A fresh war of words has erupted between the Lagos State Government and former gubernatorial candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, over the lingering waste disposal crisis in parts of the state.
The confrontation followed a public criticism by Rhodes-Vivour, who faulted the state government’s handling of refuse management and described its emergency evacuation of waste ordered by the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as an admission of failure rather than evidence of effective governance.
In a strongly worded response on Saturday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, defended the government’s waste management strategy, insisting that the Sanwo-Olu administration was confronting a complex and massive sanitation challenge with daily evacuation, enforcement, and infrastructure reforms.
Rhodes-Vivour had accused the government of failing Lagosians by allowing refuse to pile up across communities, saying residents were tired of “overflowing dumps, uncollected refuse, blocked drainage channels and worsening environmental conditions.”
He argued that what Lagos needs is not “periodic emergency evacuations of mountains of refuse” but a functional waste management system that prevents waste from accumulating in the first place.
“The fact that you now have to direct an immediate scale-up after waste has already overwhelmed communities is an utter failure of leadership,” he said.
He added that Lagos generates more than 13,000 tonnes of waste daily and insisted that such volume should have been anticipated through efficient collection, sorting, recycling infrastructure, transfer stations, and transparent oversight of operators.
Rhodes-Vivour also rejected attempts to shift responsibility to residents, saying citizens may have a role to play, but the government has a greater duty to provide the infrastructure and systems needed for proper waste disposal.
“Lagos cannot continue operating reactive clean-up exercises and public relations statements whenever refuse piles become impossible to ignore,” he said.
He described the situation as evidence that the state was still battling a problem that should have been solved after years in office, adding that Lagos deserved a modern, accountable, and sustainable waste management system.
But Wahab, in his response, said the criticism ignored the scale and complexity of the state’s sanitation operations.
He said Lagos generates about 13,000 tonnes of waste every day and explained that in May alone, LAWMA and private sector operators evacuated about 418,500 tonnes across the state, an average of 13,200 tonnes daily.
According to him, the operation involves hundreds of private waste operators, public waste teams, street sweepers, monitoring officers, drivers, loaders, supervisors, and enforcement personnel working across a vast and difficult city.
Wahab acknowledged that some communities have experienced delays, noting that some PSP operators have underperformed, some routes have outgrown their original capacity, and road access remains a challenge in certain areas, especially during the rainy season.
He also pointed to weak payment compliance by residents and businesses, saying many operators struggle to maintain vehicles and pay workers when waste service charges are not settled.
“These are not excuses but the harsh realities that have to be fixed,” the commissioner said.
The commissioner said the state government was already responding through route reviews, sanctioning underperforming operators, increasing monitoring, and deploying evacuation teams to pressure points.
He disclosed that 442 PSP operators were active across Lagos as of last month, while 27 routes were under review for service improvement.
The commissioner added that LAWMA received 474 complaints and service requests in May, which are now being used to identify weak points in the system.
Wahab also revealed that LAWMA clears about 3,000 black spots daily across 57 routes, describing the exercise as one of the toughest parts of the sanitation job.
He said illegal dumping remains a major challenge, with LAWMA recording 1,023 incidents in 2025, out of which 447 were referred for prosecution.
According to him, surveillance teams also identified 431 scavengers and reconciled 145 properties with their assigned PSP operators, while data showed that much of the illegal dumping occurs between midnight and early morning.
The commissioner said the state was also pushing major infrastructure reforms to move Lagos away from the old collect-and-dump model.
He explained that construction is ongoing for Transfer Loading Stations to replace old landfill operations at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous III in Igando, with Material Recovery Facilities planned for Ikorodu and Badagry.
Wahab said the Olusosun system is expected to move about 2,500 tonnes of waste daily to the Ikorodu recovery facility, while the Solous III system will channel another 1,500 tonnes daily to Badagry once the transition is completed.
He added that the Ikosi fruit market biodigester has already been launched to treat organic waste and convert it into useful outputs such as biogas, electricity, and fertiliser, with similar models expected in other major markets.
While admitting that some residents have not received the service they deserve, Wahab insisted that the government is clearing waste daily, enforcing compliance daily, and building a new sanitation structure for the future.
He said both the government and residents must play their roles if Lagos is to overcome the challenge permanently.
“The government has a duty to keep improving the system. Residents, markets, estates, and businesses also have a duty to use the system properly and stop illegal dumping,” he said.
The exchange has once again brought attention to the recurring sanitation crisis in Africa’s largest city, where residents in several districts continue to complain about refuse accumulation, blocked drains, and slow evacuation by waste operators.