Lagos Assembly ad-hoc committee drills 8 commissioner-nominees

The Lagos state House of Assembly ad-hoc on screening of commissioner and special advisers nominees commenced screening of nominees on Thursday attending to eight nominees.

The exercise which continues on Friday is, according to Chairman of the committee, Hon. Rotimi Abiru, expected to end on Saturday.

The eight nominees screened are: Mr. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, Mr. Tunji Bello, Ms. Adenike Ajay-Bembe, Dr. Wale Ahmed, Pro. Akinola Abayomi and Mr. Gbenga Omotoso.

Apart from Ahmed who is secretary of All Progressives Congress in the state and former member of the House of Assembly who was asked to take a bow as former lawmaker, all the remaining nominees were subject to questioning by the committee members.

At the end of the exercise chairman of the committee said he was satisfied with the performance of the nominees saying they are all knowledgeable people but that the committee will report back to the House that will confirm the nominees or otherwise.

Answering questions during screening, immediate past Secretary to Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello said the menace of refuse in the state was because the past administration abandoned a working refuse disposal system under LAWMA to introduce a system that could not cope with the volume of refuse generated in the state.

He said the LAWMA personnel have already been trained and were specialising in different areas of refuse management before been taken out of the system which created a vacuum that the operatives of the newly introduced model could not cope with.

He said the solution to the situation may already be on the way with the introduction of sorting refuse at point of generation and separating same into different refuse bags as been introduced by the current governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Bello who said he worked as the speechwriter of the late Chief MKO Abiola is a journalist, lawyer and former commissioner for the environment in the state advised that the state must intensify efforts on waste management and conversion.

“There are a few areas you can set up dumpsite in Lagos State because the state is below the sea level. You cannot set up a dumpsite in Lagos Island, except in places like Agege, Abule Egba and others.

“On flooding in Lagos, we have nine main drainages in the state, and while six are developed, three are not developed and flooding is always when there are blockages in the flow of flood to the Lagoon in these drainages”.

“The Lagos Mainland drainage system is the oldest and it has about six divisions. The tertiary drainages and channels must link up with primary channels,” he said.

This was corroborated by the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Rotimi Abiru, who stated that everybody was concerned about the environment in the state.

Abiru advised Bello to impress it on the government that the state could not afford not to improve on the environment.

Editor of The Nation, Gbenga Omotoso, said that the freedom of information law in the country is not working, “the implementation is not working”, he said.

He said when you write to ask for information there is always no response from the authorities concerned and “if you go to the code of conduct for assets declaration information of government officials they will not give you”.

Adding that even if you want to explore the court option by going to court to press for access to the required information, that is a long process.

Talking about managing perception of Lagos, Omotoso said it is the duty of everybody, although he said it can be done through training of information officers, mobilising the members of the public and dissemination of government actions and policies to all the nook and crannies of the state.

Omotoso said, more importantly, was for everybody to put up a proper behaviour especially people in position of authority for others to emulate.

“Perception can be managed through regular interactions with members of the public, letting people know what you are doing right, it is the responsibility of all of us to guard the image of the state”, Omotoso said.

He said though technology has a major role to play in dissemination of government policies and activities to the people and enhancing the peoples’ perception about the government the problem of lack of power especially in the rural areas limits its capacity.

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