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The moratorium period for the implementation of disability law in Ekiti State has lapse, so duty bearers should be able to incorporate issues of inclusivity, accessibility and other implementation parts into policies. It is high time we started putting them to their foot on accessibility for better inclusivity.
Policy Problem
Lassa fever remains a significant public health threat in Nigeria, with Ondo State consistently among the states affected by the disease. Transmission is associated with exposure to infected rodents, contaminated food and household environments, poor sanitation, delayed health-seeking behaviour, and inadequate infection prevention practices. NCDC has also identified poor environmental sanitation, low community awareness and late presentation as continuing challenges.
Policy Goal
To reduce the incidence, transmission and deaths associated with Lassa fever in Ondo State through strengthened community prevention, environmental sanitation, early detection and rapid response.
Key Policy Actions
1. Community Rodent-Control Programme
Establish regular community-based rodent-control and environmental sanitation campaigns in high-risk communities.
Support households with education on safe food storage, waste disposal and prevention of rodent entry into homes.
2. Lassa Fever Prevention Education in Schools and Communities
Introduce periodic Lassa fever awareness programmes in schools, markets, religious institutions and community gatherings.
Train community health workers and volunteers to deliver prevention messages in local languages.
3. Improved Food and Market Safety
Promote rodent-proof storage of grains and other food commodities.
Strengthen sanitation monitoring in markets and food-processing areas.
Discourage unsafe open drying and storage of food where contamination can occur.
4. Early Detection and Referral
Strengthen Lassa fever surveillance at Primary Health Centres.
Train frontline health workers to identify suspected cases early and ensure immediate referral and reporting through the appropriate surveillance system.
5. Protection of Healthcare Workers
Ensure adequate availability of PPE, infection-prevention materials and training for frontline health workers, particularly in high-risk LGAs.
6. Dedicated Prevention Funding
Establish a dedicated budget line for Lassa fever prevention, community surveillance, environmental sanitation, health education and emergency response in high-burden areas.
7. One Health Coordination
Strengthen collaboration among the health, environment, agriculture, education and local government sectors to address the human, environmental and animal-related factors contributing to Lassa fever transmission.
Proposed Legislative Action
The National Assembly should support a national framework that enables high-burden states such as Ondo to receive targeted funding and technical support for Lassa fever prevention, while requiring measurable state-level prevention plans, surveillance reporting and annual assessment of intervention outcomes.
Expected Outcomes
1. Reduced rodent exposure in high-risk communities.
2. Increased public knowledge of Lassa fever prevention.
3. Earlier detection and referral of suspected cases.
4. Reduced healthcare-worker infections.
5. Improved environmental and food hygiene.
6. Reduction in Lassa fever cases and deaths in Ondo State.
Key Policy Message
Lassa fever prevention should move from an outbreak-response approach to a sustained community prevention strategy, particularly in high-burden states such as Ondo.
The Challenge: Housing affordability is one of the greatest crises facing everyday Lagosians. Despite existing state tenancy laws, tenants are routinely forced to pay 1 to 2 years of rent upfront, alongside excessive agency and legal fees. Without transparent digital systems, citizens lack clear information on their legal rights, leaving them vulnerable to sudden rent spikes and unlawful evictions.
The Proposal: I propose a enforceable Lagos Fair Rent & Tenant Protection Framework focused on transparency and affordability:
Transition to Flexible Rent Payments: Enforce state regulations that require landlords to accept monthly or quarterly rent payments, significantly reducing the financial shock on families and young workers.
Capped Agency Fees: Put an enforceable cap on agency and legal fees (max 10% combined) to eliminate predatory market practices.
Digital Tenant Rights Portal: Launch a simple public portal and WhatsApp hotline managed by the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA). This tool will offer plain-language guides to tenancy laws in English, Pidgin, and Yoruba, verify licensed agents, and allow citizens to report illegal evictions and dispute unfair charges quickly.
The Impact: Housing is a fundamental human need. By combining smart digital tools with practical legal enforcement, Lagos State can protect millions of renters, reduce urban poverty, and build a fair, modern housing market for all residents.
Nigeria's biggest challenges do not only need criticism. They need problem-solvers. One issue that has been on my mind recently is waste management in Lagos.
In many communities, refuse piles up for days, drainage channels fill with plastic and other waste, and some bus stops gradually become unofficial dumping grounds. Beyond the smell, flooding and visual pollution, there is a bigger policy question:
Where exactly does the failure begin?
Is it the responsibility of LAWMA, local governments, private waste operators, the state government, or citizens?
My answer is that each has a role to play.
A problem I witnessed
Two days ago, I passed through a recently completed road in my area. The road had a new drainage system designed to help manage flooding. What caught my attention was that some of the drainage channels were already becoming blocked by plastics, nylon, and other waste. The irony was difficult to ignore. We are investing in infrastructure to address flooding, while simultaneously allowing the same infrastructure to be obstructed by waste. But there is another side to the problem.
Last week, I was walking home after consuming a bottle of water. Because I am conscious of the consequences of littering, I kept the bottle with me until I got home.
Why?
There was simply nowhere appropriate to dispose of it. This made me think about something we often overlook: responsible citizens also need responsible systems.
We cannot expect people to dispose of waste properly when appropriate disposal points are difficult to find.
So, what would I forge?
I would propose a Clean Drainage, Clean Lagos Policy built around five connected actions:
More accessible waste collection points.
Every major bus stop, market, residential cluster and other high-traffic public space should have properly managed disposal points.
Regular drainage maintenance.
Drainage infrastructure should not only be constructed; it should be routinely inspected, cleared and maintained before blockages become flooding emergencies.
Stronger coordination between the government and waste operators.
LAWMA, local governments and licensed private operators should have clearly defined responsibilities for collection, monitoring and response.
Incentives for recycling.
Rather than treating all waste as something to be discarded, Lagos can expand systems that encourage households and businesses to separate recyclable materials and connect them with recycling operators.
Enforcement alongside public education.
Where proper disposal infrastructure exists, indiscriminate dumping should attract meaningful enforcement. But enforcement should go hand in hand with sustained public education and accessible alternatives.
The goal should not simply be “keep Lagos clean.”
It should be to build a system in which the government provides infrastructure and oversight, businesses participate responsibly, and citizens have both the means and the incentives to dispose of waste properly.
That, to me, is what meaningful policy should look like: not simply identifying what is wrong, but asking what we can forge differently.
Lagos State runs large public programmes across employment, skills development, education, entrepreneurship and social intervention. These programmes already have monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and some report substantial numbers of beneficiaries and outcomes. For example, LSETF reports that its Employability Unit has monitored training projects reaching more than 21,000 young people since 2018. Its 2024 financial report recorded 3,961 youths trained and 2,739 placed through the Lagos State Employability Support Project. (LSETF)
The issue is not whether government measures programmes. It is whether the lessons from those measurements consistently determine what government does next.
I propose a Lagos Public Programme Learning and Review Policy for major government-funded programmes.
Before implementation, each programme would define its intended outcome and a small number of measurable indicators. During implementation, it would track progress, and after the programme, it would assess whether the intended outcome was achieved.
The review would look beyond activities and beneficiary numbers.
For example:
Activity: 3,961 people trained.
Immediate result: How many completed and met the required standard?
Outcome: How many achieved the programme’s intended objective?
Sustainability: How many were still achieving that outcome after an agreed period?
Learning: What worked, what did not, and why?
Decision: What should change before the next cycle?
The policy would require a short Programme Learning Record at the end of each major programme cycle containing:
The policy would not impose one outcome on every government programme. A skills programme may measure employment or income outcomes, while an education or health programme would use indicators appropriate to its purpose.
The key change is that evaluation would no longer be treated only as a way of reporting what happened. It would become part of the decision-making process for the next cycle.
Lagos already has examples of outcome-oriented monitoring. For instance, LSETF’s current employability programme includes a mid-programme KPI review and requires verified placement reporting. (LSETF) The proposed policy would build on this type of practice and create a more consistent learning framework across major public programmes.
Expected results
The policy would aim to:
The success of the policy itself could be measured by indicators such as:
The central principle is simple:
Government should not only report what it did. It should show what it learned, and what changed because of what it learned.
Across Oyo State’s 33 Local Government Areas, vital statutory bills and appropriation acts are passed each legislative session. Yet, ordinary citizens, youth leaders, civil society organizations, and local business owners remain disconnected from what is actually debated in the Agodi Assembly Chambers.
Committee hearing schedules are rarely public in advance, bills are rarely accessible in digital open formats before passing into law, and legislative budget allocations for critical sectors like education, primary healthcare, and youth enterprise are difficult for the public to monitor. When legislative records stay locked in physical filing cabinets or dense legal gazettes, democratic accountability suffers and public cynicism rises.
The Policy Proposal
I propose an Oyo State Open Legislative and Budget Transparency Law, establishing a statutory digital open-access system jointly coordinated by the Clerk of the House and the Oyo State Information Technology Development Agency (OYSITA). The framework would mandate four actionable reforms:
Why It Matters for Oyo State
A legislature cannot be truly representative if its proceedings remain opaque to the people it represents. By bridging the gap between legislative data and citizen engagement, this framework will strengthen public trust, curb budget execution leakages, and ensure that young people and civic actors can actively participate in state-building rather than spectating from the sidelines.
In many rural communities in Ondo State, including my home in Irele Local Government, a simple lab test can mean a long and costly journey to a general hospital or a private lab in town. Many patients are treated on guesswork. Children with sickle cell disease are often diagnosed late, after repeated crises. Pregnant women may miss tests for HIV, hepatitis B, anaemia and diabetes. Treatment without diagnosis wastes money and costs lives.
The proposal
I propose a law that guarantees every Ondo citizen access to essential lab tests within their own ward. It would:
Why it matters
Early diagnosis is cheaper than late treatment. This law would reduce preventable deaths, ease pressure on our hospitals, and give rural families the same chance at good health as people in the cities.
A country, state where their Judicary is dependent on executive will be easy to manipulate, it is very essential the judiciary is preserved to maintain their utmost integrity.
Oyo State sits at a genuine commercial crossroads, with real potential in cross-border trade, agro-processing, and SME growth, yet much of this potential goes underutilized because small business owners, women entrepreneurs, and young people trying to enter trade and enterprise have little accessible information about the legislative and regulatory environment shaping their opportunities. This gap matters more now than ever with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in effect, an agreement that in principle opens Oyo's SMEs, agro-processors, and women and youth-led enterprises to an entire continental market, but in practice remains largely theoretical for businesses that do not know what AfCFTA rules of origin, tariff schedules, or export certification require of them.
I propose a Trade Corridor and SME Empowerment Information Framework, a state legislative initiative combining two things. First, a simplified, publicly accessible information system that translates trade, export, and SME-related legislation, AfCFTA compliance requirements, and budget allocations into practical guidance, so a woman running a textile business or a young agro-processor can understand what registration support, tax incentives, or AfCFTA export facilitation actually applies to them, and how to access it. Second, a structured feedback channel built into the legislative process itself, allowing SME owners, women-led enterprises, and youth cooperatives to flag real barriers, for example multiple taxation, unclear export documentation, or difficulty meeting AfCFTA rules of origin, directly to lawmakers before policy is finalized, not after.
This is necessary because women and youth are disproportionately represented in Oyo's informal and small business sector, yet are least likely to have the institutional access or information needed to benefit from trade and enterprise policy, let alone a continental trade agreement as complex as AfCFTA. Closing that information gap does three things at once, it strengthens SME participation in formal trade corridors, positions Oyo State businesses to actually use AfCFTA rather than watch it pass them by, and gives the legislature a direct, structured line of sight into the barriers businesses are facing, making policy more responsive and enforcement more collaborative rather than punitive.
What happens when a community reports a problem at its Primary Health Centre, but nobody is clearly responsible for following it up?
This is a question I have thought about repeatedly during my work as a National Health Fellow.
I have visited all 38 Primary Health Centres in my local government and engaged health workers, community leaders, traditional institutions and residents. I have seen communities that are willing to support their PHCs, but I have also seen gaps in infrastructure, water, electricity, equipment and maintenance.
My policy idea is for Ondo State to establish a Community PHC Accountability and Stewardship Framework that connects community participation to clear government responsibility.
The idea is simple: communities should have a structured way to report problems, government should have a clear responsibility to respond, and both sides should be able to see what happens next.
The framework could:
• Give communities clear roles in identifying and reporting PHC challenges.
• Create a simple reporting system that routes each issue to the appropriate PHC, LGA or state authority.
• Assign responsibility and reasonable response timelines for reported issues.
• Include unresolved community concerns in periodic PHC performance reviews.
• Require periodic public reporting of major issues reported, actions taken and outstanding gaps.
• Recognise community stewardship in protecting facilities and equipment, while keeping funding, staffing and service delivery firmly within government's responsibility.
• Begin as a pilot across selected PHCs in different LGAs, with clear indicators such as response time, resolved issues, facility condition and community feedback before considering wider adoption.
This is not about asking communities to fix what government is responsible for.
It is about closing the gap between identifying a problem and getting the right institution to act on it.
Ondo State already has community structures and institutions involved in primary healthcare. Rather than creating another layer, this framework would strengthen the connection between those structures and the government systems responsible for responding to their concerns.
I believe this matters because a public health facility is more than a building. It is a public asset, and the people who depend on it should have a meaningful role in protecting it and ensuring that concerns about it are heard.
For me, good policy is not about creating something new for the sake of it. It is about seeing a real problem, understanding why existing systems are not fully solving it, and designing a practical way to close the gap.
