Abuja’s stinking streets!

Abuja, the nation’s capital city, may pride itself as one of the fast growing cities in the world with architectural master piece and  magnificent edifices but, in terms of environmental sanitation,  there is nothing to write home about.

A walk through major streets in highbrow areas like Jabi, Utako, Maitama, Garki, among others in Abuja, leaves you wondering if you are actually in a city.
The reasons are not far-fetched. The influx of  people into Abuja has overstretched the toilet infrastructure.

Even then,  many people trooping into the FCT have no legitimate homes, hence they are forced to take shelter   in uncompleted buildings, motor parks, markets, abandoned vehicles, makeshift structures, among others.
As they must inevitably answer the call of nature, these people resort to the unwholesome act of indiscriminate defecation, the result of which is the eyesore in the  city.

The worst scenario is that one can hardly breathe fresh air as the ambiance is often polluted with the foul stench from feaces and urine that now litter   the  nooks and crannies of  Abuja.

To think that such an eyesore is now common place even within the city and the relevant authority in charge of environmental sanitation within the FCT, Abuja Enviromental Protection Board, AEPB, seems not to be on top of the situation, is unheard of as observers have noted.

A cross-section of  FCT residents who spoke to Sunday Vanguard over the issue blamed the AEPB for the menace that now poses serious threat to their health.
Omoniyi Marcus, a journalist, said: “Government should be blamed for increased wastes that litter our street, especially faeces in public places.

“Apart from its inability to provide public toilets in the city, government has allowed all comers into the city without putting a mechanism in place to checkmate environmental abuse,” he said.
Marcus said  AEPB officials are mainly running after prostitutes, hawkers on the streets, which is not bad, but less attention is being paid to sanitation by the officials.

”We must comply with the city’s master plan if we want things to work well. This is our country’s capital. The capital was brought to Abuja because of social ills, part of which was the environmental challenge, which characterized the former capital, Lagos.”

Another resident, Mr. Emeka Onuoha, an engineer, advised government to set up mobile courts to try and punish anyone caught urinating or passing excreta in the public.
He, however,  slammed government for not building public toilets in the city.
”Apart from Wuse Market and some other few markets in Abuja, I am not aware if there is any place in the FCT where one could see public toilet.

“As human beings, we must pass out waste. And  when there is no place provided for you to do so, will you not go ahead and do that where available?”.
Mohammed Umar,  an artisan, also resident in Abuja, blamed the problem on lack of values among Nigerians. According to him, if the citizens are disciplined, no matter the level of failure on the part of government to provide basic amenities for the population, they will not do what is not socially acceptable.

His words: “All the time, we keep blaming government for what we are responsible for. It is not good to urinate in public places; neither is it ideal to pass excreta there. But, our people have been brainwashed by civilization that they are turning everything upside down. It is not their fault; it is government’s.

“If some of them have been brought to maybe, media houses like television, and openly embarrassed for doing that, including other related punishments, our people will be deterred from engaging in such habits. Come to think of it, among these people that are even saying government does not provide toilets in public places, are those who don’t have same in the houses where they live.”

Worried by the ugly state of sanitation in Abuja, the Minister of State, FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, recently called for disciplinary action to be taken against any official or individual flouting the laws on environmental sanitation in the FCT.

She gave the order during  an Area Council sanitation meeting in her office.
Akinjide declared the restoration of sanity into “deplorable environment conditions” of FCT. The meeting, she said, was conveyed to fashion out modalities for total sanitation of the territory “in line with the express directive of President Goodluck Jonathan.” The minister charged the FCT Area Council Chairmen to redouble their efforts in ensuring a sustainable clean and healthy environment in their respective areas, stressing that there would be a performance indicator to score their performance level.

In an  interview with Sunday Vanguard, the Head of Information, AEPB, Mr. Joe Ukairo, blamed the act on attitudes of Nigerians.
Ukairo said: “Providing a million toilets cannot solve the problem of indiscriminate defecation and urination in the FCT because it is an attitude thing.”

Admitting the inadequacy of public toilets in Abuja metropolis, he said: “We quite know that the available ones  may not be adequate because of the influx of people into the FCT. “The demography of FCT is now challenging because a lot of people are trooping into the FCT and these must not be translated negatively.

“The AEBP, as a  regulatory agency, is partnering with private individuals because government funding is dwindling,  so government cannot handle it alone. We are partnering under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to make public toilets available.

He added,  “In the whole world, there is no where you will just put sanitary waste in every available space but there are designated areas within a workable distance all over the world but it appears that what people want is that, in front of their houses, let there be public convenience; it cannot work that way.” He  appealed  to the private sector to partner with the agency in order to tackle the lingering menace in the FCT.