LAGOS/Nigeria: The Mushin To The World Foundation has challenged the accuracy of a viral social media video portraying parts of Mushin as being overwhelmed by refuse, saying the footage does not represent the current situation in the Lagos community.
The foundation’s Founder and Executive Director, Tunde Enitan, said on Monday that the video circulating online was old and had been presented without sufficient context.
Enitan, who spoke in Lagos, acknowledged that waste management remained a challenge in some parts of Lagos but said recent interventions had significantly improved waste evacuation and environmental sanitation in Mushin and Odi-Olowo.
His position comes amid a wider response by the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to the circulation of old photographs and videos purportedly showing the current state of waste in Mushin.
LAWMA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, said the agency had undertaken sustained intervention in Mushin over the past three weeks following delays in waste collection in some locations. The authority said it had deployed trucks to inner streets for direct collection from households and communities.
Enitan attributed part of the improvement in Mushin and Odi-Olowo to the return of Lagos’ monthly environmental sanitation exercise.
The state government reintroduced the exercise in April 2026, with sanitation scheduled for the last Saturday of every month. The initiative is intended to encourage residents to clean their surroundings, clear drainage channels and dispose of waste responsibly.
According to Enitan, the exercise has also helped to identify locations where refuse accumulation and blocked drainage remain persistent problems.
“The monthly sanitation has helped a lot because it has exposed major places that have been found to be dirty or clogged with waste in Mushin and Odolowu,” he said.
He commended the leadership of Mushin Local Government and Odi-Olowo LCDA for their efforts to improve environmental sanitation in their respective areas.
Enitan said LAWMA had also increased waste evacuation, including the deployment of trucks to major roads and inner streets where accumulated refuse had become a concern.
He added that enforcement teams had been positioned at identified refuse black spots to discourage residents from dumping waste on road medians and other unauthorised locations.
According to him, the enforcement campaign had been running for more than a month, with offenders liable to sanctions.
Enitan said he personally inspected some locations in Mushin on Monday, including the route from Cappa to Mushin Olosha, where some areas had previously developed a reputation for persistent refuse accumulation.
He mentioned locations around GTBank in Olohunsogo, AP Junction and Moshi Lashi as areas where he observed what he described as visible intervention.
“There have been task forces at some of these locations, guiding, redirecting and monitoring residents against dumping waste on road median,” he said.
The foundation chief urged residents and social media users to establish the date and location of photographs and videos before sharing them, warning that outdated material could create a misleading impression about communities and public agencies.
His appeal echoes LAWMA’s recent warning that old images and videos should not be presented as current evidence of Mushin’s waste situation.
While defending recent improvements, Enitan stressed that Mushin and Odi-Olowo still require sustained intervention to achieve long-term solutions to waste management.
He urged residents to support government efforts by using approved waste disposal channels and avoiding indiscriminate dumping on road medians, drainage channels and other unauthorised locations.
He said the Mushin To The World Foundation had been working with LAWMA on environmental sustainability and waste-management advocacy.
The foundation, he added, also promotes awareness of climate change and encourages residents to explore ways of turning waste into economic opportunities.
Enitan said the organisation convenes the Mushin-Odi-Olowo Climate Change Conference, an initiative designed to educate residents about climate change, environmental sustainability and practical ways of reducing waste.
“The conference is meant to educate people more on the importance of environmental sustainability and what we can gain from turning our waste into wealth,” he said.
He said the foundation was committed to helping change the narrative about Mushin by highlighting both the community’s challenges and the efforts being made to address them.
Despite the recent interventions, Lagos continues to face substantial waste-management pressures arising from its large population, high volume of daily waste generation and the strain placed on collection and disposal infrastructure.
LAWMA has recently said its approach to recurring waste black spots includes increased evacuation, improved collection services, enforcement and community engagement, with Mushin and Odi-Olowo among the areas receiving sustained attention.
The reintroduction of monthly environmental sanitation is also part of the state’s broader effort to improve environmental hygiene and encourage residents to take greater responsibility for their surroundings. (NAN)
