LAWMA under your leadership has just marked eight years. How has the journey been so far?
In the past eight years, we have succeeded in finding the pathway for improving the strategy in waste management. We came from minus zero and we have been able to re-align our progression line. What we have been doing in the last eight years has been developing a template that would take the organisation to the next horizon. We are doing something that would take the agency to the next century and make it one of the best in the world. We are trying to make it a force to reckon with in the area of waste management worldwide. The challenge ahead is to be a distinct brand when it comes to waste management worldwide.
What are the achievements that you have recorded in the past eight years?
We have recorded several achievements over the years. First is to restore what can be best described as dignity in labour by making people believe in what they are doing to earn a living. Secondly, we have been able to change the attitudes or perceptions of people toward jobs. A typical Nigerian worker, especially in the public sector, is known to be lazy and lackadaisical in his/her approach to work. We have succeeded in changing that at the LAWMA.
Wherever you see LAWMA’s workers, you see them working with dignity, showing resilience and commitment to the assignments given to them. To me, that is one of the greatest achievements so far. We have been able to change the psyche and attitudes of people to work. Other achievements include making the city of Lagos cleaner and beautiful. We have been able to achieve that goal as evident by the cleaner environment Lagos is boasting of today.
You once mentioned the issue of neighbourhood approach to waste management at the last interactive session you had with the media, can you give more insight into how it works?
Apart from the government–led initiative to make the state look cleaner, brighter and conducive for living and business; we also have a concept called the three Cs, an acronym for Community Clean Up Campaign. Through this, we allow communities to evolve their roadmaps or needs on how to ensure a health friendly environment. We allow them to start clean up exercises and we meet them half way as part of efforts to make the environment hygienically fit for living. This is mainly applicable to poor communities where they seem to be helpless on the issue of waste control and management. In these communities, you will see a kind of resentment towards government’s programmes because they believe that they have been rejected one way or the other by the state government. But we are not looking at it from this perspective. Rather, we believe the problem is due to lack of communication, a fall-out of the top-down approach to solving issues. So, we are helping communities to drive the clean-up initiative, as well as allowing them to come up with their agenda while meeting them half way to achieve the objectives which LAWMA was set out for. LAWMA pays for most of the services, but what we are doing now is to allow them employ people among themselves for the clean-up agenda. An example is Makoko –Obalende. People were employed from Makoko to clean up their own streets. Besides, they have recycling centres where the refuse are recycled to achieve certain socio-economic objectives. So, they have a set of cleanliness agenda because they want their areas to be very clean. We established recycling centres in those communities for people to recycle bad products and give back to society.
Beyond these, what other benefits have the initiatives brought to the affected communities and Lagos in particular?
The initiatives have culminated in a drastic reduction of diseases in the affected areas, criminal activities, provision of employment opportunities, among others. We ensure that idle hands, especially youths were employed for the jobs. We ensure that churches, mosques, among other organisations contribute their own quota on the issue of making the state cleaner. The profit-making organisations such as banks in those communities are made to contribute their own quota as well. They pay half and we pay half to ensure that the job is done. The women sweep the road, while the young men police the areas to prevent unnecessary dumping of refuse. It has been a very effective strategy for us.
What are the challenges facing the agency, especially in the area of changing the psyche of people towards ensuring a cleaner environment?
Well, we do face challenges. The problems are still there, especially the ones relating to the habits of the people. We are changing them gradually. We are employing education and enforcement as tools to change the psyche of Lagosians to cleanliness. We educate, sensitise people and establish a lot of publicity outlets to make people aware of dangers of living in a dirty and unsafe environment. We have various strategies for our community hygiene programmes. When we see that residents are recalcitrant and unyielding, enforcement follows. This is used in changing or taming the habits of people towards hygiene.
Government has a lot of financial commitments or projects, a development which means that LAWMA may not be getting enough funds as it should. Do you get support from the private sector to fund your projects?
Well, we have partners locally and internationally. Like you rightly said, the government cannot fund everything. One of our major partners is Sterling Bank Plc. The partnership is very solid. The bank supports our clean up exercise programmes and also has its own initiatives in the area of environmental cleanliness. Twice now, the bank organised its members of staff to clean Obalende and Ikeja in Lagos. And I’m told that this did not only happen in Lagos but in the entire federation.
When Sterling Bank embarked on the cleaning of Obalende for instance, their staff in other locations throughout the country did the same. That tells you how conscious Sterling Bank is in this area. And again, where you see a LAWMA worker on the street, you see them with Sterling Bank logo on their overall. If you are going to talk about a cleaner Lagos, you cannot but mention Sterling Bank as one of the prominent organisations that has been supporting us. Even in this community clean-up campaigns, most of the uniforms provided by Sterling Bank are being given to these communities. Everywhere, people now know the bank as a major supporter of a cleaner and safer environment. We have international organisations such as the Clinton Foundation, World Bank, DFIB, among others, supporting us. It has been a rewarding support. Apart from what we generate internally, we have these supports that have been making things visible for us
Then, would you say that your partnership with Sterling Bank has been rewarding?
Yes, in fact you just hit the nail on the head. Our partnership with Sterling Bank has been a success story, highly rewarding. Apart from the Lagos State government appreciating it, Nigerians too are appreciative of what the bank is doing in the area of environmental cleanliness. The bank gives us about 25,000 uniforms annually. This is not a joke. We provide a pair of uniforms for each cleaner. We have about 12,000 sweepers on the roads. The bank has taken it upon itself to give a pair of uniforms to each sweeper on the road. That would have cost us millions of naira. Indeed, this is laudable. To me, what Sterling Bank is doing is to preserve lives. When you look at primary healthcare, you will observe that the bank looks or sees life preservation as key to the growth of the society. The bank’s CSR is channelled towards supporting life; that is why it is supporting LAWMA’s initiative of making Lagos environmentally safe. The bank took a major risk by putting its name and logo on uniforms of a government organisation. We really appreciate that. Not many banks can take that risk. It is a bank that believes so much in us; they believe in our strategy, and they have taken all the risks to make sure that they support us. And we do not have any regrets.
How can you describe the bank’s CSR, vis-à-vis its support for LAWMA?
The bank’s CSR programme is not only laudable, but shows how a responsible organisation should relate with its community. If a bank is supporting the well-being of the citizens, that means that the bank wants people to be healthy to work. It is like taking it from the bottom angle, and walking up the stairs. I think the bank has done well in that regard. That is very okay. The whole world now looks up to the bank. Once you get to Lagos state, the moment you see a LAWMA staff, you see Sterling Bank.
Can you list some of the achievements of Waste to Wealth programmes of Lagos?
The waste to wealth programme is doing well. We have the biggest compose site in Africa. It is located in Ikorodu, Lagos. There, we convert the substantial quantity of market waste into fertiliser. Also, we have waste being converted to electricity. We have a buy-back programme where we buy nylons from people and turn it back into a product. We have tyres that are being turned into rub mats. By and large, we have close to 22 per cent of Lagos waste daily being converted into something useful. We are targeting 50 per cent in the next few years.
What should we expect when your 10 in office?
Africa would be proud of LAWMA; ditto Lagos as a centre of excellence.
