Lagos: Election posters defacement lingers
By Felicia Nwosu
Weeks after the 2023 general elections, the posters used for campaigns, many of which have turned unsightly, have continued to deface public places in Lagos thus constituting visual pollution and a big detraction from the smart mega city positioning of the state.
Before the elections, the Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency (LASAA), apparently in anticipation of the negative environmental effect of the indiscriminate posting of posters, said that posters may only be deployed on designated surfaces in inner streets. Posters were not to be posted on highways, major roads and high streets.
Findings, however, have shown that the directive was not followed by any of the political parties and contestants. Election posters that were indiscriminately posted still dot major parts of the city despite the mop up exercise supposedly embarked upon by LASAA, without anybody being brought to book.
When these observations were brought to the notice of the agency, Temitope Akande, Head of Corporate Communications & Strategy Department, LASAA, revealed that, as part of efforts to clean the city and rid it of environmental pollution, the administration has embarked on 90 days post-election cleaning exercise across the state. Akande said the exercise kicked off last week and will last for a period of 90 days to ensure all parts of the state have been cleaned.
“We have done parts of Kosofe and Ikeja. We have done this everywhere in Alausa, Ogudu, Alapere and the express between Ogudu and Alapere,” he said.
LASAA is responsible for the management, regulation and control of the signage and outdoor advertising environment in Lagos State. To control outdoor structures to be used for signage and advertisements; issue licenses and permits for the construction and placement of outdoor structures in any part of the state as well as to protect the environment from potential adverse impact from visual blights; control the number, size and location of outdoor structures. It is also saddled with ensuring that outdoor structures are soundly and carefully designed, erected, modified, maintained or removed when no longer in use to avoid potential damages to lives and property.
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