Calabar Residents Task New Administration on Clean, Green Environment

esidents of Calabar metropolis have tasked the new administration led by Sen. Bassey Otu on the need to restore the clean and green ambience in line with the tourism destination policy of the state.

 The residents said in the last five years the glory, glamour and gregarious nature of Cross River State which placed it as the cleanest state in Nigeria have due to lack of policy direction by the last administration had taken the state backward, adding that though the decline in maintaining the 'clean and green' nature of the state started in the twilight of Governor Liyel Imoke's second term in office, but it became worst in the two terms of Governor Ben Ayade's administration in office.

According to them, Ayades's administration was a direct opposite of Duke's administration in the area of keeping the state clean and green as well as in the area of waste management. 

Every street of the metropolis had mountains of refuse until few weeks to the date of the presidential and national assembly elections were some of the heaps of refuse were evacuated mostly in Calabar Municipality and in Calabar South which hosts and holds some of the state's historical sites as well as several memories of the ancient city.

Heaps of refuse competed for space with motorists on some roads within the city just as passers-by block their noses and do spit out each time they walk pass the littered waste on the roads and even at market places where traders sell food-stuffs. 

One of the traders, who sells dried fish on a tray at Watt market and who gave her name as Idongesit Udo, was seen alongside others, sitting behind one of the heaps of refuse and covering her nose with a scarf, expressed dismay at the dirty state  of streets in Calabar. 

She said: "I have no other place to go and sell my fish. This is where I stay and sell and I have been here for many years. The heaps of refuse were not here before now. It is because the can of refuse government dropped there (pointed in that direction) was full and was not emptied.. So, people decided to throw refuse anyhow and that is how we got the heaps here. We beg government to please evacuate them.

“We battle with refuse in the market. The mountain of refuse, which plays host to rodents, flies vultures and some creeping animals, that feast on them, have become eyesores. Waste abandonment in public areas can be hazardous to health."  

A health expert, Mr. Emmanuel Agbor, who works in one of the health centres said: “Ayade’s government cared less about the well-being and health of its citizenry. On assumption of office, he had inaugurated a special task-force called "Green Sheriff" and saddled them with the responsibility of ensuring the cleanliness and maintenance of the green culture of the state yet the grasses grew without being cleared and until they grew wildly and became so manifest especially, in rainy seasons before they would be cleared. 

“Some of the trees that were planted during the Duke's administration to provide shade, ventilation and to further beautify the state were pulled down. Those pulled out by wind laid on the road for days without being removed by those whose duty it was to do so.”

A senior civil servant, who works in one of the offices and pleaded not to be named in this report said: "Even in the governor’s office, we used to have heaps of refuse. Even the conveniences at the offices are not working. Sometimes, we take money from our pockets to buy detergents and wash the toilets. We have complained many times about this but those at the top have deafened their ears to our complaints. It was not this bad during the administrations of Duke and Imoke."

“In the 2022 state budget, about N1.1 billion was earmarked and approved for the waste management agency yet road cleaners, who are mostly aged women and who  earned between  N7,000 and N13,000, were owed and they kept protesting about non-payment of their monthly salaries. Some of them alleged non-payment for ten months.

“Cross River State was tagged ‘The nation's paradise’ because of the tourism sites and the cleanliness of the state which attracted tourists from within the country and the diaspora. The roads were always kept clean and the grasses were ever green. Today, Ayades's administration seemed to be a far-cry from the Donald Duke's administration in terms of cleanliness and maintaining the tourism flagship of the state,” the civil servant stated. 

Speaking while inspecting the dump site at Lemna Road, Governor Bassey Otu, assured residents of the metropolis that he was eager to tackle the environmental problem of Calabar and restore its past glory as Nigeria's cleanest state capital.

I decided to come to the dump site to personally appraise the situation on ground first 
hand and from what I have seen here, it's quite pathetic. I must act immediately
to address all issues hindering refuse collection, evacuation and proper dump in line 
with global practices.

"We are putting a proper arrangement in place to relocate the dump site from the city, 
but in the mean time the site must be manage properly. So, my presence here is to assess 
the site to enable us deplore the necessary machinery to make it workable in line with 
current realities.

“Let me use this medium to inform everyone that by the time we put our thoughts to work, 
Calabar will be clean again", the Governor said.

Earlier,the Dump site Manager, Ayi Etim Effiong,lamented shortage of the needed machineries 
to properly manage the site. He disclosed that the site was confronted 
with both technical and human encroachment issues, saying there was need to keep it 
safely open for dumps. 

According to Effiong, “we normally receive all kinds of refuse here, hazardous, toxic hence the 
need to relocate but since the government has demonstrated a political will to make it 
conducive for dumps, we will work assiduously to ensure that His Excellency’s planned
action is safely executed"