Kaduna State Government and the CASH COW waste management scheme.

Kaduna State Government Governor, Nasir Elrufai

In its promise to further restore the honourable status of Kaduna state, the present APC led government has made a number of good intentions at the beginning of its tenure towards realising such.

Among the excellent projects the government had planned for was ensuring that Kaduna state as a whole is driven towards environmental friendliness considering the initial plans that were propelled towards waste management. Learning from societies of best practices, environmental management projects are closely monitored by government considering the impact and the tie-in they have with major sectors of the economy. Ideally waste management should be a source of income for any well-meaning society especially those of countries in the Sub Saharan Africa. However where government structures for some questionable reasons assume its constituted state organs are not in a position to manage its waste, then the services of competent service providers that have expertise in waste management could be engaged.

At this point it may be worth refreshing our understanding of waste management being a process that involves proper handling of waste from its cradle to grave a system which experts in the field will very much link to life cycle assessment. On the other hand waste collectors or pickers are only interested in gathering as much waste as they can for benefits such as financial among others. The latter has been in existence since the days of “kaduna ciku ciku dilalan bola” and interestingly enough, the sector has transmuted to one that has been providing many households with food on the table, because numerous entrepreneurs have invested both time and energy in seeing that they have provided quality services to consumers at reasonable prices. These companies are mostly Nigerian owned and have every right to provide private services to individuals that wish to solicit for such service.

While the Kaduna state government has every right to control certain activities in the state, it is rather pathetic when a government decides to shilly shally on sensitive issues such as waste management in the state.  Despite all the pains and efforts the government put in getting a competent service provider that will take waste management to an acceptable level, the residents of Kaduna state have not seen anything different from the norm. In fact if in the immediate past government there were speculations that,  cronyism was the determining criteria for giving waste management contracts, this time around no criteria can be used to justify the choice of the state in cherry-picking a waste management team that has no track records whatsoever to show for its acclaimed good standing. Efforts to ascertain the credibility of the company only leads to a similar company in a Neighbouring West African Country that seems to be in good standing as a waste “picker”. While the choice of the concerned service provider by the kaduna state government at a time like this remains moot, it is clear that this company has found its comfy by making Kaduna state an experimental laboratory for milking its cows. Interestingly enough, this company that has waste management experts on board gives you a kick whenever it makes any public appearance as communicated by the media. Gobroadsheet credits this statement to the company

“We want to engage some youths including those who people referred to as ‘Almajiris’ to drive the initiative. We are going to train them the nitty-gritty of the job. We will also train them on how to manage their health before, during and after each engagement. We want everyone to join the state government and private partners to have clean and healthy Kaduna we all yearning for”,

Such obfuscated statements leaves one to wonder as to the calibre of people we have elected into offices to have made such choices. One is just left with more questions than answers. How about engaging agberos? Nitty gritty of holding brooms and sacks? The one I really like is “Health management during and after each engagement”…With all the centres of learning in Kaduna state, I strongly believe that our institutions can do better technically as well as PR wise. My hope further is in this case, the milkers do not sing the “mugu fall, mugu catch” anthem as is common when opportunities are misplaced especially in such circumstances.

While this may be my concern and can easily be overlooked at by the state government or the powers that were elected by US, it is necessary to bring to light that the waste management company favoured by the state has gradually been getting powers that belong to either elected or designated officers of the state, the residents of Kaduna state wish to understand that this has been ignored by the legislative arm of government but will take necessary actions in due course. The favoured waste management company is bulldozing its way and announcing with threats on media outlets that all other companies which have been collecting waste in Kaduna are illegal and no persons should continue to engage with them. This is not only frivolous but shameless, taken into account that most of the other companies were duly registered in the state long before the APC led government came into power, less to talk of the company’s penetration into Kaduna state for reasons that are definitely not to the interest of the good people of my state. It should be noted that the good people of my state are the residents and indigenes of the state

At this point we find it reasonable to remind the current state drivers, that the “four year term” is an opportunity to show the people of Kaduna state that the promises and hopes given during campaigns were real and are to be in the best interest of the people of Kaduna state. However, recent events in terms of security and nepotism in this waste management saga are directed towards nothing but total disservice to the electorate of Kaduna state.

By this communication it is worth noting the following

1. No winning team has been replaced by a bogus name and success achieved. Kaduna is not a mushroom state and is by no means in the era when “experts” are garrulous with nothing to show on record. It is only in the best interest of the state to either allow private companies to continue with their much appreciated waste management activities or appoint capable hands that can work alongside these companies in ensuring the state targets are met. It should be noted that there has been no good waste management practise in any form from the favoured state partner that actively engages in open dumping.

2. Kaduna state should rather start focusing on actual waste to cash policies by engaging those in the know-how and not mere rhetoric of paying 1 naira per kilo of waste. This is exploitation and totally against any fair trade policy, any good waste manager knows the value of a kilo of waste! The favoured partner can serve as part of the photography team because it gets excited in posting pictures of  mere activities like dredging and desilting
3. The position of individuals that have no legal rights of any forms should be made clear to avoid conflict of interest. In the recent past there are rumoured efforts to revoke the licences of waste management companies in the state in favour of the hand-picked company. The electorate will like to know if this is part of our dividends for democracy
4. The state should know that jobs will be lost in any attempts to monopolise waste collection in Kaduna state, especially when the state lobbyist company is exercising amazing state powers in dissuading clients from continuous engagement with their efficient service providers
5. It will be appreciated if the state revisits the national constitution in understanding the rights of citizens in engaging privates businesses and the role of government in such
6. The current waste to cash and door to door collections are just ways of milking Kaduna, any good waste management company should be sound enough to generate income and pay government taxes, 3000 naira from residents is another way of saying the company employed by the state to manage its waste is not experienced enough, taken into account the various supports it enjoys from the state
7. All parties that are to be deprived of their livelihoods, are left with not much options but to go ahead and notify NGO funders and other concerned authorities of this scheme being hatched in Kaduna state to disengage workers and give jobs to a company that has shown no proven records of any waste management.

The good people of Kaduna state deserve good leadership. Kindly share until the state knows we are not happy with the current trends.

Article submitted by the Association of Independent Environmental Cleaners, Kaduna