How Ogun Waste Managers Are Going Bankrupt Due To Gov. Dapo Abiodun’s Negligence

Cleanliness, they say is next to Godliness. Before now, Ogun State had been one of the best states in Nigeria in terms of waste management and environmental health but the state has been gradually diminishing in this area for several months now owing to the abject negligence of Ogun State Government.

The waste Managers in Ogun State have been having it bad in the past two years, suffering, smiling and kept on trucking, but Ogun State Government, as led by Prince Dapo Abiodun turned deaf ears to their fervent cries.

The Waste Managers who have been begging Governor Dapo Abiodun to come to their aid in order to provide succour for them have received nothing but endless unfulfilled promises to “look into it”.

The waste managers are complaining about very low amount being paid per trip which makes the business highly unprofitable especially with vehicle maintenance costs and diesel cost which have quadrupled over the past couple of years. Many waste managers who prefer to remain annonymous said the same amount that was paid when a tyre of truck was sold at #65,000, diesel at #210 per liter is still being paid today when a truck tyre cost #130,000, a litre of diesel is #700 or more, and costs of spare parts have quadrupled. As a result of these painful realities, waste managers have been working on deficit for months, using their own funds to keep afloat. Those who cannot do so and those whose reserves subsequently dried up are unable to continue operations and are forced off the road as a result.

The Waste Managers also complain about the bad state of dumpsites especially the one at Saje, Abeokuta. They complained that the Saje dumpsite is in deplorable condition and contributes daily to truck damages, new tyres wearing out very quickly and exceedingly long time for drivers to wiggle their ways to dump and to exit the dumpsite. Usually compactors get stuck and have to help and pull each other out. Many compactors suffer damages daily from pulling each other, adding hundreds of thousands of avoidable costs to their costs of operations. During raining seasons, the conditions at the dumpsite are almost impossible with almost every truck getting stuck to the ground on each attempt to dump.

Just recently the community at Saje dumpsite blocked further dumping at Saje because of the unbearable conditions and years of unfulfilled promises by the state to improve the site. As a result, the state now is directing waste managers to use Olugbo and Ogere dumpsites for dumping. These new sites are several miles from Abeokuta. Using these dumpsites will cost each compactor more money in diesel usage alone (at #800 per liter) than the rate the state is paying waste operators per day. In other words, the rate at which the state is currently paying cannot even buy enough diesel for the day, not to talk of staff wages, truck maintenance and other overhead costs.

Waste Managers are appealing to Governor Dapo Abiodun to rescue waste operations in the state by paying just compensation to waste managers as well as finding lasting solutions to the deplorable conditions of all dumpsites in the state including the one at Saje. It is not practical and quite costly to require operators to go and dump 30 to 40 miles outside of Abeokuta. The cost of diesel for one round trip from Abeokuta to the dumpsite is astronomical (this is just to the dumpsites and does not include diesel use while evacuating waste within Abeokuta metropolis)