War Against Defacement [Must Read + Photos]

I woke up this morning, setting out for my daily activity. As I was passing down a street, my attention was drawn to the posters pasted on a beautiful, newly painted wall of a house as if I have never passed through that street before.

As I walked a bit further, I noticed some other walls defaced with posters and I noticed that majority of that posters are for political campaign.

I then realised how wall posters have remained a major challenge in defacement of property especially in this part of the world - Nigeria.

There are more than thousands of cases pertaining to defacement of private and public property with posters.


See some of the pictures taken below;

I think election office such as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  should see into it and  ask political parties to remove graffiti, posters and banners pasted on the wall. Local law does not permit defacement of private and public  properties. Both public and private properties in some cities  have been illegally used for political campaign using posters.

“So what do you think about this? Do you think this is acceptable and should continue?

The campaign materials put up in the public places, including wall writings, should be removed and hence be discouraged.                              

In the case of those political parties or candidates who had not done so the government officials should carry out their job to discourage future occurrence.

Thank God for Babatunde Raji Fashola - Lagos State Governor who constituted Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA) and saddled them with the responsibility to keep an eye on any possible violations of the law against wall / properties defacement by posters, the removal of defacement of the long stretches of the parapet walls of the bridge

While it must be said that some of these political aspirants might not directly have a hand in the defacing of walls especially in Lagos, notwithstanding, complete innocence cannot be claimed, since these posters are everywhere, and must have been cited by the aspirants, due to the fact that they carry their names.

LASAA has issued a warning to those involved in the indiscriminate ways the posters are pasted to desist from such actions, seeing as it runs afoul of its guidelines on the use of election campaign materials in the state.

I also read in one of Nigeria dailies (This Day) that The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of LASAA, Mr. George Noah gave out a warning that the use of such campaign materials without following the specified guidelines as provided by its enabling law might attract heavy sanctions and possibly prosecution.

According to Noah, ‘’the guidelines are also issued without prejudice to any political party, association or aspirant as it is our intention to ensure fairness and equality among all concerned stakeholders, while judiciously performing our duty and applying the rules without sentiment or bias’’.

He further explained that billboards and drapes carrying political campaigns may contact LASAA or owners of the proposed structure for clarification. ‘’Banners may only be deployed on inner roads and streets subject to the following conditions: only if the banner is attached to the wall of a particular building limited to inner streets, and it is not to be tied to poles or public utilities (electric and telecom poles)’’.

Also, he said, ‘’posters may be deployed on designated surfaces on inner streets only and are not to be deployed on highways, major roads, and high streets. Posters must not be pasted on street lamp poles and other unauthorized surfaces’’.

Despite the threat from LASAA, the use of campaign posters and other paraphernalia has continued unabated, violating the law, and defacing public and private properties, while also overwhelming many residents of Lagos.

According to This Day, LASAA, an agency saddled with the regulatory responsibility appears weak in carrying out its statutory role, but recent attempt to pull down such posters by the agency met a brick wall from the police who described it as mischievous.

For instance, LASAA was accused by the Lagos State Police Commisioner, Kayode Aderanti of working against the interest of some politicians in its bid to perform its assigned responsibility. Aderanti had issued a warning to LASAA to immediately stop the removal and destruction of campaign posters of political aspirants. Accoding to Aderanti, his office has been inundated with complaints by candidates who feel aggrieved about LASAA’s act.

"I note with concern series of complaints that have been made against LASAA by candidates of various political parties about the removal of their campaign billboards and posters.

"The electoral act 2010 as amended is clear in section 100 (2) where it stated inter Alia that state apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage of disadvantage of any political party of candidate at any election.

“It is in the interest of public peace for the agency to allow candidates of all political parties equal space to disseminate their campaign messages towards a successful conduct of the general elections,” he said at a recent meeting with the officers of the command.

But LASAA has said it will not abide by such order. In a statement, LASAA warned against arrest of its men, saying, “the removal of posters that deface our environment is a statutory obligation of LASAA. The agency is therefore baffled that the Nigerian police (which is responsible for enforcing the laws of this nation), is (by the statement issued by the Commissioner of Police) encouraging and expressly supporting the flagrant disregard and contravention of environmental guidelines issued to all political parties.”

A landlord in Mafoluku area of Lagos State, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity showed his grievance at the constant pasting of posters on his property that has caused a lot of damage.

‘’I woke up one morning to find out that all this election posters were pasted on my wall’’, he said, as he pointed to some election campaign posters that adorned the building walls. ‘’ I was surprised and bitter; because it was not too long ago we contributed money to repaint the house to enhance its beauty.

’The worse part of it all is that since it was put there, some of the youth who are also displeased with the candidate in the poster or the way and manner the poster is pasted will start pulling it in order to remove it by force, thereby pulling off the paint, and causing severe damage to the house.

‘’It is very annoying really, because at the end, even the politicians that are doing this, will be the same people who will exploit us and forget about all the so-called promises that they are making now. Nobody will remember you after they have destroyed the one you have, the one you have laboured hardly to get.

The way things are going on in this country is that those in power use laws to oppress the masses. They will make laws, but will disobey the laws themselves, and nothing will happen, nobody will be punished, but when it is a common man, then they will treat you like a common thief. It is not like they don’t know that what they are doing is wrong, but since nobody can hold it against them, they just continue.

I could remember a picture sent to me by a contact which shew a wall with an inscription "Do not urinate here - order by Police" and a police officer standing by that same wall urinating. The question now is  'who will arrest the arrester?'

Asides election campaign materials that are used to deface the walls, other culprits are religious organisations that put posters of crusades, vigils and other religious programmes, as well as companies advertising job openings and movie posters.

Over the past few years, LASAA had worked tirelessly to rectify the defacing of walls in the metropolis, but the agency now appears to have become weak in their actions just of recent leaving some Lagosians worried.

A resident around this community also expressed his displeasure in the cold attitude of LAASA. Hear what he says;

‘they (LASAA) were really working hard when they first started a few years back, in fact, then it was always in the news, and people were afraid of getting arrested, because even if they did not catch you at that moment when you are putting the posters, they can always trace your address or mobile number from the poster.

Then it was just like a waste of money to put posters, because they will be removed totally by the LASAA people, they were really up to the task then.

‘’But recently, they have relaxed, because nobody hears about them anymore. May be they have run out of funds to carry out their duties or their actions has political undertone. Everywhere you go now, it is posters that you will find advertising this or that, and especially  now that election campaign has started, it is getting worse and worse everyday.

It is not surprising then that LASAA has come up with a unique way of putting an end to the menace, by using the slogan, ‘’you won’t deface yourself, why deface Lagos’’. Whether that is enough to stop the posters from the wall, however, remains to be seen.

Another thing that bordered me about these politicians is that how many of them paste poster on the wall of their living room/ bedroom?

I want to say at this juncture that the law should be enforced right from the peak to the basement i.e. from Federal to the Local level in order to put a full-stop to this menace. I also want to advise our law enforcement agents, politicians and all leaders to lead by example and lead well. Politicians should also instruct their poster pasters / distributors to stop pasting posters on the wall.

Eko o ni ba je o! Naijiria o ni ba je o! (meaning - 'Lagos will not spoil! Nigeria will not spoil!'

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