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By Segun Owodunni
Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation commeure.”
Lagos, Africa’s commercial capital and one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities, is facing a familiar but worsening crisis: waste management failure. Across the state, mountains of refuse are reappearing, collection timelines are becoming increasingly unreliable, illegal dumpsites are multiplying, and residents are slowly adapting to unacceptable realities.
This is no longer a temporary inconvenience. It is becoming a structural threat to public health, urban sustainability and social stability.
Many solutions are currently being proposed: rehabilitation of dumpsites, waste-to-energy projects, recycling initiatives, new technologies and fresh private-sector participation. These proposals sound attractive on paper and may indeed have long-term value. However, none of them will solve the problem if the central issue remains unaddressed.
The challenge confronting Lagos today is not primarily technological, financial or operational. It is a leadership crisis.
At the heart of the sector are three key decision-making institutions whose alignment determines whether the system succeeds or fails: government, represented by the Governor and policymakers through the Ministry of Environment; the regulator, led by the Managing Director of the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and represented by the institution’s bureaucracy and operating philosophy; and the sector operators, represented through the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN) and the PSP operators.
When these three pillars work in harmony, operational efficiency improves, accountability becomes possible and feedback flows effectively. When they fail to align, the result is confusion, inefficiency and eventual system breakdown.
Unfortunately, residents of Lagos are now paying the price of this leadership gap.
One only needs to look around the city to understand the consequences. An aggrieved resident on Victoria Island reportedly resorted to storing household waste inside a deep freezer because his operator reportedly appeared once every six weeks in one of the state’s prime residential locations. Businesses in some areas have begun creating informal in-house dumpsites. Others have reportedly resorted to nighttime burning of refuse.
These are not signs of a functioning metropolitan waste system. They are symptoms of institutional failure.
Even more concerning are indications that the state’s disposal capacity has significantly declined over the years. Reports suggest that where over 700 disposal trips daily once serviced active dumpsites, the system now struggles at substantially lower levels across fewer operational locations. If accurate, this raises serious questions.
Have Lagosians seen this movie before?
Yes.
Those familiar with Lagos history remember the difficult years before 1999 and also recall challenges experienced between August 2019 and April 2020. Historians and football lovers understand one truth: a poor midfield can make an entire team look ineffective regardless of the quality of attackers and defenders.
That analogy may apply here.
Whilst some PSP operators were considering going to the President and the Lagos supreme leader during the just-concluded festive season to seek intervention, it is important to remember that when a similar situation occurred at the inception of the COVID-19 period, he provided an intellectual solution that worked effectively until his transition to the presidency. Immediately after that transition, however, the government reverted to its previous approach, which eventually led us back to the current situation.
The obvious question therefore becomes: how many times must the same solution be sought?
The Governor appears deliberate in his intentions and the Commissioner for Environment is widely perceived as hardworking and committed. PSP operators continue seeking direction and workable solutions. However, even the best efforts can be undermined by ineffective regulation.
A hardworking ministry combined with willing operators but weak regulatory coordination creates conditions for failure.
By contrast, during the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola and during Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s first term, sector leadership appeared more dynamic and fluid. There was stronger interaction among policymakers, regulators and operators, leading to better outcomes and fewer systemic disruptions.
The difference was not necessarily money or technology.
The difference was leadership.
This is why current responses risk becoming palliative actions rather than genuine reforms.
Monthly sanitation exercises, for example, may create positive optics and public awareness, but they cannot solve a city generating more than 10,000 metric tonnes of waste daily. If collection and disposal capacities are significantly below generation rates, then waste simply accumulates elsewhere, hidden temporarily until the next cleanup exercise.
The mathematics becomes difficult to ignore.
With hundreds of reported illegal mini-dumpsites spread across the state, Lagos residents have every reason to worry about what lies ahead.
Another concern lies within sector representation itself.
The Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria was historically expected to serve as an independent voice capable of balancing regulator influence while defending operators and ultimately protecting service outcomes for residents. Increasingly, however, there are concerns among stakeholders that the association lacks the independence and assertiveness required during difficult periods.
In stronger systems, regulators and operators challenge one another constructively while government mediates for improved outcomes. That balance appears weaker today.
Waste management cannot continue to be politicised.
Lagos is too important for experimental governance in such a critical sector. Waste management is not merely about trucks, compactors and landfills; it is about foresight, coordination and leadership discipline.
The proposed entry of new external operators, regardless of their experience or financial strength, should therefore be approached carefully. New players alone cannot repair a structurally weak system if the underlying leadership deficiencies remain unresolved.
Without correcting the foundation, even the most attractive proposals risk becoming expensive disappointments.
The current administration still has an opportunity to reverse the trend. The sector’s problems did not emerge overnight, and therefore the pathways toward recovery can also be identified. Listening to experienced predecessors and sector veterans may prove more valuable than attempting to reinvent systems under immediate pressure.
Because eventually, citizens stop making excuses.
Consumers stop waiting.
And residents revolt against systems that consistently fail them.
Lagos deserves cleaner streets, stronger institutions and a waste management system built on leadership rather than temporary palliatives.
Until leadership surgery happens, refuse will continue to remind everyone that problems postponed are rarely problems solved.
An Environmental Enthusiast, Segun Owodunni writes from Lagos
• An Environmental Enthusiast, Segun Owodunni writes from Lagos
