We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a commodity to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect-Aldo Leopold
The monthly environmental sanitation exercise aimed at keeping the surroundings clean is probably premised on ensuring that Nigerians use land and their environment with love and respect so as to reap the benefits accruing from its cleanliness and healthy provisions. However, the exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) appears to be losing its importance, Nick Udenta writes.
The state of any environment is an indication of the attitude of those in the environment. It is a known fact that matters that have to do with the environment contribute up to 60% to a child’s growth, thus environmental factors are often given a pride of place in the scheme of things by private and government organisations.
Nigeria’s government in line with this philosophy established the Ecological Fund, Environmental Taskforces as well as the Environmental Sanitation Day, a day mapped out by different state governments for residents to clean environment and make it habitable. It also follows that in line with the saying that health is wealth this exercise also helps to get rid of diseases that breed in dirty environment.
In the FCT, the Sanitation Day is observed on last Saturday of the month; however, one question on the lips of many residents is how effectively the exercise is being observed given that refuse dumps continue to accumulate within the city and its suburbs.
The exercise for February was anything but successful as residents moved about their businesses without restriction as was the case in the past to ensure compliance.
According to Mr. Andrew Alaho, a Kogi State-born civil servant who has lived in Abuja for close to two decades, the exercise could not succeed without restriction of movement of people during this period.
He queried: “How can there be clean up while people are moving about doing their businesses when they are supposed to be at home to observe the cleanup exercise.”
Alaho who lives at Wuse Zone 5, close to the Wuse Market decried the fact that the area around the Wuse Bus Stop was buzzing with activities as early as 8:30am just like any other day giving the impression that the exercise may have been cancelled.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY also encountered one of the passengers milling around the Bus Stop, Mr. Robert Ekeocha, who lives in Mararaba, Nassarawa State, who had made his way to Wuse that morning notwithstanding the expected restriction of movement to facilitate the effective observation of the exercise.
Mr. Ekeocha, a trader at the Wuse market claimed he had left his wife and other members of his family to take care of the clean up exercise while he left his home at about 6am i a bid to beat the restriction in movement during the exercise.
Ekeocha was not alone, at the Wuse Market gate awaiting the opening of the market for the business of the day at the end of the exercise. Our correspondent’s checks revealed that most of them came from various satellite towns and suburbs of the FCT.
Some were also found to have moved freely while the exercise was supposed to be in progress while others left very early to beat the restriction of movement. One Miss Joy Iluako, a hair dresser who came from Mpape and was busy plaiting a client’s hair told our correspondent that: “We have people we pay to clean the market for us. So I want to keep myself busy while I wait for the exercise to end at 10am.”
For her colleague who simply identified herself as Ngozi, the exercise could be in forms as she claimed that what they were doing was a form of cleanup exercise. She said: “You know the clean up starts with you and me. As one Igbo adage says (ana esi na uno ama mma puo na ama) meaning that charity begins at home.”
If Ngozi believes that charity begins at home, Mr. Ako Ambrose also a businessman who has his business at a Shopping Mall in Wuse Zone 6, Sky Memorial, insists that government should set the example.
Ako who resides in Garki area? the FCT claimed that? the FCDA administration was no longer carrying out the traditional fumigation of the territory to check the breeding of mosquitoes.
According to him: “My broda you neva see de kind mosquito wey de bite for Abuja now. If you check the rate at which people suffer malaria now you will understand me. Go to hospital and find out what I am telling you.”
He argued that the administration should bring back that culture of fumigating the environment, adding that the increase in malaria cases within the territory has led to an increase in the number of people hawking the local herbs mixture known as “agbo.”
Ako who is also a transporter, decried a situation where vehicles involved in accidents would not be removed days after the incident thereby causing obstruction of traffic and could lead to traffic build up in such areas as well as accidents.
He claimed that a truck that had been involved in an accident opposite FIBSON Mall at Wuse Zone 4 had remained packed on the spot for more than two weeks.
“That vehicle has been there for more than two weeks now and nobody cares to remove it. They are waiting for another accident to happen before they will remove it. Even the increasing traffic jam in the city is an environmental wahala,” Ako maintained.
A member of staff of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency has been doing its best to put the FCT in good shape.
He claimed that: “The environmental sanitation exercise is well observed in the FCT. Move around Abuja and observe things for yourself.? The only time we don’t observe it is if there’s any serious event taking place in Abuja for security reasons. In that case the FCT minister would cancel the exercise for that month.”
On whether the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency is living up to its responsibility, Mrs. Uju Mary Ann, a lecture, at Nasarawa State Polytechnic and an environmentalist who resides in FCT told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that: “They may be doing their best but their best is not enough.”
Mrs. Uju who lives at Garki Area 2 said, sometimes the waste bins are nowhere to be found thereby forcing residents to dump wastes generated from their homes and businesses on the ground.
She added that the current security situation in the nation seems to be taking all attention as the agencies involved are no longer enforcing the strict observation of the monthly sanitation.
“All attention appears to have been shifted to security to the detriment of the environment. Can you see some of the holes they dug recently claiming they are using it for CCTV camera are still open, with the heaps of sands causing obstructions to pedestrians and motorists?
“Check out the roads, security starts from how safe and clean our environment is. There is no other better security than clean environment,” she stresses.?
On the way forward, both Mrs. Uju and Mr. Ekeocha called on the government to review the environmental protection rules with the aim of bringing it to be in tandem with present day realities.
Ekeocha argued that, “A situation where someone has to pay a meagre sum as fine for going against the sanitation rules may not serve as a deterrent to future offenders.”