Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has sent a team to Lagos State on study tour. The delegates of the South Eastern state are in the aquatic state to learn what they called “revolution in environmental management” in Lagos State.
Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Adejare, who received the team, attributed the modest achievements of successive governments since 1999 in Lagos State to sheer passion, determination and hard work, and not magic.
Adejare stated this in response to the commendations of the Managing Director of Awka Capital Development Authority, Architect Michael Okonkwo, who led the special Obiano’s delegation.
The Commissioner said that “with the kind of zeal, dedication and passion which former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his successors put into the daunting challenge of waste management since 1999, it is no surprise that the mountain of refuse and the toga of dirtiest state, which were inherited had to give way to the lush, green and aesthetically beautiful Lagos we are savouring today”
“But I believe that with the same single-mindedness and passion so far shown by the Willie Obiano team, I am convinced that, though not easy, Anambra is set to replicate the progress in Lagos.”
Adejare however said that, in spite of the local and international recognition of the progress in Lagos “the state government is not satisfied yet and is already initiating a reform of waste management services, to get to the next level.”
Assuring the visitors that with the rapport between the two states, pessimists who assumed that current political differences will be an impediment are bound to be disappointed, adding that “Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has directed the Ministry to give your team all the co-operation you deserve.”
He noted also that those who have been sowing the seed of ethnic discord between the two states and their people should now realize that the Igbo and Yoruba have so many things in common, stressing that, “Lagos is home to all.”
Also included in the Anambra delegation on the three-day study tour are the former Chairman of Idemili Local government, Raphael Nnabuife and the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Obiano on Environmental Matters, Mrs Florence Oraedu.
