I had chosen to remain a faceless online reporter during “A Ride With Me” with the Oyo State Ministry of Environment Task Force, an opportunity offered to me by the former Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Barr. Seun Nurudeen Temilolu Ashamu, who has now been redeployed to the Oyo State Ministry of Economic and Budget Planning. However, a recent post by a colleague in the pen profession and an environmental advocate, Architect Idris Animasahun, has compelled me to share my eyewitness account. It is important to highlight the deliberate and coordinated efforts made by the then Commissioner for Environment to ensure that Ibadan truly wore a clean and neat gown.
On a fateful evening, I, alongside other members of his team, paid him a courtesy visit to officially congratulate him on his assumption of office as the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources. We arrived at his office around 3:00 p.m., and he immediately instructed his personal assistants to allow us in. It was a pleasant afternoon, and he was visibly delighted to receive us as a team. We commenced our discussion with prayers, after which members freely shared ideas and suggestions related to the responsibilities of his new office.
Barr. Ashamu is the kind of leader who welcomes and respects diverse opinions. After several hours of fruitful engagement, he assured us that the observations and suggestions raised during the meeting would be carefully considered.
Not fewer than a week after he assumed office, different stories and criticisms began to surface online, calling attention to the state of waste disposal in Ibadan. Some commentators even resorted to name-calling, leaving one to wonder where such narratives were coming from. This was a man who had not spent up to a week in office as Commissioner, yet attacks had already started. I became curious and skeptical, especially knowing that his immediate predecessor was also from Ibadan. Interestingly, many of those who suddenly found their voices had maintained a deafening silence while their own man was in office.
Another striking incident was the protest by some ADOCH staff engaged by the ministry over unpaid salaries. During the tenure of the former Commissioner, none of these staff came out to protest. However, immediately Barr. Ashamu resumed office, they flooded his office en masse and even blocked his way out. This made me question the intent behind the action: Was the protest genuinely motivated, or was it politically driven? Were the stories circulating online a true reflection of who he is and what he represents?
I kept asking myself these questions until a “Ride With Me” opportunity provided clear answers to all of them.
That fateful Friday, the Commissioner invited me to his office and asked me to nominate three other online reporters, alongside myself, for a ride-along with the Oyo State Environmental Task Force l was like waoo.
Unknown to many, the Commissioner already had a clear plan in motion. He had deployed career officers and volunteers for advocacy and sensitization, and he had also convened meetings with market leaders and other key stakeholders in Ibadan to unveil his resolve to deal decisively with illegal waste disposal.
Our first outing was to Beere/Oja Oba, with a particular focus on residents who had chosen road medians as an alternative site for dumping refuse. Honestly, I was a bit uneasy. Even though I had spent about 75% of my youthful years on the streets, Beere/Oja Oba had always weighed heavily on my mind, being widely known as the home of “area boys.”
However, Alhaji Abiola Ogungbade, Idris Animasahun, Ajibola Ibrahim, and I had no option but to join the task force to document their activities and their encounters with offenders. Surprisingly, Beere/Oja Oba turned out to be the complete opposite of what I had imagined. The so-called “area boys” cooperated fully with the task force.
Before the task force left the area, not fewer than 20 offenders had been arrested and interestingly, the area boys openly supported the exercise.
One key lesson I learned was that people were already aware that dumping refuse on road medians is wrong and punishable under environmental laws. They also knew that the task force operates both morning and night to arrest anyone who engages in such acts. This raises an important question: if people know this, why do they still refuse to desist from the act?
Did we really vote for a government to come and pack our self-generated waste for us? Is waste evacuation the only mandate of the Ministry of Environment? Why would a sane person deliberately choose to pollute their own environment especially public spaces like road medians with their personal waste?
Anyway, we all know the truth.
The next outing took us to Akala Express and the Jankata area. One would be shocked to discover that these locations have gradually become dumping sites for the state. These are areas largely inhabited by educated and enlightened people, yet it was disturbing to see residents openly confronting the task force while it was carrying out its lawful duties.They came out in large numbers to attack the task force team, and those who were arrested were remanded at Agodi before being fined and subsequently released.
This raised another troubling question: why were residents of Beere/Oja Oba willing to cooperate with the government to keep Ibadan clean, while people in Akala Express and Jankata where many educated individuals reside chose to resist and even chase the task force away? A similar incident occurred in Mokola, as Idris referenced in his post yesterday. This pattern is deeply worrying and raises concerns about why such behavior has become so common among us.
In Gbagi and Alesinloye, several shops were sealed because the occupants prevented the task force from carrying out its duties. Yet, the next thing one would see online were attacks and unfounded accusations against the Commissioner. The question remains: why?
Between the months of May and December, when my team worked closely with the Oyo State Ministry of Environment Task Force, we recorded not fewer than six thousand offenders for illegal dumping of waste on road medians. All of them were tried and fined under existing environmental laws. The minimum fine paid into government coffers was ₦20,000 with community services, yet despite these penalties, some people have still refused to desist from this harmful practice.
Maybe now that new Commissioner has been deployed to the ministry, the music and attitude of people towards illegal dumping of waste would change.
Apostle Asimiyu Abiodun Mspsp writes from Oyo State of Nigeria.
