https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8440-9246
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ABSTRACT
Looking at the formalization of solid waste management in Lagos, Nigeria, this paper seeks to re-embed the concept of informality within institutional structures of political confinement, as well as in the situations in which exit is negotiated from the waste infrastructure. It examines how waste congestion in the West African metropolis has translated into a higher degree of political confinement and the occlusion of exit strategies in the waste sector. Through an empirical study of the city’s state-recognized and alternative waste channels, it looks at the new political instruments deployed in order to secure impermeable waste channels managed by state-recognized actors. Such instruments have had a stark impact on the control of the waste sector as well as on that of monetary flows extracted from the management and situational mobilization of solid waste. The intrusion of institutional boundaries in the waste sector has pushed workers to renegotiate their positions amid new constraints, mobilizing new discourses to negotiate the tolerance of their activities. While leaks in the waste infrastructure are negotiated on an ad hoc basis, the limitations imposed by the Lagos state on exit strategies have triggered political instability and demand the development of new forms of political mobilization.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks the two anonymous referees for their generous comments made on earlier versions of this paper. The author also thanks Carolina Requena, Eduardo Marques, Tommaso Vitale, Laurent Fourchard and Patrick Le Galès for their comments also made on an early draft. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the Leeds RC21 conference, September 11–13, 2017.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The last official census conducted in 2006 by the federal government established it at 9 million, a number contested by the Lagos state. After conducting its own census, the latter reached a number of 17 million (Fourchard, Citation2011, p. 47). Today, the local state puts forth estimates that range from 21 to 25 million. It appears, nonetheless, that such a number, while imposing itself as the reference figure, has been widely overestimated. The Africapolis project – funded by the French Development Agency – cross-referencing censuses, satellite imagery and density studies, established a number that brings credit to the federal census of 2006 (Potts, Citation2012): for 2010, it puts forth a figure of 10 million inhabitants. We settle with UN-Habitat’s (Citation2013) revised estimate for 2015 at 12.4 million, in line with that of Africapolis.
2 Interview with local politicians in Papa Ajao, Mushin, February 24, 2016.
3 Interviews with a ‘LAWMA police’ officer in Idi Araba, Mushin, February 23 and 25, 2016.
4 Four interviews were conducted with two scrap dealers, July 2015 and February–March 2016.
5 Interview with a special advisor of the general manager of LASEPA, Alausa, Ikeja, March 10, 2016.
6 Observation of a market sanitation exercise with the Mushin LGA sanitation brigade, July 2015.
7 Interview with the head of the Mushin LGA sanitation brigade, Mushin, February 19, 2016; interview with local politicians in Papa Ajao, Mushin, February 24, 2016.
8 Observation of a symposium of the Environment and Road Maintenance Committee of the Mushin LGA, March 6, 2016.
9 ‘Lagos state government cancels monthly environmental sanitation’, Governor of Lagos State (press release), November 23, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://akinwunmiambode.com/lagos-state-government-cancels-monthly-environmental-sanitation/.
10 Names have been changed.
11 Interview with the Lagos chairman of the Association of Scrap Dealers, July 21, 2015.
12 Interview with Ibrahim, a scrap dealer in Idi Araba, Mushin, March 7, 2016.
13 Online interview with a local politician, Papa Ajao, Mushin, March 17, 2016.
14 Interview with Ibrahim, a scrap dealer in Idi Araba, Mushin, July 2015 and March 2016.
15 Interview with local politicians in Papa Ajao, Mushin, February 24, 2016.
16 Interview with local politicians in Papa Ajao, Mushin, February 16, 2016.
17 All Africa (originally published in the Vanguard), ‘Nigeria: Lawma’s ineffectiveness leads to clamour for return of cart pushers’, March 6, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://allafrica.com/stories/201503061147.html; All Africa (originally published in the Daily Independent), ‘Nigeria: between PSPs and banned cart pushers – Lagosians complain’, June 2, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://allafrica.com/stories/201506020591.html/.
18 Interview with local politicians in Papa Ajao, Mushin, February 16, 2016.
19 Interview with a special advisor to the general manager of LASEPA, Alausa, Ikeja, March 10, 2016.
20 Premium Times, ‘Lagos Council polls: fear of violence, heavy rainfall, others cause low turnout’, July 23, 2017. Retrieved from March 1, 2018, https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/237820-lagos-council-polls-fear-violence-heavy-rainfall-others-cause-low-turnout.html/.
21 Naij, ‘PDP accuses APC of rigging Lagos elections’, July 2017. Retrieved from March 1, 2018, https://www.naija.ng/1117152-pdp-accuses-apc-rigging-lagos-elections.html#1117152/.