Korede Abdullah 
LAGOS, Nigeria – Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has flagged off the reintroduction of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, which will begin in April and hold on the last Saturday of every month from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
The governor announces the initiative during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting in Lagos on Saturday, describing it as a civic duty necessary to promote a healthier and cleaner environment.
“This morning’s exercise is a very serious one and a defining moment for all of us as Lagosians. It is not about politics; it is about our collective responsibility to keep our environment clean, healthy and safe for everyone,” Sanwo-Olu says.
He emphasises that government actions alone cannot guarantee environmental cleanliness and calls on residents to actively participate in sanitation activities within their communities.
“A clean city is not achieved by the government alone. It is built every day by the actions of citizens — in our homes, markets, communities and streets,” he says.
Sanwo-Olu warns that indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drainage channels contributes significantly to flooding and damages road infrastructure across the city.
“When people dump solid waste into drainage channels, the roads will keep failing,” he adds.
The sanitation exercise had been suspended in November 2016 following a Federal High Court ruling that declared movement restrictions during the exercise unconstitutional.
However, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, says the decision to revive the programme followed more than a year of consultations with stakeholders.
“It took over a year of consultations and engagements for us to arrive at a consensus that it is time to bring back this important culture of environmental responsibility,” Wahab says.
He encourages residents to dedicate one to two hours each month to cleaning their surroundings in order to improve public health and environmental safety.
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Hussaini Ibrahim 
