Refuse collection has always been an issue in the country. So, if it is becoming one in Lagos in recent times, it is understandably so. For a state that caters to the needs of about 18 million people, and still counting, with those arriving the state daily in search of greener pastures far outstripping those who leave, planning becomes a herculean task. There is no state in the country that has this type of challenge. As a matter of fact, most of those who come to Lagos do so to avoid the inconducive atmosphere in their respective places. The state is not only battling with the challenge of refuse disposal, it is doing so in almost all other sectors, including transportation, housing, medical care, and what have you.
But one thing that has been going for Lagos, especially in the last 18 years, is that it has been blessed with leaders with foresight who have been leaving indelible footprints in the sands of time with their superlative performance as a result of their pragmatic approaches to governance. And Lagosians have been the better for it. The incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has been making Lagos a huge construction site, in line with that tradition.
Characteristically, I always use personal experience as example most of the times that I write about the epileptic power supply in the country. I will do likewise with regard to refuse collection, with particular reference to my area. There is no doubt that the Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators started well. But it is also unassailable that, over time, their services deteriorated, and many Lagosians can testify to this. As a matter of fact, when they started, they always had an exercise book that their clients signed as proof that they had come to pack refuse, I think fortnightly then. But what I noticed, and which, as a journalist I pointed out to those of them serving my place then was that it was only a question of time (probably about three months) for the exercise books to become shreds. The cover was the first to give way. With that, it became impossible to keep track of the regularity or otherwise of the refuse collectors.
There is no system that is perfect. Indeed, it is in the process of implementation that some lapses begin to show face and are corrected. One should give some credit to the people formulating some of these policies; they might have thought (in the cited instance) that using exercise books for record-keeping purposes was good enough; but it turned out not to be. Also, a preliminary observation I have made concerning the new arrangement is that the new dust bins being provided seem too small for the quantum of refuse generated in many homes in the state. They can’t do even if those collecting refuse come once a week.
One of the problems with the immediate past arrangement was monitoring. It did not seem that the operators were closely monitored. That was why it took the outcry over their ‘crazy’ bills by many Lagosians for government to be aware of the fact that they were not regular in refuse collection. To be fair, some of them did the job fairly well to earn the commendations of the people they served. But many were more of absentee refuse collectors. Yet, they did not reflect this in their bills. On occasions when we confronted them in 2016 and even last year on why they were not coming regularly, sometimes they would tell you their vehicles broke down. At some other times, they would also tell you they had to wait for days at Olusosun to discharge the refuse, and so on. Yet, their bills never reflected all those occasions that they offered excuses in place of service. Proper monitoring would have ensured that Lagosians paid only for the number of times the refuse collectors came.
The other problem is that many of the vehicles used to collect garbage were themselves fit for the dunghill. I once told the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) boss who visited our office some years ago (a lady, if my memory is not failing me), that many of these vehicles were themselves ‘junk candidates’, to use my exact words! That explained why they often broke down in the middle of the road. It also explained why they decorated the roads with half of the refuse that they carried before getting to the dumpsite.
It was out of frustration that we wrote the Orile Agege Local Council Development Area (LCDA) when the PSP operator in our area made it to paste a seal-up notice on our gate sometime in June, last year. We said in the letter that under no circumstance should PSP operators behave like the power sector where the operators charge and insist that consumers must pay even when they did not supply electricity. As a matter of fact, we went to the local government to meet the officer in charge (a lady) who linked us on phone with the owner or main operator of the PSP serving my area with whom we engaged in a shouting match as he insisted that his men were prompt in collecting refuse in the area. Indeed, the way he spoke, it was as if his men did not miss any of the days they were supposed to come, which was humanly impossible. We told him pointedly that if he had been monitoring his men very well, rather than relying on reports that they fed him with, he would have seen that they did not come more than six to eight times in 2016; yet, they brought bills for the whole year.
I guess this is why the people now collecting refuse in the area in Agege (Solabomi Williams Crescent, formerly Olusegun Oshinkanlu Estate) have blacklisted our house as they refused to pick our garbage when about two weeks ago they came to the area. We were not the only one who had the seal-up notice pasted on our gate quite alright; but we appeared the only one that took up the matter with the LCDA. Only God knows how many houses are suffering from this type of divide-and-rule tactic. People in private business should not ride on the back of government to collect money for jobs not done.
I find this issue interesting because of some of the unsavoury developments in Lagos in recent times; particularly with regard to refuse collection. The state government is making efforts to transform it in line with its dream of making it a truly mega city. That is why we have houses being demolished to give way to modernity with new bridges being constructed in deserving parts of the state. The idea is not just to ease traffic and make life meaningful for Lagosians but also to enhance the aesthetics of the environment. All of these investments will be money down the drain if the refuse question is not effectively tackled. And it cannot be effectively tackled until the state government has resolved the issue of incompetent or ‘absentee refuse collectors’ among the PSP operators and, more importantly, what to do with their ‘crazy bills’.
The way to go is not for people to coerce Lagosians to pay for services not rendered, which is what seems to be playing out, especially as I narrated earlier. For sure, the government itself had issues with many of these operators, which informed its decision to terminate its agreement with them sometime last year, resulting in litigation. As things stand, both parties appear to have settled out of court. But they cannot do this behind the most important stakeholders who wear the shoes and know where they pinch. Perhaps it would be interesting to know the details of the out-of-court settlement. It would also be interesting to know more about the new method put in place to ensure that the operators turn up regularly henceforth because the exercise books that they used in the past cannot do for the reason already stated. It is important for the state government to clear these gray areas because I can foresee a situation where many of those people who are now being denied services because they refused to pay the dubious and questionable bills that they were given in the past could individually go to court over this obviously serious and selective matter.
