The #EndMalariaInNigeria campaign strongly condemns the regressive declaration by Babajide Sanwo-Olu on March 14, during his visit to the Mushin–Agege Motor Road corridor, in which he announced plans to reintroduce the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Lagos State as a strategy for waste control. This proposal is not only obsolete and ill-advised, but any attempt to enforce movement restrictions under such a policy would constitute contempt of court.

Nigeria has a painful historical experience with the so-called environmental sanitation exercise. In March 1984, the then military regime led by Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy Tunde Idiagbon introduced the monthly sanitation programme under the infamous War Against Indiscipline (WAI). Rather than being a genuine environmental policy, it became a tool for repression and widespread human rights abuses. Nigerians were beaten, tortured, harassed and imprisoned for minor civil offences by soldiers and WAI officials enforcing movement restrictions during sanitation hours.

Decades later, the legality of this authoritarian practice was challenged. In 2013, human rights lawyer Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos after he was unlawfully arrested on the Third Mainland Bridge by officials of LASTMA and the police while on his way to a live interview on Channels Television during the sanitation exercise. On March 16, 2015, Justice Mohammed Idris delivered a landmark judgement declaring the restriction of movement of Lagosians for three hours every last Saturday of the month illegal, thereby ending a policy that was a relic of military dictatorship.

We are therefore surprised that in 2026, the Lagos State Government is contemplating resurrecting an outdated and unlawful policy that never solved the waste management challenges it was introduced for over four decades ago.

The #EndMalariaInNigeria campaign acknowledges that the governor appears to have taken note of our earlier publication where we warned about the frightening proliferation of waste across streets, canals and major roads in Lagos, which threatens an environmental crisis, endangers public health, and increases mosquito breeding spaces that drive malaria transmission. However, reintroducing a 42-year-old sanitation restriction policy is not the solution.

First, the Lagos State Government must urgently restore the mandate of Environmental Health Departments in local governments. These departments were originally established to design environmental health strategies and educate communities on proper sanitation practices. Sadly, they have now been reduced to revenue-generating agencies for local councils and the state government. Instead of protecting public health, they are now target-driven tax collectors.

Second, the Lagos State Government must admit its failure in managing waste in a cosmopolitan megacity like Lagos. The state still practises open dumping of waste. Even when refuse is evacuated from communities, it is often transported to open dump sites located within residential and commercial areas, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rats and other disease-causing pests. Governor Sanwo-Olu must immediately end the dangerous practice of open dumping and transition toward modern waste management systems.

Third, waste management must be driven by government institutions and professional systems, not outsourced as political patronage to party loyalists. Lagos must invest in modern sanitary landfills across the state and adopt advanced waste management models already working in other global cities. These include structured waste sorting from homes and businesses, recycling systems, waste-to-energy technology, digital monitoring systems, the deployment of artificial intelligence for waste tracking, and incentive programmes where citizens receive small financial rewards for properly sorted recyclable waste.

The recent Mushin–Agege waste clearing exercise personally led by Governor Sanwo-Olu and his deputy ironically exposes the severity of Lagos’ sanitation crisis. It also raises serious concerns about the claim by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, that malaria has become a rare disease in Lagos with prevalence reduced to just 1 percent. Such claims are scientifically questionable. There are no environmental indicators within Lagos, a city plagued by poor drainage systems, blocked canals, open dumping sites and uncontrolled waste, that support such a dramatic decline in malaria prevalence. Furthermore, there is no widely recognised independent scientific research validating this claim.

Mosquitoes thrive in environments characterised by stagnant water, poor drainage and unmanaged waste — conditions that unfortunately define many parts of Lagos today.

The #EndMalariaInNigeria campaign therefore calls on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to jettison the obsolete and obnoxious monthly environmental sanitation policy that restricts the movement of Lagosians and instead adopt modern, science-driven and people-centred waste management solutions capable of protecting public health and truly addressing the malaria burden in Lagos State.

Signed:

Francis Nwapa

Convener, #EndMalariaInNigeria Campaign