Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, the Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), on Saturday said the decision by the Lagos State Government to cancel the monthly environmental sanitation was part of the reformation agenda of the present administration.
Fagbohun said this on the sideline of the 56th Inaugural Lecture Series of the university entitled: “Are we living in a Earth’’ delivered by Prof. Ayo Omotayo, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, LASU.
He said the government might had viewed and considered the monthly environmental sanitation to be a monotonous routine.
The V-C said it was noticeable that rather than the residents of Lagos coming out at the last Saturday of every month to observe the sanitation, they preferred to stay indoors and rest.
Fagbohun said most Lagosians were no longer participating in the exercise as directed by the government.
They were just staying in their houses between 7a.m. and 10a.m., when the restriction on movement would have been lifted, then would go out in en-masse.
“I recognise the fear of people that the Lagos State Government has cancelled environmental sanitation.
“But if you look at the approach of the government you will see that they don’t just do things without plans in place because they are actually reforming a lot of things,’’ he said.
Fagbohun said with this trend, it was important for the government to reassess and reform the ways by which a holistic environmental sanitation would be achieved.
He expressed optimism that the government would soon release a new initiative on how the monthly environmental sanitation in the state would be done.
NAN reports that Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State in compliance with a judgment by a Federal Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, which nullified the monthly environmental sanitation on Nov. 24, terminated the exercise.
The exercise usually holds for three hours on the last Saturday of every month, when residents used stay at home to clean their environments.
The government noted that considering the current economic situation in the country, it was no longer appropriate to restrict movements of people for three hours in a mega-city like Lagos.
It said the time should be used to pursue commercial and entrepreneurial activities.
The government noted that the state in the last two decades had grown exponentially into a mega-city with the attendant huge environmental problems associated with managing a population of over 20 million people.
“Sadly, environmental laws, policies and procedures being practised in the state have not matched its phenomenal growth and the dream of a 24-hour economy, hence the need for the reform,’’ the government said. (NAN)