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When a GenZ netizen made a post earlier in the year rubbishing Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve-center and one which prides itself as the ‘Center of Excellence’ among comity of states, as ‘smelling’, the internet, especially the social media went agog with reactions. While her usually angry fellow netizens gave her kudos and praised her to high heavens for her boldness and for saying what they considered ‘obvious truth’, many circumspect adults and a small fractions of the youth demographic, especially those who felt emotional attachment to the state, went wild with anger, condemning the reckless statement, which they claim came from a visitor, who had hardly stayed in the city long enough to understand its complexities or even moved around enough to appreciate its beautiful areas.

More of this latter group also felt angered because they knew where the state was coming from, especially in the pre-1999 years and the recent Vision Scape misadventure. They also knew the effort of the authorities and would therefore have none of such sweeping insolent statement.

Over the past decades, the state, which assumed the megacity status on account of its over 20 million population, has also gained notches higher on several indices, starting with its vibrant economy, which ranked it as the fifth largest in Africa; accompanied by its robust BRT bus transportation system, which plies dedicated routes, delivering quality service and ferrying passengers to their destinations in record time irrespective of the city’s stubborn traffic challenge. It has also improved in road infrastructure, efforts in medical sector, sports, even socials.

Most recently, it further upped the ante with the takeoff of the Blue and Red Line railway transport system, with the Purple, Green and Orange lines underway.

Sanitation, though far from perfect, had also attained an appreciable level, especially with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) sanitation formula, which has seen the state maintain a commendable refuse evacuation pattern, collaborating with private partners/operators even as far as its remotest crannies. Up until recently, it was not uncommon to hear Lagosians boast that you couldn’t see a refuse dump on any major Lagos road until you crossed its borders.

Changing story

However, the story seems to be changing, albeit negatively, and fast too. Almost overnight, refuse seems to be finding its way back to Lagos roadsides and medians. Not since the days of the failed Vision Scope experiment has refuse found comfort within Lagos metropolis, like it seems to be at the moment.

From Apapa-Oshodi to Ladipo, Mushin to Iyana Ejigbo, Ikotun to Egbeda and Iyana Ipaja, LASU-Iyana-Iba Road, despicable spectacles now greet motorists and commuters, as roadsides and road medians seems to have become destinations for heaps and mounds of refuse.

Even Ikeja Central Business District is not spared, as man and vehicles now compete with refuse for right of way. A most horrific example would be the scene by the side of the Ikeja flyover right opposite Ipodo market.

At the Ikotun-Oke-Afa-Jakande Gate axis, it’s a case of everywhere you look. Between Jakande Gate Bus Stop and Ikotun, this reporter counted a total of 15 refuse dump points. Almost opposite the globally renowned Synagogue Church of All Nations, one of the heaps spread almost 50 meters long and about four feet high, as if in defiance to the huge church monument and the global audience it regularly welcomes. The case was worse and an eyesore at the nearby Ikotun market, as bagged and ‘unbagged’ refuse grace the median in a most nauseating manner amidst huge stench.

The traders, it seems, have found a way to carry out their daily routine without recourse to the eyesore and stench, as they all carried on with business, as if nothing was amiss. Ditto for the patrons/customers and passersby. As for the bus drivers and conductors, it’s as if the stench was a mirage and non-existent, as they constantly blared their destinations in search of passengers, opening their buccal cavity as wide as they could. For the passengers trapped in the axis’s unending traffic or those saddled in the buses, waiting for them to fill up and move, it’s mixed reactions, as some ignored while some hurried the drivers up, and some, it appeared, were not even aware of any stench, as they, in some cases, chewed away on one snack or the other, or chatted away with their next seat neighbor/s.

An attempt to get one of the traders selling right opposite a decaying mound of refuse to speak on the matter drew not just a snarl but a string of expletives.

‘I beg no wahala me this morning. Why are you asking me why they have not evacuated the refuse. Na me be LAWMA (Lagos State Waste Management Authority) abi na me be PSP people wey no come pack dirty?’

Another trader, an okro seller, however, refutes the conception that the LAWMA PSP people no longer come to evacuate the wastes.

‘They do come actually, sometimes, every three days, sometimes, twice or thrice a week. I can tell you that they came just yesterday, but the challenges they have has to do with the vehicles they compete with while trying to evacuate the wastes, and the number of wastes that pileup almost immediately after. You know this is a hugely populated area. Even the market alone is so huge, with thousands of traders and customers. The worst part is that people, who are not traders in the market, bring their wastes from inside the streets to dump on the road with the expectation that LAWMA trucks would evacuate them. Meanwhile, we the market traders are the ones who bear the brunt, because we pay, while they don’t. I pay three thousand naira every month for instance. But when they fail to pack the refuse, even for a day or two, and it starts smelling, it is still we traders in the market who suffer from the stench and possible disease that come with it.’

Another woman, who sells light stuff nearby corroborated the fish seller’s statement. She, however, suggested that the LAWMA trucks come every day and operate at night. That way, she said, today’s refuse will not meet tomorrow’s, and will not then pile up to the point that it becomes an eyesore, or begin to stink or constitute threat of disease outbreak.

‘Sometimes, even when they come, they do very poor job, such that half of the refuse is left behind,’ she said.

A fish seller nearby would concur with the two earlier respondents, but recommended that the government employs more officials to monitor and keep away people who come from inner streets to dump their refuse bags on the road. ‘If possible, government should employ more KAI officers to monitor and keep away those who come from the streets to dump their refuse here. They should also get more PSP people to run the inner streets because most of them don’t see any LAWMA or PSP trucks for weeks. In my street for instance, we see them maybe once a month. How do you then expect people to keep their wastes for a whole month?

A few meters from the market, this reporter however noticed some huge bags of refuse that had been at the same place for days; same for the 50-meter long refuse heap near the Synagogue church, which clearly negates the assertion that the LAWMA trucks came just the day before.

Apapa-Oshodi

The same refuse scenario plays out along Apapa-Mile2-Oshodi Expressway. Notably from new Rainbow Flyover junction, to Coker Bus stop, to Sanya, Ijesha, Odi Olowu/Agunlejika, Cele Bus stops, heaps and spreads of refuse assume prides of place along the medians between the service lane and the fast lane, constituting clear eyesores and huge dents on the megacity image of the state. Ijesha, Odi-Olowu and Cele Bus stops deliver the most despicable pictures, as they parade more refuse spots.

A fruit seller at Ijesha Bus stop told this reporter that she couldn’t explain how the refuse got to the spots, but voiced her suspicion of people from nearby streets.

A similar scenario played out at Sanya Bus Stop, where a commuter who gave his name as Samuel, waiting to board a bus, said the refuse heaps had become serious embarrassment and health threat to residents, as they have had to daily contend with the emanating stench while waiting to board buses to their destinations.

‘To make matters worse, nobody comes here to evacuate them, which is an embarrassment to a state like Lagos, with all its efforts and revenue at its disposal. This is a major highway, a road that links Nigeria’s biggest ports, even the airport. How then can the authorities pretend that they are not seeing this?’

Between LASU and Igando on LASU-Iyana Iba road, this reporter counted over 20 refuse heapes dotting the expressway median.

In all, it speaks of a collapsing or totally collapsed system

Blame recalcitrant citizens – Ministry, LAWMA officials

A visit to the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, however, yielded little answers, as all the principal officers were said not to be on seat. Even the ministry PRO would not speak with this journalist, directing his aid instead to refer him to LAWMA office.

However, one official who spoke on condition of anonymity placed the blame for the anomaly on recalcitrant citizens who would rather dump their refuse on the road than patronise designated LAWMA trucks and pay.

‘You’ll be surprised that some of the people who perpetrate this evil are well educated people, who dress up and head for work early in the morning, but arm themselves with their bags of refuse, which they drop on the roadside when no one is watching. Some may even board a tricycle and drop the bag or bags as the vehicle ferries them to their destinations. Aside this, I can tell you for sure that there is nothing wrong with the state government or LAWMA’s refuse evacuation system.’

Seeking further explanations, The Nation reached out to LAWMA via one of the agency’s hotlines. An official, who identified herself as Anuoluwapo equally blamed citizens seeking to avoid paying for LAWMA trucks services for the situation.

‘Our trucks go out every day to evacuate wastes. Probably it is people who live in those areas that dump their refuse on the road. Each street is supposed to have designated trucks that go out to evacuate their wastes on daily or weekly basis; so if you say the refuse heaps are on the highways, then it has to be the people who live off those locations. Most of them commit this havoc when nobody is watching, especially at night or very early in the morning. But we also have trucks for intervention that go out to evacuate such wastes. Now that you have brought this to our notice, we will send our intervention trucks out to clear them.’

About Ikotun market, Anuoluwapo said: ‘I can assure you that we have trucks covering the market and which goes out regularly. The problem with areas like that is that right after they clear the wastes, they pile up again, and it will now look like they were never evacuated.’

As a way out, Anuoluwapo said: ‘It is for this reason that our enforcement teams go out regularly to carry out enforcement in some areas that have become eyesores.’

The anonymous ministry official also recalled how the enforcement unit went out recently to arrest people who go out in the morning to dump their refuse on roadsides, reminding this reporter of a video that went viral some weeks back. ‘I can assure you that those people who were caught will never try it again. Besides, the punishment for anybody caught is three months imprisonment without any option of fine,’ she said.

A tragic incident has occurred in Owerri Municipal Council, Imo State, where a man identified as Ebere Smoke from Isikwuato in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area was found drowned in Nwaorie River in the Council area after two weeks he was declared missing.

The deceased body was found on Thursday morning floating in the river two weeks after a search organised by the family and friends.

While the cause of his drowning remains unclear, sources at his residence near Nwaorie River, revealed he had been experiencing marital difficulties.

According to his friends, who were part of the search team, Ebere popularly called Smoke, left home without informing anyone of his destination, leaving behind his vehicle key, ATM card, and driver’s license with his children.

‘Ebere is dead, we found him floating in Miri Nwaorie this morning (Thursday)after two weeks he was declared missing,’ his friends said.

‘He left the house without telling anybody where he was going; he left only his car keys, driver’s license, and his ATM card with his children.’

Close associates revealed that the deceased though has been facing marital challenges; his daughter bought him a bus which he has been driving. We are surprised that he could take his life by drowning.’

Following traditional rituals performed near the river, Ebere’s body was taken to his hometown in Isikwuato, Isiala Mbano, for burial, averting concerns he might be interred by the riverbank.’

Celebrity chef and Guinness World Record holder, Hilda Baci, has announced plans to gift a brand-new red Sonata to one lucky student before the commencement of her next training session.

Sharing the news on her Instagram page, Hilda expressed gratitude and excitement for the opportunity to give back once again, writing, ‘It still humbles me that we’re doing this again. Year 3, another car! Paid for, in full, sealed, and waiting for one lucky student before class even begins. God’s grace stays undefeated.’

She also posted a video showing the sleek car parked and ready to be presented to its new owner.

Hilda Baci first rose to fame after setting a Guinness World Record for cooking the largest serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice-a feat that cemented her status as both a culinary star and a philanthropist passionate about inspiring others.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening healthcare delivery across the territory through the creation of dedicated budget lines for core health programmes, among other key initiatives.

As part of its renewed health agenda, the FCTA announced plans to fully implement the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) policy and fast-track the passage of the FCT Health Insurance (FHIS) and Public Health Emergency and Risk Management Agency (PHERMRA) Bills.

The administration also disclosed plans to establish an Infectious Disease Hospital, revitalize the FCT Molecular Laboratory, and advocate for a minimum 15 percent budgetary allocation to health in line with the Abuja Declaration.

These measures, the FCTA said, are designed to enhance access to quality healthcare, strengthen the health system’s resilience, and ensure the FCT remains at the forefront of effective public health management in Nigeria.

These were outlined in a communiqué issued at the end of the two-day 2025 Health Sector Joint Annual Review and Performance Dialogue, presided over by the Mandate Secretary of the Health Services and Environment Secretariat (HSES), Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, which convened senior government officials, development partners, civil society representatives, traditional leaders, and health experts to assess progress and challenges across key health pillars under the National Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII).

The communiqué, endorsed by representatives of the Mandate Secretary and the Ona of Abaji, Dr. Alh. Baba Adamu Yunusa, who was represented by Wodi Nathaniel the Sarkin Jinya Abaji, reaffirming collective commitment to equitable, accessible, and resilient healthcare for FCT residents, was jointly signed by Dr. Ahmadu Abubakar, Acting Director-General of the Hospital Management Board, on behalf of the Mandate Secretary, and Dr. Dan Gadzama, Acting Director of Public Health, on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Health Services and Environment Secretariat.

The joint review assessed the FCT’s performance in maternal and child health, immunizations, non-communicable diseases, infectious disease control, health financing, and human resources for health.

Participants identified critical challenges including funding constraints, infrastructure gaps, weak data systems, and shortages of qualified health workers.

Presentations during the dialogue revealed improvements in maternal and child health outcomes, expanded immunization coverage, reduced HIV incidence, and strengthened malaria response.

The FCT also recorded progress in health insurance enrolment, established a Health Workforce Registry, and developed a five-year Human Resource Recruitment Plan (2025-2029).

However, participants stressed the need for stronger funding mechanisms and policy alignment to sustain these gains.

One major recommendation was the creation of a dedicated Nutrition Department with an independent budget line to accelerate maternal and child nutrition programmes.

On immunization, recurring challenges such as funding shortfalls, insecurity in rural and nomadic areas, and weak demand generation due to vaccine hesitancy.

Stakeholders emphasised the need for greater community engagement, especially in identifying and reaching zero-dose children, and for institutionalized supportive supervision to improve coverage.

The Public Health Department highlighted the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) while calling for more partner involvement to address limited funding, short pilot projects, and high staff attrition.

Similarly, funding delays and infrastructure weaknesses continue to affect HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria control were reported while stronger collaboration with the private sector was advocated.

The presentation on primary health care delivery by the FCT Primary Health Care Board identified inadequate staffing and lack of 24-hour operational facilities as major constraints.

The upgrading of primary health centres and the recruitment of additional personnel to ensure round-the-clock maternal and child healthcare services were recommended

The discussions on healthcare financing underscored the slow implementation of health insurance coverage in the FCT, largely due to the pending FHIS Bill.

Stakeholders called for the swift passage of the bill to expand access to mandatory health insurance and ensure equitable service delivery.

Human resources for health also received strong attention, with the HR Department noting skill imbalances and poor working conditions across area councils.

The creation of a national workforce database and improved incentives to retain skilled personnel were proposed.

On pandemic preparedness, Dr. Lukman Lawal, the FCT State Epidemiologist, outlined multi-level challenges including vaccine hesitancy, weak surveillance networks, and poor data quality.

He called for integrating private hospitals into disease surveillance systems, enhancing logistics, and ensuring timely release of operational funds, ‘Timely operationalization of funding mechanisms is vital to effective outbreak response,’ he said.

At the end of the dialogue, participants agreed that sustained progress in the FCT health sector depends on increased investment, inter-agency coordination, improved data reporting, and strengthened collaboration between public and private actors.

The people of Sokoto State are no strangers to false promises and hollow campaigns of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They have seen the decay of abandoned roads, housing estates, and the silence over the water crisis, and the bitter reality for pensioners who waited fruitlessly for their entitlements to be paid. They are not gullible. What they demanded from former Governor Aminu Tambuwal was simple: functioning services, accountable government, and the provision of services.

But the PDP’s propaganda machine would want to make you believe otherwise. In desperate defiance of its own underwhelming record, the Sokoto Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), along with its stooges, is orchestrating a crude campaign to discredit the APC’s achievements and rehabilitate the tarnished legacy of former Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. They are consistently recycling stale narratives and deploying digital spin in the hopes of confusing the public. Yet, the wounds from years of administrative negligence still fester, and the people refuse to be confused.

One of the gravest moral failures of the Tambuwal era is the unpaid pensions and gratuities owed to thousands of retirees of the Sokoto State public service. For years, these citizens, many of them low-income workers who had given decades of loyal service, were left in limbo while state coffers were diverted towards Aminu Tambuwal’s presidential aspirations. That is not a policy misstep; it is an affront to the social contract. The failure to pay these benefits speaks to a deeper disorder: fiscal irresponsibility, budgetary malfeasance, and a governance philosophy that prioritized political ambition over human dignity.

If the PDP thinks it can sweep over this betrayal with a wave of online slander, it is sorely mistaken. Sokoto families know the difference between rhetoric and reality, and for many, the pain of unpaid pensions or lost incomes is raw and personal.

Tambuwal’s mismanagement was no accident of context; it was systemic. Under his watch, many flagship projects initiated by the Aliyu Wamakko administration were never completed. Funds meant for infrastructure, health, water supply, and education were disbursed, redirected, or left idle. What remained, until the coming of Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s administration, in many parts of the state were abandoned projects with flooded foundations and several unfulfilled promises.

Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto’s administration, by contrast, has embarked on a mission to restore trust in the government through visible projects. The Commission of Inquiry, led by Muazu Abdulkadir, has uncovered a compelling pattern: many contracts were inflated without deliverables, project scopes were repeatedly altered midstream, and public funds were dissipated through lack of oversight. Rather than slippery excuses, the people now see a responsive government delivering roads, housing estates, water supply projects, etc.

Let us examine some of the marquee projects left behind by Tambuwal, so we can truly appreciate the scale of the task inherited by the current APC government.

The Rijiya Flyover was launched with great publicity as a legacy project that would ease traffic and boost connectivity. Yet the structure was left abandoned, girders suspended, drainage incomplete, and the promises dead in the water. Soberingly, no follow-through or corrective plan was evident until the current government stepped in. Governor Aliyu’s team re-assessed the site, allocated funding, and reengaged contractors. Today, work is progressing steadily towards completion, and the flyover is no longer a monument to neglect but a testimony to governance.

The 40 Million Litres per Day Water Scheme, conceived by Aliyu Wamakko’s administration to quench the perennial thirst of Sokoto’s metropolis, was fragmented into six separate projects, with a total budget of N14.1 billion for ease of construction. Under Tambuwal’s presidency of the state, not one of these six projects was completed. Pipes were unused, reservoirs lay idle, and communities continued to queue for water or fetch water from rivers. Within two years, Governor Aliyu’s administration completed and commissioned the Tamaje and Old Airport segments alone, delivering 24 million litres daily to residents.

Meanwhile, the remaining phases are advancing, with some already at roughly 70% completion. The contrast could not be starker: two years of consistent execution versus eight years of stalled blueprints.

The Sokoto Independent Power Project (IPP) was another ambitious project that floundered under Tambuwal. Funds were approved, receipts signed, but actual progress remained elusive. Under the current administration, N950 million was immediately injected to revive the project; the site is now approximately 90% complete, and final linkage to the TCN substation is in sight. Where Tambuwal left power hanging, Governor Aliyu is delivering connectivity.

Education, health, and rural development also bear the scars of neglect of the Aminu Tambuwal administration. Schools were roofless, hospitals lacked equipment and basic medicines, and there were delays in payment of salaries. Under Tambuwal, ‘projects’ existed only on paper. The current administration has refurbished dozens of schools, delivered medical equipment to rural health centers and general hospitals, and reinstated health outreach programmes. In many cases, communities-like the one that suffered from flooding and several others that never benefited from projects-are beneficiaries of critical infrastructure like roads, solar-powered lights, and solar-powered boreholes for the first time in years.

And the pensioners? The leaky pipeline of unpaid entitlements persisted year after year under the old guard. Teachers, civil servants, retired health workers-all were left in financial limbo. Some died waiting for their pensions, which never came; others struggled in old age on the benevolence of their friends. This failure is not ancillary, as the PDP would prefer you believe-it is central. It underlines the governing philosophy of Aminu Tambuwal that placed his presidential ambitions and politics over people.

Aliyu’s administration did not treat these challenges as a footnote. Clearing the backlog of unpaid pensions and gratuities became one of the first priorities of his government. Structured payment plans, supplementary funding, and proactive engagement with retirees have signaled to Sokoto’s senior citizens: you will never be forgotten again.

What the PDP’s misinformation blitz has refused to address is the emotional and human cost of its negligence-families that went without food, children deprived of education because public services failed, citizens forced to pay for infrastructure that should have been free-especially with the education levy imposed by Aminu Tambuwal. No amount of rhetorical spin can restore a barren well, repair a collapsed road, or substitute for a pension check that never came.

Still, the PDP persists in recycling old campaign materials, sharing archival video clips, and invoking Tambuwal-era intentions as though they were accomplished. Their play is simple: confuse the memory, obscure accountability, and muddy the waters. But the people of Sokoto remember. They recall rural roads that were ignored and health posts that never functioned.

Their propaganda is not just insulting-it borders on contempt, as if the citizens have short memories or no capacity to judge. It is a tacit admission of weakness by a party that knows its record cannot stand scrutiny. The PDP is banking on noise, not substance; illusions, not delivery.

Contrast that with the performance of Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s government. In less than two years, over 250 visible and verifiable projects have been completed or are ongoing across every sector-education, health, water, roads, electrification, agriculture, and social welfare. No longer are public works announcements trapped in press releases. They are tangible in communities across Sokoto State. Schools have been refurbished and reopened, clinics supplied with essential medicines, boreholes drilled, diagnostic equipment delivered to hospitals, and roads constructed.

The APC-led government has also revamped procurement protocols, instituted transparent budgeting procedures, and begun to discipline lax contract enforcement. In short, the governance machinery is being retooled for accountability, not optics. The difference is not just in what is built, but in how it is built-with checks, monitoring, and responsiveness.

In the coming 2027 election, the PDP is attempting to rebrand itself on the same pallet of abandoned promises. But a party that hinges its appeal on an eight-year disaster is offering nothing new. Its core message is: ‘Vote for us again, forget that we failed’.

A member of the Super Eagles backroom crew says fame and money is swelling the ego of goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.

Following the Chippa United player poor display against Lesotho on Friday, the shot stopper has posted some rather disturbing performances and attitude that have now caused calls that he gets a more worthy direct competitor.

‘It’s very much like the fame and the little money have got to the head of the boy,’ a team official told SCORENigeria

‘He started out as part of the team, but these days you only see him all on his own, he thinks he has arrived.’

The stats showed that he only kept two clean sheets against Rwanda in the seven 2026 World Cup qualifiers he has played with his erratic behaviour in the home game against Rwanda in Uyo last month proving he may well not be reliable after all.

Legal professionals within the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have been called upon to put the interests of the Niger Delta people at the heart of their work.

Delivering the keynote address at the 2025 Legal Services Directorate retreat recently in Lagos, Managing Partner at S.P.A. Ajibade and Co., Dr. Babatunde Ajibade, emphasised the need for legal officers to view the region’s communities as their primary clients.

‘The legal department must always put the client first,’ Ajibade stated. ‘In this case, that client is the Niger Delta community. Every legal decision should be guided by the welfare of the people.’

The retreat, themed ‘Exploring Innovation for Effective Legal Service Delivery in the Public Service,’ provided a platform to address the evolving role of legal services in public sector development.

Ajibade highlighted the NDDC’s core mandate of fostering development in the Niger Delta and underscored the legal directorate’s pivotal role in realising this mission.

He warned that inflexible legal practices, often driven by professional ego, could jeopardise the commission’s goals.

‘Rigidity in legal approaches can sometimes undermine clients’ interests. We need more flexibility and a stronger client-centered mindset,’ he said.

Ajibade also pointed to the wide-ranging legal implications of the Commission’s operations – from infrastructure projects to environmental protection. He warned that poor legal counsel could expose the NDDC to liabilities, delay projects, or result in incomplete contracts.

Speaking earlier, Director of Legal Services and Board Secretary of the NDDC, Sir Victor Arenyeka, explained that the retreat aimed to sharpen the legal team’s skills and enhance their advisory capacity.

‘We are essentially a service department. This retreat is about building expertise and strengthening our ability to support the commission’s work. We are like the policemen of the commission, enforcing the rules and ensuring that development can take place within a lawful framework’, Arenyeka said.

Managing Partner of Liberty Associates, Dr. Innih Archibong also addressed the gathering, calling for reforms in Nigeria’s legal system to formally recognise the role of paralegals.

‘A paralegal is like the first responder in the legal system,’ he explained. ‘They inform people about their rights, offer initial legal advice, assist in litigation, and help settle disputes through mediation and advocacy.’

Archibong described the legal department as the ‘ethical and legal nerve centre’ of any organisation, noting that both lawyers and paralegals are vital to maintaining compliance, drafting agreements, managing legal risks, and protecting institutional interests.

He stressed that broadening access to justice in Nigeria would require fully integrating paralegals into the legal service ecosystem.

Experts have called on staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to embrace innovation, uphold ethical standards, and shun corrupt practices as part of efforts to improve service delivery and strengthen public trust in the agency.

They spoke in Lagos recently during a retreat organised by the NDDC’s Corporate Governance and Due Process Department, with the theme, ‘Enhancing Capacity for Impactful Corporate Governance and Effective Service Delivery.’

Speaking on the topic ‘Innovating Corporate Services for Impact: Building a Regenerative Legacy,’ business analyst Seyi Olulade urged corporate service executives to leverage technology and data-driven strategies to enhance operational efficiency.

‘Every workflow redesigned, reform anchored, and staff member supported is a seed of legacy,’ he said. ‘The call to action is simple yet profound: Lead with legacy in mind. Do not ask only what Corporate Services can deliver today, but what will endure because we were here.’

Olulade emphasised that compliance alone was not enough to sustain institutional legacy, stressing that innovation must drive accountability and excellence.