Is it the akara business that suddenly became derogatory, or should the First Lady simply have said petty traders so people could pretend not to know what she meant?
The outrage is expected, especially on this app where some people can make a career out of fooling. After all, you can spend two weeks doing that on X, Elon Musk pays you, and if you are fortunate, a brand pays you for influencing.
The truth is, our realities are different. Not everyone starts with an office, investors, and a business plan. The real problem is that too many people have been conditioned to believe that starting small is somehow shameful. That mindset is exactly why so many brilliant ideas never leave the notebook, they keep waiting for the perfect time to start.
There is dignity in honest labour, whether you are selling akara or running a multinational company. Every big business was once a small one.
And before anyone jumps to conclusions, I am not a petty trader. Saying there are petty traders does not mean I am one. It simply means I recognise that millions of people earn an honest living that way, and there is absolutely nothing derogatory about it.
Many of you are hypocrites. Are you really going to pretend that GRV and Tokunbo Wahab don't already have a history? GRV has never missed an opportunity to take a jab at him, and Tokunbo Wahab has never hesitated to respond in kind.
This sudden talk of "bigotry" is nonsense. Since when did it become bigotry to address someone by his name? Not every disagreement needs to be dressed up as ethnic prejudice. Sometimes, it's just two political opponents taking shots at each other, as they have done repeatedly in the past. Let politicians do their politicking please.
Street sweeping is another big part of the work. Lagos has thousands of sweepers working across hundreds of routes, including highways, medians and major public corridors. This work starts very early, and it is not easy work. Some areas are swept daily, but once people keep littering from vehicles, markets, shops and buses, the same routes look dirty again within hours. That is why the long-term answer cannot be sweeping alone. We need better behaviour, stronger enforcement, more mechanised sweeping on strategic roads, and safer working conditions for the sweepers.
The bigger reform is infrastructure. Lagos cannot continue with the old collect-and-dump model. That is why construction is ongoing for Transfer Loading Stations to replace the old landfill operations at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous III in Igando. These will be supported by Material Recovery Facilities in Ikorodu and Badagry, so waste can be moved out of the centre of the city to modern facilities where it can be sorted, recovered, recycled and repurposed.
The Olusosun system is expected to move about 2,500 tonnes of waste daily to the Ikorodu MRF, while the Solous III side is expected to move about 1,500 tonnes daily to the Badagry recovery facility. The target for this transition is 6 months. Once completed, it should reduce pressure on the old dumpsites, improve the flow of waste evacuation, reduce congestion around disposal points and give Lagos a more serious recovery and recycling platform.
There is also the organic waste side, which is very important because a large part of Lagos waste is food and market waste. The Ikosi Fruit Market Biodigester has now been launched to treat organic waste closer to source and convert it into useful outputs like biogas, electricity and fertiliser. The plan is to replicate that model in other markets that generate high volumes of organic waste, instead of moving everything across the city to landfill.
So yes, the complaints are valid. Some backlogs should not have happened. Some residents have not received the service they deserve. Some operators have disappointed. There is no need to deny any of that.
But the fuller picture is that waste is being evacuated daily, black spots are being cleared daily, operators are being monitored, weak routes are being reviewed, illegal dumping is being prosecuted, street sweeping is ongoing, and new infrastructure is being built to change the system from the ground up.
Government has a duty to keep improving the system. Residents, markets, estates and businesses also have a duty to use the system properly and stop illegal dumping. Both things are true.
Lagos is not where it should be yet. But it is not standing still either. The work now is to clear what has built up, fix the routes that are failing, hold operators accountable, and complete the infrastructure that will move Lagos from dumping to sorting, recovery, recycling, energy and circular economy.
So, for your nomadic self to jump on the Governor’s release for your political agenda without talking solutions speaks to who you really are.
Anyone who systematically or subtly supports terrorists or their apologists is an enemy of the people. They don't belong in government. They belong in jail or the great beyond.