Lagos State, one of Nigeria‟s most prominent political subdivisions, has for some years, been organizing a general sanitation exercise on the last Saturday of every month. Recently, though, a court ruled that the state government does not have the legal backing to restrict vehicular and pedestrian movement during the three-hour activity (7-10a.m), which allegedly amounts to a waste of precious time. The court case had been complicated by residents‟ incessant complaints which culminated in the cancellation of the exercise. This paper is an assessment of the residents‟ level of compliance with the program directives. It examines the government‟s communication strategies for mobilizing residents and how effective they were. An attempt is made to craft a fresh strategy that helps avoid time wastage. Focus group and interview data were generated to facilitate the investigation. Findings show that compliance level was low in spite of the government‟s use of force to drive it. Results also show that sustained compliance with any beneficial directive on sanitation exercise is possible in Lagos if an integrated communication system is pursued. Unimpressively, however, government‟s strategy was anything but integrated while the exercise lasted.
Keywords: Lagos State, Environmental Sanitation, Communication, Mobilization, Participation, Strategy, Integrated Communication.