Tokunbo Wahab, the Honorable Commissioner for the Environment in Lagos State, may end up as the star of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration because of the vision and zeal he displays in discharging his duties. If Wahab had been in office right from Governor Sanwo-Olu’s emergence in 2019, Lagos would have been a far better place, at least in environmental terms.
However, it is not good that the impact of this ebullient commissioner has yet to be felt reasonably in the Ajah-Addo-Badore axis, probably owing to its out-of-sight location, so to speak. The Honourable Commissioner will be shocked at what he will see in this axis if he visits it himself or the reports he will receive if he sends trusted aides to visit the eight-kilometre Ajah-Addo-Badore Road constructed by the Governor Bola Tinubu administration in 2007. This dual road has turned into heaps of garbage. The LAWMA contractor manages to clear, once in a while, the Ajah part of the road. The Badore section is abandoned, and weeds and plants have overgrown the Badore stretch of the road.
Talking of Badore, the worst part is First Unity Estate whose beautiful road was constructed by PW during the Governor Babatunde Fashola era. As someone who lives near the First Unity Estate, I am embarrassed at how the residents have turned the once beautiful place into a ghetto, if not a pigsty. All shanties and illegal structures spring up daily there in the name of businesses.
They are built in utter defiance of Lagos State environmental and town planning laws. People even trade on the road especially at night, narrowing the road dangerously. Worse, some people have turned their residences into commercial houses without approval from the government, whether state or local government. Hence, the government at every tier in the state loses so much revenue from the culture of impunity.
To make matters worse, drugs are sold openly in the First Unity Estate. There is a strong suspicion that armed robbers operate from uncompleted buildings there.
The Honourable Commissioner is also requested to visit the Catholic Mission Road in Badore to see how the road constructed by Governor Tinubu, as he was then, has become an eyesore.
In summary, Commissioner Wahab is invited to ensure the immediate and constant clearing of the refuse on the eight-kilometre Ajah-Addo-Badore Road by the LAWMA contractor assigned the place, the removal of shanties and illegally built commercial houses in the First Unity Estate which is now a den of narcotics dealers and perhaps armed robbers, and the removal of illegal and ugly structures on the Catholic Mission Road.
By Bayo Adeshina, Badore, Ajah, lagos.
