Ibadan: Rising Stench With Refuse Disposal Troubles, As Makinde Gets Angry With Putrefying Dumps On His Way To Church
The Oasis Reporters
November 14, 2019
Fearful over the looming threat to take Ibadan back to the nasty days of stench, refuse dumps and diarrhea that the city was once associated with, Yemetu, an old suburb of Ibadan where Governor Seyi Makinde was born, woke up to find refuse heaps littering the road median for they knew that he would pass by on his way to his mother’s 80th birthday Thanksgiving service.
But why would some people do that ?
Where they trying to move Makinde in another direction by bursting his bubble and repositioning government’s GPS on refuse collection ?
Was this a case of making him feel the sense of hopelessness and frustration that they were feeling over the huge stockpile of unmoved refuse drums filled to the brim and overflowing, and yet stuck in individual homes ?
Here is Governor Seyi Makinde’s reaction and take on the issue:
“Take for example, on my way here (to Yemetu), I realised that some people intentionally dumped their refuse on the median. I know that it is not the people of this area that generated those wastes. Some people take it as their assignment to drop those wastes there knowing that I will pass through that road today. They performed the evil act because they knew I was going to pass through the road to this place today, but we thank God for his usual support. We will continue to serve the people of Oyo State”.
Our investigations reveal that pretty much of households in Ibadan feel stuck in a hole. Many of them who subscribe to refuse collection services from private operators will pretty much tell you that they live in putrid stench, as their trash has not been picked for between one to three months and dumping refuse on the road median is an offence that attracts an arraignment at the Environment tribunal, with at least a conviction that attracts a fine of ten thousand naira and above.
So how does this concern Governor Makinde apart from the case of the proverbial hunter who only shoots at the deer that he can see. And in this case, everyone knew that he would definitely attend his mother’s 80th birthday Thanksgiving service in the local Church at Yemetu area ?
Here’s how it concerns Makinde:
As governor, the buck stops at his table.
Private refuse truck operators pick up trash from households twice a month for a fee, then offload them at refuse dump sites provided by government for which they pay a heavy fee to government.
On the side of the government, they are duty bound to make the dump sites (about four of them at Akinyele and three other sites), easy to access via refuse trucks. It’s a contract.
Governor Makinde inherited the ill maintained sites from Ajimobi, who the former operators accused of attempting to snatch their business, hence he quietly disbanded OYOWMA (Oyo State Waste Management Agency) and surreptitiously allowed an independent body to take over, former operators allege. He was resisted over an alleged revenue sharing formula by the former operators and they were frustrated and eventually stopped from picking garbage. New operators were installed. But of course, rot set in quickly.
Governor Makinde decided to play the good guy, by keeping the Ajimobi structure in place, while the old operators still remain in limbo, despite mobilizing massively to vote out the APC and bring the PDP in. But with OYOWMA gone, palliatives to make the dump sites motorable and navigable have met with little success especially in the extended rainy season, so refuse drums remain where they are, full and smelly.
It’s so bad that an Excavator sent to a dump site got stuck in the mud.
People thank Makinde for being a continuity kind of guy by not sacking the Ajimobi operators, but they want justice for the initial guys who have experience, but were sacked by the former governor. After all, Ibadan is expanding everyday, and there’s room for all the operators, both old and new.
Besides, both Makinde and his deputy are engineers. Very many engineers operate in the regime.
Can’t they come up with a grand design and get all the trash out ?
Someone somewhere say the smell of trash is good enough gas to provide electricity with.
Engineers need to walk their calling. Let this be their defining milestone with relentless determination.
It’s about time.
Greg Abolo
