The Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has knocked the African Democratic Congress governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, after his appearance on Politics Today.

According to Wahab, the appearance once again brought Lagos’ waste management and flooding challenges into public discourse.

The commissioner stated that while some of his concerns are legitimate, it is important to distinguish between identifying challenges and acknowledging the concrete efforts being made to address them.

He said Lagos generates an estimated 13,000–15,000 tonnes of municipal waste daily. In May 2026 alone, LAWMA and PSP operators evacuated approximately 418,500 tonnes, averaging 13,200 tonnes daily. He said the growing volume is partly driven by Lagos’ expanding population and daily influx of people into the state.

"These figures underscore the enormous scale of the responsibility. They do not suggest that every resident receives satisfactory service. We acknowledge collection failures, underperforming PSP operators and operational bottlenecks. However, it is misleading to suggest that Lagos has no plan beyond clearing refuse after it accumulates.

"Waste management is an interconnected system. Delays at disposal facilities affect truck turnaround, disrupt collection schedules and eventually create refuse accumulation across neighbourhoods.

"At Olusosun, rehabilitation of Road E and additional disposal platforms increased operational efficiency. Truck movements across disposal facilities rose to 1,866 in the week following the intervention, while Olusosun recorded an increase from 574 to 1,012 trips," Wahab said.

The commissioner said that beyond emergency interventions, Lagos is investing in Modern Transfer Loading Stations, Material Recovery Facilities, recycling, composting and the Epe waste-to-energy project. He said the objective is to transition from decades of pick-and-dump practices to a sustainable system where waste becomes a resource for energy and economic value.

"On data transparency, the principle is straightforward: a modern waste management system must measure what it manages. We are strengthening property enumeration, geocoded service locations, GPS tracking, weighbridge measurements, collection records and recovery data. We are also reforming the PSP system, sanctioning and terminating operators where necessary.

"But the fundamental questions remain:

* Does every household have an assigned waste collector?
* Is the operator adequately equipped to deliver the service?
* Was the scheduled collection route completed?
* When residents complain, does anyone respond?
* Is collected waste properly treated, recovered or disposed of?
* Why should emergency evacuation become a substitute for reliable daily collection?

"These are questions government is answering with measurable performance, not political rhetoric.

"The monthly environmental sanitation exercise is not a substitute for an effective waste management system. Government must provide reliable services, while residents and businesses must equally stop indiscriminate dumping into drains, road medians and public spaces.

"The conversation should therefore move beyond describing Lagos as “stinky” and focus on measurable outcomes: tonnes collected, routes completed, missed collections, complaint resolution, recurring blackspots and waste diverted from landfills.

"Lagos has significant work ahead, and we must acknowledge that honestly. But to suggest that nothing is being done ignores the investments, infrastructure and operational reforms already underway.

"As Albert Einstein once said, “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

"Ultimately, the true measure of our work is not the criticism we receive or the adjectives used to describe Lagos, but whether our interventions deliver a cleaner city and a waste management system residents can depend on," he said.


ASA