Renowned lawyer and former Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr Muiz Banire (SAN), has called for resource control and a return to regional government as the only sustainable solutions to the unrelenting pressure on the Lagos Lagoon.

Speaking at the Lagos Waterfront Summit held in Victoria Island, Lagos, Banire identified federal encroachment as the single greatest threat to saving the lagoon from environmental collapse.

“True federalism is the answer. Without resource control and regional government, Abuja will continue to strangle Lagos and frustrate every effort to rescue our lagoon,” Banire declared.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria argued that overlapping mandates between federal and state agencies have effectively reduced the lagoon to a dumping ground, with pollution, unregulated dredging and weak enforcement accelerating its decline.

Banire urged Lagos to assert its constitutional powers, pointing to Supreme Court rulings that place urban and regional planning authority under state jurisdiction.

He further proposed the establishment of a Lagos Lagoon Authority, supported by dedicated agencies, development funds, and a polluter-pays system to compel industries and dredging operators to finance cleanup and restoration.

“The Lagos Lagoon is not just water, it is the soul of Lagos. To neglect it is to betray our future. If Lagos does not take charge now, Abuja will bury our lagoon under bureaucracy and politics,” he warned.

Banire’s intervention, coming at a time of rising concern over environmental degradation, has placed the debate over the lagoon firmly within the wider national discourse on true federalism, setting Lagos and the Federal Government on what could become a defining contest over control of resources and environmental governance.