to a looming epidemic in the neighbourhood of the General Hospital in Igando. Stench from the dump forever engulfed the hospital’s patients and nearby residents as an unending traffic of refuse vehicles came dumping their foul contents into the artificial hole.  Its operation held the danger of poisoning the water table and the surrounding air. Additionally, it could cause the over 500,000 residents air, water and insect-borne diseases like cholera, tuberculosis, skin cancer, liver cirrhosis, typhoid fever, malaria and others.

Violating General Hospital, Igando

Apart from the Rosella Amusement Park and the Lagos State Incubation (Employment/Vocational) Centre that have succumbed to their dangerous neighbour, other endangered establishments include: Alimosho General Hospital at Igando, the LASU-Isheri Expressway, hotels, schools and homes. The hospital is an immediate victim. How could a 6-acre monster dumpsite spring up next door to a government hospital? The stink from the facility oozes around in a 2-kilometre radius, suffocating neighbouring settlements and the hospital that shares a wall with the dumpsite. The stench has become a constant choke to patients, health workers, visitors and patrons alike. How about its endangering newborn babies and sick people who have naturally depreciated immunity and low resistance to germs? Nowhere in the world are dumpsites and hospitals cited side by side. That they should now be close together in a mega city like Lagos is antithetical and represents a disgrace to city planning and administration. It clearly violates global best practice in town planning.

The dumpsite represents a brazen act of impunity. It is an act of injustice. No private person could have ravaged his land this way, talk more of public property. Nor could it have happened anywhere in Lagos Island, Ikeja or Lagos Mainland without the well-heeled residents raising hell!

All the community’s representations to government have been swept under the carpet.

Violation of global best practice

The Igando dumpsite contradicts everything that the United Nations’ conventions and WHO dictate on the disposal of organic and inorganic waste as well as e-waste, radioactive waste and hazardous waste. According to a research published in the 2019 International Journal of Epidemiology, those living within 5 kilometres of a landfill site risk health issues. This fact has the backing of relevant international organisations like the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In “Waste Mismanagement in Developing Countries: A Review of Global Issues,” the authors noted: “These issues are visible worldwide. In Banjul (Gambia) the dump site is located in a densely populated area, visible to the residents. It has a negative visible impact on inhabitants and tourists visiting the country. In particular, the smoke from burning debris is the biggest issue, which covers parts of the residential areas, affecting also the life quality of the population…. The nuisances are worst during the rainy period as the area becomes infested with flies and insects. Run off from the dumpsite with contaminants dissolved inflow into water bodies, while the leachate contaminates the soil and groundwater. Moreover, environmental contamination is due to the high level of faecal and total coli-form that polluted the wells located near the site.”

Honourable Commissioner, these studies aptly capture the Igando scenario.

An environmental nightmare

For residents it has been a nightmare. The pungent odour. The groundwater pollution. The flies – houseflies and tsetse flies. The mosquitoes. Constant sicknesses caused by the unclean atmosphere indicate that this could be a ticking epidemic time-bomb. An entire street and thoroughfare has been sacrificed to this environmental nightmare, with dwellers making a kilometre detour from the bus-stop on the expressway to and fro their homes. On one occasion in 2020, a commercial bus ran into one stationery PSP waste lorry lurking on the highway; and about four people died at the accident spot.

One most disturbing feature is the army of foreign faces who make the dunghill their home. Invariably, they pose a potential danger to residents, who have given a wide berth to the road bordering the dump.

Ironically, Oga Bello, thousands of students of LASU, where your Madam is VC, daily suffer the nightmare which that place has turned into, in terms of the traffic snarl caused by the PSP dumper lorries as well as the stench suffocating the entire atmosphere where some of them reside. A good number of the students commute through the area to get to the university. What should be a 2-minute passage ends up being anything from 25 minutes to hours.

Danger of foreign scavengers

One most disturbing feature is the army of foreign faces who make the dunghill their home. Invariably, they pose a potential danger to residents, who have given a wide berth to the road bordering the dump. Should an ethno-religious crisis break out in that axis, houses and citizens face the danger of being attacked and torched by these faceless hordes masquerading as Northerners, but whose origin is foreign. Those there come from Niger Republic, Mali, Chad and beyond. Their presence is clearly a security breach. For fear of being raped, mugged and robbed, residents have abandoned that entire axis to these unidentified foreign-tongued strangers; and they make their way home via alternative routes.

Conclusion

Honourable Commissioner, I have resorted to this open forum, in the hope of goading you into personal sympathy and convince the government to muster the political will to save the concerned lives and livelihoods from further endangerment from the Igando monster dumpsite.

Do accept the assurances of my prayers and best regards.

Felix.

*Oboagwina is an author and journalist, and he sent this piece from Lagos; he may be reached via: foboagwina@gmail.com)

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The project is part of efforts to monitor the quality of water served to residents and effluent discharged into the environment.

The commissioning of the Water Check Laboratory, located within the State Secretariat Complex, Alausa, Ikeja, and the Mobile Lab, is part of the plan of the state government to comprehensively address the outbreak of cholera in Nigeria.

Nigeria is seeing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years.

As of September 14, 2021, at least 69,925 suspected cholera cases have been recorded in 25 states across the country and Abuja, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, while about 2,323 people have died from the suspected cases of cholera this year.

Speaking at the unveiling, Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the development was a testament to the commitment of the administration of the governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, to the delivery of Sustainable Development Goal Six, SDG 6, targeted at ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

“Indeed, this check laboratory is purposely established to improve the capacity of the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission for effective and efficient monitoring of the quality of water produced and served to Lagosians and the quality of effluent discharged from wastewater treatment into the environment; consequently aiding the sustainable use of water resources in the state.

“Without doubt, the establishment of this check laboratory will ensure Regulatory Compliance, Control Test Intensity Level, Repeatability and Objectivity,” Bello said, adding that it was in line with the Health and Environmental component of the THEMES Agenda of the state government.

The commissioner said the development would further strengthen the pursuit of ensuring compliance to the drinking water quality standards of World Health Organisation, WHO, Lagos State Drinking Water Quality, and the WHO effluent quality standards, just as he urged all players and other critical stakeholders in the state’s water sector to imbibe and sustain the culture of willful compliance to regulations of the state.

In her welcome address, Executive Secretary of LASWARCO, Mrs. Funke Adepoju, said the construction of the first state-owned water check laboratory was approved by the governor to aid the commission in the discharge of its compliance responsibilities with the aim of preserving the health and wellbeing of residents.

She said the water check laboratory was equipped to carry out a wide range of water and wastewater analysis including physical and chemical tests, biological and chemical oxygen demand parameters, and laboratory support services for polluted site remediation studies, while other useful indicators could be determined, among others.

“This check laboratory will ensure among other things; Regulatory Compliance, Control Test Intensity Level, Repeatability and Objectivity through the offering of affordable rates for laboratory service irrespective of class or creed,” Adepoju said.

Speaking on behalf of industry experts, President of the Society of Testing Laboratory Analysts of Nigeria, SOLTAN, Dr. Laoye Oluwafemi Oyediran congratulated the state government and LASWARCO management for the feat, saying it would serve the purpose intended.

Oyediran, who is also the chairman of the Governing Council of the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria, FIPAN, said: “The advent of COVID really brought to fore the need for testing. Before then, not many people want to test but if you don’t test you will not know what you are going through and that is exactly why it is necessary to carry out the test in all the various laboratories that we have.

“The beauty of the project we are commissioning today is that we have a mobile laboratory which to me is the first of its kind in Nigeria that is fully equipped to be able to serve and deliver service to the people.”

Both the Water Check Laboratory and the Mobile Lab are equipped with facilities that can conduct water tests within five minutes, while the state government has assured that other water testing laboratories will be constructed in strategic locations across the state.

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Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday, bolstered the fleet of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, with 102 units of brand new locally assembled compactor trucks and 100 units of double dino waste bins.

The effort is to reduce turn-around time in waste evacuation within the metropolis, thereby achieving cleaner and healthier environment.

Governor Sanwo-Olu inaugurated the compactor trucks at an elaborate event held at the State House, Alausa, and witnessed by stakeholders in the waste service sector, including Private Sector Participants, PSP, operators.

The assets comprised 30 units of 12-cubic metre trucks, 60 units of 24-cubic metre trucks and 12 hook loaders. They will be complementing over 850 PSP compactor trucks to enhance service delivery in under-served communities across the state.

The compactor trucks were assembled by LAWMA technicians in conjunction with Dangote Sinotruk Manufacturing firm.

They are designed according to the local requirements to aid clearing of waste from generating points to transfer-loading stations.

Each compactor truck has three years warranty and maintenance package.

Besides, the governor formally launched a mobile application called “CitiMonitor”, which would enable monitoring and reporting of environmental infractions, including indiscriminate dumping of refuse.

Sanwo-Olu said the new waste collection machinery were not being deployed to edge the PSP operators out of the business.

He noted that the compactors would make trips only to public places and major roads to take waste, while the PSP operators would continue with their commercial and residential waste collections.

He said: “Today, we are unveiling new equipment that will enable LAWMA to effectively fulfil its mandate. This is testament to our administration’s determination to secure the public and environmental health of the state, as well as to improve the aesthetic value of the environment in line with Health and Environment pillar of our T.H.E.M.E.S agenda.

“This intervention represents one of the largest singular investments ever in the waste management sector in Lagos. We are confident that the addition of these new assets to our existing ones will quickly bring about visible improvements in waste evacuation and reduce the incidence of blackspots that blight our roads and clog our drains.”

Sanwo-Olu urged the residents to reciprocate the gesture by promptly paying their waste disposal dues to ensure improved service delivery. In the coming weeks, the governor said LAWMA would be rolling out acquisition scheme to assist willing PSP operators to replace rickety waste collection trucks in their fleet.

He observed that the government was fully aware of the potential of waste economy, stressing that the waste-to-wealth programme of the state had started to take shape, given the expansion of Lagos Recycling Initiative.

The governor said there was ongoing rehabilitation work on the state-owned compost facility in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, while the government has ramped up resources for the construction of three new transfer-loading stations to provide the infrastructure that would facilitate the effective disposal of solid waste.

He said: “I urge Lagosians to take responsibility for the waste we generate and act as responsible citizens at all times. We cannot continue to litter our roads with filth, dump waste on the roadside or in illegal dumpsites, or patronise cart-pushers for waste disposal.

“This intervention calls for a complete change of attitude towards our environment, beginning with basic hygiene at home, proper domestic waste management and ultimately, environment-friendly practices. The quality of our environment directly impacts the quality of the lives we live. A clean environment is a major weapon against diseases and other public health challenges.”

The governor also charged LAWMA workers who would be operating the new implements to handle them with care and put to good use, reiterating that he would spare no effort in restoring aesthetic of Lagos.

Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, said it was the second time the state would be witnessing such massive intervention in waste management after the 2008 delivery of 100 compactor trucks to LAWMA by the Babatunde Fashola administration.

“This is a remarkable accomplishment that will enhance the cleanliness and adequate sanitisation. It is part of our resolve towards helping to build the capacity of some of the private investors in the waste management value chain. The real celebration would be when we look back in a few months from now and can see commensurate improvement in the waste management fortunes of the State,” Bello said.

By their design, LAWMA Managing Director, Ibrahim Odumboni, said the new compactors were fabricated to address the problem of liquids dripping from waste trucks – the snag synonymous with second-hand trucks mostly used by PSP operators.

He said the new compactor trucks were fitted with sitting compartments for waste collection assistants to prohibit hanging on the trucks.

Odumboni said the trucks would be distributed across the four operational districts of the agency, while the double dino waste bins would be stationed at muster points across major markets.

“We will not take this intervention for granted, because we know that these assets have been acquired at great cost amid economic challenges and so many other competing needs. I assure Mr. Governor and Lagosians that these working assets will be properly looked after,” the LAWMA boss said.

Representative of Waste Recyclers’ Association, Femi Idowu, described the achievement as “laudable”, saying the governor had further elevated waste management as a key development agenda in Lagos.

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He described Tunji Bello as a technocrat, administrator and visionary who has made significant contributions to Lagos State and Nigeria.

In a statement by his Media Office signed by Mr. Tunde Rahman, the APC leader said: “Bello deserves nothing but accolades on this day. As brave and forthright activist, he ceaselessly fought for the democracy we now have today. Bello’s extensive experience and vast knowledge proved particularly vital in the struggle to end military dictatorship.

“Bello’s contributions to democracy did not stop there. They merely entered another phase. Due to his belief in public service, Bello has become the most accomplished and durable civil servant in Lagos State of his generation.

“An illustrious son of Lagos, he has been an indispensable factor in the socio-economic progress of the state since the return to democratic governance in 1999. He contributed immensely to the 24-year Development Plan designed by my administration to accelerate growth, thereby changing the destiny of state and its people. Bello’s contributions to urban renewal as Commissioner for Environment are also of enduring importance.

“His integrity, intellect, work ethic, and dedication to progressive ideals truly set him apart as a public servant and as an exceptional human being. As my friend, comrade and partner on the progressive front turns 60, I pray that Almighty Allah grant him many more years, good health, renewed strength and vitality to continue to serve our people and country.”

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Professor Ibiyemi Bello is the wife of Tunji Bello who had served  in various positions in Lagos State continuously for more than twenty years like a worn out recycled old machine, jumping from one office to the other as if they are playing Russian roulette with our lives.

Tunji Bello was commissioner at three  different times.  And he was also a Secretary to the State Government.  Even as I write, he is  the present Commissioner for Environment.  Bello of course is from Kogi State.

Where else in this nation can a non-indigene dominate  the public service for this long only because he is close to the tools of power?

Where else in this nation can a non-indigene dominate  the public service for this long only because he is close to the tools of power?

And to rub salt  upon injury, his wife who is from Ondo State is being schemed to occupy the position of Vice Chancellor  of  LASU  when  there  are better qualified Lagosian professors who have been shortlisted for the position. This is the third time Mrs  Bello  will  be contesting for the position in ten years in an undisguised, very untidy, greedy  fixation.

Other well qualified contenders are  Professor Olumuyiwa Odusanya, Professor Senapon Bakre, Professor  Kabir Akinyemi, and Professor Muyiwa Awofolu.  Why is Professor Bello being pushed so recklessly to occupy the Vice Chancellor’s office as if it is some hereditary position in a callous contempt for the indigenes of our state?  Surely, this is not the vision of Alhaji Lateef Jakande who built the institution more than thirty-five years ago to  give the indigenes a quality education and at once give the indigenous professionals  a place in the sun.  This is no longer the case.

Our people are being shoved aside amid a crude and dangerous insensitivity in a new recolonisation of Lagos.

They are pushing us to the wall. They are treating us with contempt.  As a stakeholder and as a committed  indigene,  I am  seriously  advising the authorities to move swiftly away from this callous, ill-conceived decision whose  untoward implication no one can fathom.

Our people are being shoved aside amid a crude and dangerous insensitivity in a new recolonisation of Lagos.

I remember clearly that when former Professor Fatiu Akesode contested for the Vice Chancellorship of Ogun State University several years ago, he was rejected and told to go back home to Lagos State. And  now, what    is naturally our own is being taken away one after the other by partisan alien hands. This is totally unacceptable. It is wrong. It is unjust.

While I  will continue to encourage merit, fairness in the appointments to public office, I will never stop in the defense and in  the protection of the  inalienable rights of  well qualified native Lagosians whose collective destinies are now being brazenly eroded  and trampled upon on their own soil. This is one contempt and insult  too many.

*Rtd  Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju was a Minister of Communication

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In a statement he signed, the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello, stated that all the persons in the viral video were fraudsters who did not represent the state government or any of its agencies.

Bello affirmed that there was no unit or agency under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources that went by the name “Lagos State vehicle waste basket (LAVWAB) enforcement/compliance” as portrayed in the branded vehicle which the fraudsters operated from.

He added that the dubious intent of the criminals in the video could be deduced from the fact that they operated from inside a van in an automobile workshop and were very dodgy about the kind of enforcement exercise they were purportedly carrying out.

He explained that while the state government had always encouraged all buses, trucks and articulated vehicles to provide waste baskets in their vehicles to encourage people not to litter the roads and streets, it had never prescribed any branded waste basket.

The commissioner said the development had been communicated to security agents to spread their dragnets towards apprehending the criminals and their cohorts wherever they operated from and bring them to book.

Bello enjoined members of the public to report any incident of anyone purporting to be representing the state government and coercing them to purchase any particular brand of waste baskets to be placed in their vehicles.

The commissioner encouraged owners and operators of buses, trucks and articulated vehicles in the state to continue to provide waste baskets of their choice in their vehicles as part of efforts to discourage littering and promote a culture of proper waste disposal.

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This is as it however stated that efforts were ongoing to limit the effect of the rains.

The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello, made this known at a press conference at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

He said work was ongoing on more than 200 secondary channels with over 80 per cent in various stages of completion, just as 46 primary channels are presently receiving various forms of attention.

That, he said, was apart from the huge efforts of the Emergency Flood Abatement Gangs which he said were being deployed round the state to undertake quick fix to free manholes or clogged up drains manually.

The commissioner added that pumping stations were being provided to prevent flooding.

According to him, one of the stations was being planned for Ilubirin in Lagos Island.

The provision, Bello said, would ensure quick pumping out of water from flooded neighbourhoods and reduce risk of loss of lives and damages to properties.

Other flood prone areas like Owode, Agboyi-Ketu would also benefit from the provision, he added.

“For a coastal city like Lagos, once it rains consistently for a minimum of eight hours, we are bound to have flash flood caused by increasing inability of effective discharge into the lagoon, which is brought about by a rise of the ocean level.

“This will automatically lock up all our drainages and until the water level goes down, the drainages would be unable to discharge.

“This is the new wave in most coastal cities around the world, including those who have adopted the best of technological advancements to curtail flooding,” he said.

The commissioner said based on the data from the Nigerian Hydrological Services, July, August, September and October, would come with heavy rainfall, capable of causing flooding and flood disasters in most parts of the country.

He said while states like Ogun and Ekiti suffer from urban and river flooding, Lagos would be at the receiving end of three types – coastal, urban and river flooding.

That, he explained, was because of the peculiarity of its location.

According to him, the management of the Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority had started staggered release of water from the Oyan Dam, with eight to 10 million cubic metres being released in August, which would increase to 18 million in September and 23 million in October, which is the peak.

Residents of low lying areas that are contiguous to the Ogun River, he warned, should be alert to the possibility of their homes being flooded as water is released from the dam.

He said residents should stop dumping refuse in drainage channels and erecting structures on drainage alignments.

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