Youths Flay Rivers Waste Agency Over Unkempt Port Harcourt
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
A youth leader in Rivers State has appealed to the sole administrator of Rivers State Waste Management Agency, RIWAMA, to resign his position and face his political ambition squarely.
Nwisabari Bani Samuel, Chairman, National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, Rivers State chapter, who is also the PRO, Chairmen’s Forum of Nigeria, stated this in an interview with TNN, while condemning the defacing of the environment with waste dump.
During the week, some parts of Port Harcourt was decorated with refuse littered on the median of major routes, especially on the Ikwerre road axis.
TNN monitored areas like the new road roundabout along Rukpokwu-Rumuodamaya road, Iwofe-St. John’s axis, Rumuigbo, and discovered that residents have resulted to dumping wastes indiscriminately, disobeying government’s directive on waste disposals.
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The goriest of the areas visited was Igwuruta, there, waste were dumped in lines, taking as long as three kilometers of the road. Port Harcourt, which is known as the Garden City and used to be clean with very alluring atmosphere, is now posing serious threat on the health of residents.
Worried by the eyesore and dangers it poses on the health of residents, Bani said, “first of all, it’s a thing of worry, it’s a thing of pain that in this 21st century, the Rivers State government does not know how to package and manage wastes. Other parts of the world are turning it into fortunes. Only the waste sector is enough to generate hundreds of thousands of employments.
“You see, waste in other parts of the world is also a form of generating energy, generating resources, generating a whole lot, here, it’s even a challenge just to evacuate it from where the masses where given to dump their waste, so, it’s a thing of displeasure, it’s very disheartening and it’s defacing the face of our state.
“We condemn it in totality, such attitude is frown at by Nigeria and Rivers Youths and we pray this thing should not continue in the nearest future, because the health effect of it is something that we cannot continue to bear and every reasonable government should as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency in the area of environment and all that.
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“Well, the truth is that since the inception of this government, they have not shown any direct will, commitment towards keeping our environment clean, you cannot take a sensitive agency like RIWAMA and you want to play politics with it, giving the RIWAMA to a political associate all in the name of politics, giving it to a friend and you know that this person is not delivering but you still want to keep it for political reasons.
“For example, every person that has tried to make impact you see that this government does not parley with them. A few days ago made it one year when the commissioner of environment was sacked for the reasons of addressing issues affecting the environment of Rivers people.
“This is the kind of government we have actually come to see in the 21st century, you cannot be playing politics with something like this and you expect a different thing all together, you cannot expect sanity in such environment where you are playing politics, you have given the position to your friend and as such all Rivers people is suffering from the relationship they share, so, it’s highly condemnable and should be disregarded at any point in time not to allow this to continue in the state.”
“First of all you cannot abandon a responsibility all in the name of you want to contest an election, it is even the work that you have been given, you need a score card from your agency to present before Rivers people, to say this is what I have been given to handle and this is how I have handled it, if you cannot show stewardship and you want to contest for governorship, it means that you don’t actually have the people of Rivers at heart.
“So, I will want him to tender an apology to Rivers people as he takes a drastic action within few days to evacuate the streets or better resign and move on, I think that is my advice for him.”
