Since the petrol shortage hit Nigeria in the past few weeks, it seems one of the victims is the collapse of the garbage collection program of Ibadan the biggest city in tropical Africa. Since Governor Ajimobi’s era, Ibadan ceased being the dirtiest city in Nigeria. He took on with all seriousness, the task of cleaning the vast agricultural conurbation which Ibadan is. This is very much unlike the conurbations of industrial cities in Europe and America that are sustained by the huge tax base derived from large numbers of industries from which revenues are collected to keep their huge cities in reasonable healthy conditions.
Ibadan on the other hand suffers from not having a large tax base and government is reluctant or afraid to levy taxes on the people as it is done in Lagos through property and land use tax. The result is that Oyo State government that should be one of the richest in the country appears to depend on monthly allocations from the federal distributable pool based on population and land mass majorly. We all know that the so-called population of Nigeria is largely based on guess work and demographic fraud. Oyo State which has the two largest cities in Nigeria namely Ibadan and Ogbomosho comes among the medium populated states in the country. The four million or so people supposedly inhabiting Oyo State can be easily found in the Ibadan sprawling city stretching for perhaps 40 kilometres from Asejire Water Works to Idi Ayunre/Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria and spreading like that in all directions. As by population, Ibadan would beat several of the states of Nigeria not only in size but most especially in population if there was no fraud and bias in demographic enumeration. The reality of course is that Ibadan is just the capital of Oyo State that has been cheated in terms of revenue allocation through census manipulation by the powers that be. What Oyo State must do is to ensure that it finds a way to mobilize internal revenue through smart taxes that will be judiciously used to develop this huge city and embark on urban renewal and also the maintenance of roads and bridges and repatriating the hundreds of thousands of beggars who are a blight to the city and a nuisance to natives and visitors. Ibadan must not be notorious for filth but should be famous for its history, peace and accommodation for people coming from all over Nigeria and Africa if they come with good intentions and with capital to help create jobs and assist in the development of the city.
Several years ago when I was in graduate school in Canada, a certain Professor Brian Farley was coming to attend a conference at the University of Ibadan. I gladly sent through him a letter to my brother, Kayode at the University of Ibadan Medical School where he was a professor of medicine. On Professor Farley‘s return from Ibadan, I met him and inquired about his impressions. He was happy to tell me about the university and how high the university was held in the global academic circles but like the typical cynical English man that he was, he said Ibadan was the dirtiest city he has ever seen and wondered how people were able to live in such a place without succumbing to widespread viral or bacterial disease.
Needless to say I was not amused by this professor’s comment which I felt was pretty much of a summary of an obvious situation to me no matter how much it hurts. I know for sure that houses here have no running water toilets, nor do most houses have dug out latrines. You then ask me how human wastes are disposed. I bet they are still disposed as when Ibadan was founded in 1830 by going to the surrounding bush to defecate. Household refuse and garbage are also treated the same way or dumped on the streets and in gutter when it rains for the fast moving rivulets to carry them away. This is what accounts for the filth in the city.
Of course Yoruba people use a lot of wrapping leaves and now cellophane for moimoi, eba, amala, iyan and other favourites and disposal of leftovers is also a major cause of urban pollution and degradation. In recent times, the cost of diesel at N450 a litre is prohibitive and the contractors collecting the garbage in Ibadan and perhaps in other cities in Nigeria appear to have abandoned their unprofitable ventures. Unless government is ready to renegotiate such contracts where they exist or get directly involved in garbage collection, our cities are going to be overwhelmed by rats spreading Lassa fever to our people who have to live in these filthy environments. Government cannot say it has no money to keep our environment clean. It is the duty of government to bring appropriate legislation to solve the problem and it is the responsibility of us citizens to pay whatever is legally expected of us as long as it is reasonable and not punitive.
One thing that has become clear in these past years of so-called petroleum bonanza is that nobody, except salary-earning workers, pay taxes because government seems to be satisfied with oil revenues collected from the foreign oil majors and which are irresponsibly wasted or stolen. Since these are not taxes paid by the people, it appears the people don’t care about the looting going on around them. This is a pity because the civic lessons implicit in taxation is missing and the oversight taxpayers would have shown in how their taxes are being spent is also missing to the detriment of public finance in the country. This is why the people keep quiet while looting continues but the moment people have to pay for government services, they will wake up to their supervisory responsibilities and I believe there will be consequent reduction in thieving and looting as it is in other countries.
Governor Seyi Makinde who seems to want to be seen as “action governor” should set up an emergency urban road maintenance group like the old PWD (Public Works Department) of my youth that would go round all cities in Oyo State starting with Ibadan, the capital, mending broken down roads and carrying out minor repairs on roads and bridges. For example, for almost a year now, the long stretch from the flyover on Molete Road to Oke Ado is potholed everywhere beginning in front of the old Ayo Rosiji’s house and under the flyover bridge. For goodness sake, the standing disgrace of a building on Ibadan Grammar School road should be pulled down because that is the first thing a visitor sees when coming from Lagos to Ibadan through Molete.
The governor should also study the way Lagos State generates revenue through land use and property taxes. In doing this, the local governments must be told once this is done, they must not begin to introduce tenement rates since the state government has already taken over local governments’ duty of collection of garbage and maintenance of local roads.
Garbage bags must also be made available for sale of course through the shops for proper bagging of garbage. Thirdly a social welfare department should be created to go round the cities to round up vagrants, beggars and mad people for proper government care and possible rehabilitation and those fit should be sent back to their places of origin. Fourthly, the state government should set up an urban renewal committee including people from the appropriate departments of urban planning, forestry and horticulture in tertiary institutions to help spruce up Ibadan and help cover our shame of filth.
Now that a new Olubadan is to be crowned in the person of Dr. Lekan Balogun, a former progressive man politically-speaking and a scholar and by all accounts a modern man who should be interested in bringing his domain into the 21st century, the government should build around him a committee of renewal and renovation of Ibadan. Perhaps this is the time for proper naming of streets and simply numbering them as in other cities in Nigeria. If well done this will attract international attention and possible funding.
I remember when I was ambassador of Nigeria to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993, I attended a world conference of mayors of global cities representing Lagos our then capital city. The meeting was held in the beautiful Swabian town of Karlsruhe. I made a presentation about Lagos saying it had a population of well over 10 million and almost bragging about it. Then discussion followed. The first thing the burgermeister (mayor) of Karlsruhe said was that no underdeveloped country can effectively and efficiently manage such a monstrosity! Even though I did not agree with him publicly but in my mind I knew he was speaking the truth. It’s the case with our urban sprawls in Nigeria be it Ibadan, Lagos, Kano, Ogbomosho, Kaduna, Ilorin. The towns that are moderate in size like Abeokuta, Akure, Ijebu Ode, Sokoto, Jos, Ado – Ekiti and Enugu, Oshogbo, Iwo , Ilesha, Owerri, Uyo and Port Harcourt lend themselves to easy development and modernization.. We are however stuck with the likes of Ibadan, Lagos and Kano and among the three huge conurbations, Ibadan is lagging behind. This is a challenge Oyo State must face and overcome.