Long before the garbage question became a serious issue in Lagos State last year, I have had reservations about the effectiveness of some of the Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators in the state, borne essentially out of personal experience. But one had to suspend commenting on the matter then so that the arguments would not be lost in the labyrinthine political claims and counter-claims making the rounds then. There were hiccups in the waste disposal system long before the matter became a public nuisance. The PSP system would appear a very good way of dealing with the problem of waste disposal in cosmopolitan Lagos. But, somehow, due to lack of adequate supervision, it was unable to deliver to the satisfaction of many Lagosians. I will use our experience in my area, Solabomi Williams Crescent (formerly Olusegun Oshikanlu Estate) area of Agege as example.
Residents of the estate would readily tell anyone who cared to listen that the (then) private sector operator in the estate was more of an absentee waste disposal agent. He was full of excuses; it was either their vehicles had broken down and it took them days to fix, or they could not discharge the waste at the then dumpsite at Olusosun for days. At a point, the Orile Agege Local Council Development Area (LCDA) took over the unjust cause of the PSP operator in the area, when it pasted a seal-up notice on almost all the gates in the place. We immediately dispatched a petition titled ‘RE:SEAL UP OF OUR PREMISES NOTICE OVER WASTE MANAGEMENT DEBT’ to the Head of Department, Environmental Services, Orile-Agege LCDA, Abekoko Street, from where we understood the seal-up notice emanated in June 2017, shortly after the notices were pasted on our gates.
Let me crave your indulgence to reproduce the letter, in part:
“I write in respect of the above notice which was posted on our gate on Friday, June 9, 2017. I appreciate the laudable efforts of the Lagos State Government which introduced the Private Sector Participation (PSP) into waste management in the state. However, I feel compelled to state that, much as my property is indebtedness to the waste service provider, at least to some extent, the N96,000 stated in the March-April 2017 bill is dubious and doubtful. It is a carryover from previous years, when, as many people on my street would testify, the service provider did not turn up regularly for their job.
“It was not that they had been particularly regular, even in 2015; but the lapse could be pardoned for that year. However, the irregularity of their visit to the state last year (2016) was something else. As far as I know, they did not come to the estate up to 10 times throughout last year, including the about three times when they came frequently towards the end of the year. They were always forthcoming with all manner of excuses: It was either they spent three to four days to discharge at Olusosun Dump site, or their vehicles broke down. Sometimes they apologised. Sometimes they argued over what was patently clear. Meanwhile, the bills did not exclude the period they did not show up.
“Waste management, as any other service, should be on pay as you go. Where, due to one reason or the other the operators are unable to come, they should not be paid for such days/number of times. There should be a way to work this out.
“It would be unfair and ungodly to Lagosians for the government – state or local – to assist service providers who are not diligent at their duty, to collect money for service not rendered. This is tantamount to rip-off and the government at any level should not be seen to be aiding and abetting such practice. Nigerians are still struggling to free themselves from the same practice by electricity companies. This is the PSP version of crazy bill. If the government must collect money for the PSP operators, then it should also have a strong and credible monitoring mechanism to ensure that they play according to the rules …” The letter ended with “…It is unfair for the local government to threaten my premises with seal-up based on the complaint by an interested party.”
We eventually met with the head of environmental services in the local government, a lady. I remember engaging in a shouting match with the owner of the PSP serving our estate, an elderly man, when the lady gave me the phone to discuss the debt issue with him, with a view to arriving at an amicable solution. But nothing of sort could happen because the man, rather than listen to me as his customer, kept on insisting that his men were always in the estate to pack the garbage. And I asked him the basis for his response and confidence. He had none beyond saying he was sure they were. I told him that was the report his boys were feeding him with which was at variance with reality. The conversation ended abruptly when I discovered the man was only interested in listening to himself.
For instance, when I asked him if his boys never missed coming to the estate at any time during the year (because they brought the bill covering the entire period, without missing any date), even if only once, he had no answer. I did not expect him to have any because he knew that could easily be punctured, not with vehicle breakdowns and congestion making it impossible for them to discharge their waste at the dumpsite for days. So, if they had missed some of those days, how come this was not reflected in their bills? How come they did not subtract the times they could not make it from the entire bill before sending them to the customers? This was another sore point that we disagreed over when the lady in charge said that since we were generating waste and disposing of same somehow, it was still the state waste management authority (LAWMA) that was packing the waste wherever we might have dumped it; we should therefore seek amicable settlement on the disputed bill.
For sure, not all the PSP operators were this incompetent or inefficient. Some of them were doing relatively well in the areas they were serving. I recall some of my friends praising their own PSP operators when we were complaining about the epileptic nature of the service rendered by the one serving our own area. This should not be surprising. Among every 12 disciples, there will always be a Judas Iscariot. This was where the Ambode government ought to have applied tact in dealing with those of them who lacked the capacity to handle the job well, rather than uprooting everything and throwing the baby away with the bath water.
The government should have reversed itself when it discovered that Visionscape, its preferred alternative, was indeed no alternative because it also could not solve the garbage problem. If one cannot move forward, he should be able to retrace his steps. This was the Akinwunmi Ambode government’s undoing on the garbage question.
However, what would appear to be the good news now is that, as I was putting this piece together on Friday, I put a call through to the chairman of our residents association who told me that the state government has reshuffled the PSP operators. It was such a big relief that the one serving our estate has been taking elsewhere. It is indeed good riddance. Since character is like smoke which cannot be hidden, I know he would soon show his true colours wherever he is posted to. I only pity those he is serving now. In fairness to the new one, he appears to be up and doing so far, coming every Friday. But it is still too early to jump to conclusions.
In an essential service such as waste disposal, monitoring is key if whatever system put in place is to succeed. It would appear the various monitoring authorities went to bed at some point in the outgoing dispensation. This should be checked. The supervisory authorities should pay surprise visits to select areas randomly to inquire about how the PSP providers are faring. There should also be means of ensuring that everyone benefiting from the service pays for it.
In about eight weeks from now, the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration will take over from the Akinwunmi Ambode government in Lagos State. Since the governorship election went without hitches , the incoming administration has no reason not to hit the ground running. No litigations over election result; no challenge whatsoever from any quarter. Nonetheless, nothing should be left to chance. Having a long period of peace after election, we must have found out, is not necessarily a prerequisite for understanding the need to hit the ground running. Every minute counts, once the government takes off.
One had to go this far to show that all is not well with the waste management system in the state and Lagos it too big to handle its waste disposal carelessly. It was only by sheer luck that we did not record any epidemic when Lagos was literally subsumed by refuse.
There is nothing wrong in giving pork to political faithful; after all people eat where they work. After performing one role or the other for their political party, it is only fit and proper for the party to find some ways to compensate them. But that should not be at the expense of the public. In other words, they should earn their pay by getting paid only for services rendered. That is the only way to truly make Lagos excel.
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