Lagos replaces LAWMA chief Akinyemi amid mounting refuse crisis

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has replaced the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, with Olajuwon Akinyemi in an acting capacity, after months of complaints over refuse piling up across the state.

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, confirmed Akinyemi's appointment to The PUNCH by telephone on Tuesday, saying the governor had directed him to assume office immediately.

The swap is part of a wider overhaul of the authority. Daily Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that Sanwo-Olu also appointed Dr Tijani Olorunwa as Acting Director of Operations, while Kunle Adebiyi retains his post as Executive Director, Finance.

The bottom line: the state that generates Nigeria's largest waste stream has changed operators at the top without yet publishing the targets the new team must hit.

How deep does the reorganisation go?

Deeper than a single dismissal. Officers on Salary Grade Levels 13 to 17 face redeployment to the mainstream civil service, local governments and local council development areas, according to the report.

"To improve service delivery and support sustainable organisational growth, Governor Sanwo-Olu has ordered the total reorganisation, mass transfer and overhauling of LAWMA leadership," the source said.

Two carve-outs shape the exercise. The Legal Department is excluded to avoid disrupting ongoing court proceedings and concession agreements. And the heads of Landfill Operations, LAWMA Operations and Private Sector Participation Operations are exempt from redeployment for an initial 90 days — a buffer meant to keep collection running while the new management settles in.

In plain terms: lawyers and landfill bosses stay put; the middle and senior ranks get moved out.

What triggered the change?

Context matters here. The decision follows a waste management crisis that has left refuse accumulating along roads, residential streets and drainage channels across Lagos — despite the governor's earlier declaration of a state of emergency in the sector.

PUNCH Online had exclusively reported that Sanwo-Olu asked Gbadegesin to resign after growing dissatisfied with his handling of the crisis, particularly the slow pace of waste evacuation and what an insider called his failure to act promptly on the governor's directives.

The trigger appears to have been an inspection of the Olusosun dumpsite in Ojota, where the governor was reportedly unhappy with the state of operations and ordered immediate intervention.

He later met waste sector stakeholders at the dumpsite, acknowledging slow refuse collection and blaming part of the problem on Private Sector Participation operators failing to meet their obligations. He also cited fire incidents at dumpsites and delays in waste compaction as factors slowing evacuation, while outlining measures to increase the capacity of the Olusosun and Solous 3 dumpsites.

Despite the state of emergency, complaints kept coming from residents in Mushin, Ikeja, Iyana Ipaja, Egbeda, Surulere, Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Ojo, Obalende, Apapa and Mile 2.

What had the outgoing chief delivered?

In a recent operational update, Gbadegesin said additional trucks had been deployed to some affected areas and that clearance had been completed or was ongoing on several collection routes.

He listed Mile 2, Doyin-Orile, Ijesha Road, Itire-Ikate, Bucknor-Ijegun and Obalende among locations where interventions had been carried out. He also acknowledged field updates were still outstanding for Apapa, Abesan Estate, Idimu-Ejigbo Road and the Isheri-Igando corridor.

Gbadegesin had been reappointed as LAWMA managing director after Sanwo-Olu's re-election — a sign of how quickly the crisis eroded his standing.

What happens next?

The restructuring now places responsibility for the crisis squarely on Akinyemi and the incoming management. The 90-day exemption window for the three operations heads is the first clock to watch: it expires, or gets extended, based on whether collection stabilises.

But the state government has yet to publicly outline the specific targets, timelines or performance measures against which the new leadership will be assessed. Until those benchmarks land, the market — PSP operators, concessionaires and residents waiting on evacuation trucks — is reading a leadership change without a scoreboard.