By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 governorship election in Lagos State, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV), has advised the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, to resign over the state of the waste management system in the metropolis.

The opposition politician berated the state government for the handling of waste in the state, saying excuses have always been given for making the environment dirty.

“Impact is felt, not explained in 1,578 words. Your plastic policy has failed. Your environmental policy, if one truly exists, has been ineffective.

“Your waste management policy has been an unmitigated disaster. The only area where you have consistently delivered is the demolition of the hard-earned properties and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.

“Not to mention your Bigotry and Gaslighting. You have lost the moral authority to remain in office. You should resign,” the chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) posted on his X handle on Saturday.

He was reacting to comments made by Mr Wahab as to why the state has remained flooded after the rains despite the different policies put in place, including the ban on single-use plastic and the return of the monthly environmental sanitation.

“A lot of people are genuinely concerned about the waste situation in parts of Lagos, and that concern is understandable. Waste is not something you can talk around. If refuse is sitting on your street, beside your market, close to your bus stop, or inside the drainage near your house, the only thing that matters to you is that it should be removed. And that is fair.

“But it may also help to explain the scale of what is being managed, and what is actually being done.

“Lagos generates about 13,000 tonnes of waste every day. Not weekly. Every day. In May alone, LAWMA and PSP operators evacuated about 418,500 tonnes of waste across the state, which comes to an average of about 13,200 tonnes daily. That is not a small operation. It involves hundreds of PSP operators, public waste teams, transfer and disposal operations, street sweepers, enforcement teams, customer service staff, drivers, loaders, supervisors and monitoring officers working across a very large and difficult city.

“Just to mention, during the 2026 Hajj, Saudi Sanitation Authorities announced that a total of over 472 tons of waste were generated from Mina and Muzdalifah. This is the total waste generated by pilgrims all over the world in 5 days.

“Still, nobody is pretending that everything is fine everywhere. Some communities have had delays. Some PSP operators have not performed well. Some routes have grown beyond the capacity that was originally assigned to them. In some areas, road access is poor. During the rains, movement into disposal sites can become slower. Trucks break down. Diesel and spare parts are expensive. Payment compliance is also weak in many places, and when people do not pay for waste service, the operators struggle to maintain trucks, pay crews and keep to schedule. These are not excuses but the harsh realities that have to be fixed.

“That is why LAWMA has been reviewing weak routes, replacing and sanctioning underperforming operators, increasing monitoring, and deploying evacuation teams to pressure points. As of last month (May), 442 PSP operators were active across Lagos while 27 routes were under review for service improvement. LAWMA also received 474 complaints and service requests that month, which are now part of how the agency is identifying weak spots and following up on operator performance.

“There is also a daily blackspot operation that many people do not see unless it is happening near them. LAWMA clears  3,000 black spots every day across 57 routes. These are the road medians, market edges, illegal dumping points, bus stops, setbacks and open spaces where people keep dropping waste outside the normal collection system. Some are cleared in the morning and abused again by night. That is one of the hardest parts of the job.

“This is why enforcement has become more serious. In 2025, LAWMA recorded 1,023 incidents of illegal dumping and other waste violations across the state. Out of these, 447 cases were referred for prosecution. The surveillance teams also identified 431 scavengers and reconciled 145 properties with their assigned PSP operators. The data showed that much of the illegal dumping happens between midnight and early morning, and the waste is not only household refuse. It includes construction debris and even hazardous waste in some cases.

“So, when people say “just clear it,” we agree. It must be cleared. But we also have to stop the same locations from being turned back into dumpsites again and again.

“Street sweeping is another big part of the work. Lagos has thousands of sweepers working across hundreds of routes, including highways, medians and major public corridors. This work starts very early, and it is not easy work. Some areas are swept daily, but once people keep littering from vehicles, markets, shops and buses, the same routes look dirty again within hours. That is why the long-term answer cannot be sweeping alone. We need better behaviour, stronger enforcement, more mechanised sweeping on strategic roads, and safer working conditions for the sweepers.

“The bigger reform is infrastructure. Lagos cannot continue with the old collect-and-dump model. That is why construction is ongoing for Transfer Loading Stations to replace the old landfill operations at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous III in Igando. These will be supported by Material Recovery Facilities in Ikorodu and Badagry, so waste can be moved out of the centre of the city to modern facilities where it can be sorted, recovered, recycled and repurposed.

“The Olusosun system is expected to move about 2,500 tonnes of waste daily to the Ikorodu MRF, while the Solous III side is expected to move about 1,500 tonnes daily to the Badagry recovery facility. The target for this transition is 6 months. Once completed, it should reduce pressure on the old dumpsites, improve the flow of waste evacuation, reduce congestion around disposal points and give Lagos a more serious recovery and recycling platform.

“There is also the organic waste side, which is very important because a large part of Lagos waste is food and market waste. The Ikosi Fruit Market Biodigester has now been launched to treat organic waste closer to source and convert it into useful outputs like biogas, electricity and fertiliser. The plan is to replicate that model in other markets that generate high volumes of organic waste, instead of moving everything across the city to a landfill.

“So yes, the complaints are valid. Some backlogs should not have happened. Some residents have not received the service they deserve. Some operators have disappointed. There is no need to deny any of that.

“But the fuller picture is that waste is being evacuated daily, black spots are being cleared daily, operators are being monitored, weak routes are being reviewed, illegal dumping is being prosecuted, street sweeping is ongoing, and new infrastructure is being built to change the system from the ground up.

“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. Both things are true.

“Lagos is not where it should be yet. But it is not standing still either. The work now is to clear what has built up, fix the routes that are failing, hold operators accountable, and complete the infrastructure that will move Lagos from dumping to sorting, recovery, recycling, energy and circular economy.

“So, for your nomadic self to jump on the Governor’s release for your political agenda without talking solutions speaks to who you really are,” the Commissioner wrote.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Some expired pharmaceutical products and 1.8 tonnes of Cannabis Sativa have been intercepted by officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Area Command.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Isah Sulaiman, a Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC), disclosed that the pharmaceutical products are suspected to be pushed into the Nigerian market by relabelling them.

It was disclosed that the items were intercepted based on credible intelligence and enhanced risk profiling systems, in collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other relevant regulatory bodies.

In one of the major interceptions, officers of the command seized a 40-foot container numbered CAAU7569127, which was found to contain a large consignment of Cannabis Sativa, popularly referred to as Canadian Loud.

The command revealed that a total of 3,639 sachets of the illicit substance were recovered, each weighing 500 grams, for a total estimated weight of about 1,819 kilograms (1.81 tonnes). Preliminary field tests confirmed the substance as Cannabis Sativa. The drugs were concealed inside a vehicle and within bags and drums packed inside the container.

Speaking on the seizures, Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba warned perpetrators to desist from criminal activities, stating that “unpatriotic importers and their collaborators who deliberately engage in smuggling, drug trafficking and the importation of expired pharmaceuticals are enemies of Nigeria’s progress.”

“We have the intelligence, the technology and the resolve to identify and apprehend them. Anyone still contemplating these criminal acts should desist immediately, because the consequences will be swift, decisive and uncompromising,” he added.

He further reiterated that Apapa Port and all Customs-controlled areas remain under constant surveillance, adding that enforcement operations will continue to be intelligence-driven while ensuring legitimate trade is not hindered.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Skite is expanding its push into Nigeria’s rapidly growing knowledge economy with an all-in-one platform designed to help creators, coaches, consultants, educators and other professionals monetise their expertise from a single hub.

The platform enables users to sell courses and digital products, host paid communities, organise live events, offer one-on-one video consultations and monetise audience interactions without relying on multiple tools.

The move comes as more Nigerians turn to knowledge-based businesses as a source of income, creating demand for platforms that simplify how expertise is packaged, sold and delivered online.

While the creator economy has traditionally been associated with content creation and social media influence, a growing number of professionals are increasingly building businesses around coaching, training, consulting and digital education.

However, many creators still depend on several platforms to manage payments, courses, communities, customer engagement and events, often increasing operational costs and complexity.

Skite is seeking to address that gap by consolidating these functions into a single ecosystem built specifically for knowledge entrepreneurs.

According to the company, creators using the platform have recorded an average 30 per cent increase in revenue after consolidating their operations, while premium subscribers enjoy a zero-transaction-fee structure on earnings.

Speaking on the opportunity within the sector, Skite chief executive, Mr Samuel Obinna, said the company was focused on providing the infrastructure needed for creators to build sustainable businesses around their expertise.

“The knowledge economy is creating unprecedented opportunities for professionals to earn from what they know. We are building the tools that make it easier for creators to launch, manage and scale those businesses,” he said.

As Nigeria’s digital economy continues to expand, industry stakeholders expect knowledge entrepreneurship to become an increasingly important segment of the creator economy, with platforms such as Skite positioning themselves to serve the next generation of digital business owners.

Skite is an all-in-one creator monetisation platform that enables knowledge creators to build, grow and monetise their businesses from a single platform. The platform provides tools for selling courses and digital products, hosting paid communities, running live events, offering one-on-one consultations, monetising direct audience interactions and managing sales funnels. Skite is designed to help creators turn expertise into sustainable and scalable income.