Council chairman tasks residents to comply with environmental laws

By Omolara Akintoye

As leaders, we need to step up our games. A good leader must be fair, free, firm as well as ensure that residents comply with environmental laws.” These were the words of the chairman, Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye local council development area, Razak Ajala, in an interview with The Nation in his office.

According to him, the issue of waste management is the responsibility of everybody: for both the government and the governed, they must comply with the environmental laws by patronising PSP operators (the government licensed waste collectors) rather than dumping them along the road or drain or to cart pushers. “Our PSP trucks are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that they go to the communities within the council area to collect waste because we know the characteristics of our people as they are in the habit of dumping refuse either by the roadside or along the drains. It is the responsibility of our waste managers who are referred to as road managers to keep the waste in the trucks.”

Read Also: Kidnapped NLC Chairman regains freedom

In the area of road rehabilitation, the area he pointed out is doing all it could to complement the efforts of Gov. Olushola SanwoOlu by ensuring that the roads are accessible. “We are conscious of the fact that some roads are of greater importance to the residents due to high traffic flow. At the end of the day, we came up with the decision that an average resident doesn’t know the difference between states and local roads, what they are interested in is that any road they want to ply, they want to have a good motoring experience. However, giving the resources that we have, we cannot fix everything at once. Even if the funds are available, it will lead to total system collapse,” he said.

Also revealing the projects executed so far in his council area, Ajala pointed out that he has used the instrumentality of his office to ensure that it has its footprint in all the sectors ranging from health to environment, education, road rehabilitation, among others.