It was a wet Saturday afternoon, after heavy downpour. Two unrelated events were simultaneously going on not far from each other in Lagos Island. First is the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state rally where President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the party were addressing party members at the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS.

At the second event, Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, members of the state Executive Council and Managing Director of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, were at the Onikan Stadium addressing over 17, 000 members of LAWMA street sweepers at the Annual Training Workshop for the sweepers and other stakeholders.

Speaking on the theme, "Let's Keep Our Environment Clean At All Times," Fashola explained that in a bid to achieve a safer, cleaner and healthier environment his administration in the year 2008, took several initiatives, one of which is the introduction of street sweepers to complement the highways managers whose job it is to promote cleanliness of the streets, highways, walkways, and pedestrian bridges in the city.

The scope of work of the street sweepers, who the Governor christined "Sanitation Ambassadors", include the sweeping of pedestrian bridges, even at night and the collection of bagged litters and silts, abandoned tyres and other materials that deface the streets and highways.

According to Fashola, the deployment of sanitation ambassadors by government is one of the ways of providing job for the unskilled residents, who have demonstrated that there is dignity in labour, irrespective of state of origin, sex.

The highlight of the programme aimed at sensitising state and local government street sweepers on safety and precautionary measures in the course of discharging their duties, was the presentation of awards to outstanding sweepers of the year.

But as the lucky 13 outstanding awardees for Excellent Performance in their various zones were filing on to the podium to receive their respective awards, the attention of the crowd was drawn to a physically-challenged young man on a skate-roller among the awardees as he waddled to the stage. This caused a thunderous ovation from the crowd which cheered the young man to the podium.

With tears in his eyes, after receiving the award and a hand shake from the governor, Mr. Saheed Gbadamosi, 30 years old and a native of Offa, Kwara State, could not hold back his joy at being so appreciated in spite of his physical deficiency. "I never knew a day like this will come for me to be appreciated in this manner before the whole world. I really thank Governor Fashola for taking me out of the gutters to make me a better man not only to myself and my family but the entire public," he told Vanguard Metro, VM.

Gbadamosi, a father of five children, who has been working with LAWMA for six years, also told VM of his predicament before he finally got the LAWMA job. He narrated thus: "I am 30 years old, an indigene of Offa, in Kwara State. I have been living in Lagos for over 15 years. I am married with five children. I was not born a physically challenged person. My predicament started when my mum took me for vaccination in Offa then. I was nine years old. After the vaccination, I started feeling pains all over my leg, and before I knew it I could not walk again. I was rushed to several healing homes but all to no avail.

"The quest for daily bread saw me leaving Kwara and coming to Lagos because my poor family could not adequately take care of my needs and wants. So, when I got back to Lagos I started begging. I live in Atan, in Sango area of Ogun State. I realised I was not making enough money to take care of my family, so I proceeded to cleaning pedestrian bridges. People took pity on me whenever they saw me toiling in the scorching sun, sweeping the bridge. I earned more than what I used to get when I was just begging without doing any work.

"One day, a LAWMA official walked up to me at Ikeja Along pedestrian bridge and told me that my work had been noticed by the authority and that Governor Fashola has approved that all willing physically-challenged persons should be absorbed into LAWMA. And that was how I got the job. This really encouraged me to put in more efforts into my daily work. While I was doing all that, I never knew I was being monitored by LAWMA officials. I am really glad that my effort has been crowned today. My special thanks go to Governor Fashola, our amiable, passionate leader for his kind gesture. His policy brought me out of the gutters to be a useful person not only to myself but to the society at large."

In addition to the award he received, Gbadamosi was also given a brand new wheelchair to aid his movement.

Earlier, LAWMA boss, Mr Ola Oresanya, said in order to guarantee the continuity of the programme, focus has shifted to ensuring the safety and well-being of the sweepers through regular supply of Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, regular free medical screening, meetings with representatives of major stakeholders and training of operatives on safety measures, among others. He thanked some corporate partners of the programme for their invaluable contribution, adding that some of them have placed some of the sweepers on their pay roll.