27 MAY 2024
Open Advocacy Letter to H.E. Babajide Sanwo-Olu
His Excellency, The Executive Governor of Lagos State,
Ikeja,
Lagos state
Your Excellency,
Our warmest greetings to you on this very special day, The Celebration of Children’s Day, 2024!
We are delighted to be able to write to you today, not only as our Governor but as a dear father and loving grandfather who listens to us, your children.
This day is set aside for the Celebration of Nigerian children as a way to remind them and reiterate to every other member of society how much children matter, and how there is no continuity of our great nation without them.
We are thankful for such an opportunity, and as we celebrate over 30 million children across the country this year, we would like to very specially celebrate every Lagosian child today.
We recognize, in particular, the achievements of your Project Zero Program reducing the number of out-of-school children across Lagos state. Also prominent is your THEMES+ agenda including Health and Environment; Education and Technology which has led to the active ban on the use and distribution of Styrofoam and other single-use plastics across the state.
On behalf of the children in Lagos, from Makoko to Ikorodu, from Ajeromi Ifelodun to Oworonshoki, from Ojuelegba to Egbeda, Shomolu to Ikeja, we would like to appreciate the work of your administration towards making sure no child is left behind in development.
Our ‘Ask’
We call upon you to use your good office to facilitate the efforts of your administration in waste management and environmental protection as a means of contributing to the welfare and overall development of the children in Lagos state.
We would like to request the government to lead a committee tasked with the responsibility of curating a sustainable solution to the waste management sector of the state.
Just as stipulated in the Child Rights Law of 2007, section 12, subsection 1, every Lagosian child is entitled to enjoy the best attainable state of physical, mental, and spiritual health, and subsection 3 (d) that the government is to ensure the provision of good hygiene and environmental sanitation.
We have noticed a huge lag in the interval between when waste management trucks move the waste from our streets, and this is contributing to our poor hygiene in no small way. Also, putting into perspective that a number of Lagosians are not as environmentally conscious, we have made it a recurring topic during our What Have I Done for Earth (WHIDE) school club meetings. However, most of the Lagosians with whom we’ve interacted to sensitize them on environmental hygiene have mentioned the overall poor waste management system as a deterrent because if they endeavor to always clean up their environment and the waste management company does not complete the process, the cycle of cleaning up the environment regularly is faulted.
We, the children, represent the future, and we deserve a clean and safe environment in which to live and engage with our community, to realize our full potential.
Your Excellency, the Children of Lagos state, will continue to look to you and your administration for our development, and the overall development of our dear Eko.
We thank you in advance for your kind consideration and response to our letter.
Yours sincerely,
What Have I Done for Earth (WHIDE) school club members
CC:
Hon. Commissioner for Environment of Lagos state
Hon. Commissioner for Health of Lagos state
Hon. Commissioner for Youth and Social Development of Lagos state
Sponsored by Change A Child Community Initiative