The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has appointed Dr. Dolapo Ayonkule Fasawe as its new head. LASEPA, the environmental regulator for Lagos State, is responsible for helping non-governmental organizations, industries, businesses as well as private and public organizations achieve compliance. The environmental protection agency does this by providing environment-friendly solutions to different environmental problems.
The appointment of Dr. Fasawe as the head marks an important change in the history of the agency. The award-winning public health practitioner is the first female General Manager that LASEPA has ever had after twenty-three years of its operation. She was the Director, Special Projects with the Lagos State Ministry of Health before she was appointed the 6th head of LASEPA. The appointment of Dr. Fasawe took place on the 19th of August 2019, taking over from Antonio Ayodele.
She went to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where she got her MBBS Degree. In 1999, she graduated on honors roll from College of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State. In 2008, she gained a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Lagos State University College of Medicine. Finally, she went to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and obtained a Diploma in International Health Consultancy in 2011.
Dr. Dolapo Fasawe was instrumental in gearing state governments and non-governmental organizations towards better healthcare service delivery, innovations, and initiatives across Nigeria. It is because of her exceptional track records in the state’s health sector that she was selected for the post. This is according to a statement by LASEPA’s Chief Public Affairs Officer, Bola Ajao.
“Fasawe’s appointment is not unconnected with her impressive track records in the state’s health sector and the general wellbeing of residents of the state and Nigeria as a whole. Among others, the new General Manager of LASEPA coordinated the State Emergency Public Health Information Strategy for the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Lagos State in 2014. She pioneered and coordinated 28 outings of the Eko Free Health Mission to various LGA in the state where over 800,000 Lagosians have benefited. With more than 17 years’ experience in pioneering new models of providing sustainable, efficient and effective health-impacting programmes, Fasawe is expected to bring her expertise to bear in the management of the affairs of the agency in line with the policy trust of the administration of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of the state.”
Residents of Lagos now have high hopes that their commercial city will be cleaner and healthier. This is especially after the Association of Waste Managers in Nigeria (AWAM), also known as Public Private Participation, termed Lagos as one of the dirtiest cities in the world in 2018. According to David Oriyomi, the Vice Chairman of AWAM in Lagos, the city had become dirty because of intentional efforts to dismiss the waste managers from their jobs.
Dr. Fasawe has over seventeen years’ experience in discovering new modes of providing sustainable, practical and efficient health-impacting programs, hence the high expectations in her.
