By Amiru Halilu
I passionately feel aversion towards writing about the negative of my beloved country, Nigeria. But when abnormal behaviour is embrace as a routine part of life, it becomes incumbent on stateperson who mean well for the nation to address anomalies either in writing, words, or deeds. It baffles me that very few among many are raising concerns about how some unpatriotic citizens of this country have been gradually turning our environment into that of an animals.
It equally hurts me that very few individuals are endeavour to caution these willful people to preserve human values so that we can have a sanitise environment. It’s painful that there is no much differences between the environment we are living and that of our cows. How can we be aiding anti social behaviour that we should have supposedly fight valiantly with every ounce of breath in our bodies? Why can we represent the quintessential mulish and self-willed in our own society?
There is a strong association between crime and deviant behaviour and the breakdown of social bonds and norm in our society. Behaviours that are conspicuously abnormal are seen as normal in today’s Nigeria. Social deviance or taking part in actions and deeds that do not fit into social norms or patterns of our society like open burning of waste and improper garbage disposal have become the prideful practice of many people in this country.
Our drainages and most of our rivers have now been using as a trash barrel where every bit of waste is dumped, and all these are gladly considered to be norm in our society. There is no free-flowing of water due to blockage whenever there is torrential rain fall, and the authority concerned doesn’t care to exercise control over individual behaviour and desire through social rules and norm.
Those who have been loosing their lives and the property that has been destroying every year as a result of this animalistic behaviour and poor drainage systems are too numerous to mention. Though, there are countless floods that are caused by nature. One must conceds that developed nations like the United State of America and the United Kingdom do experience floods that cause huge losses of life and property.
Yet, one must in the same way acknowledge the fact that seventy percent of ours is a man made or self-inflicted and self-induced disaster caused by unpatriotic Nigerians who have been willfully dumping waste in the few constructed drainages without thinking about the consequences of their bad action. And peevish among them are ever ready to attack you whenever you are determined to discourage and stop this unpatriotic act.
Not long ago, a reputable newspaper — daily trust edition of Saturday, August 31, 2019 reported that four students of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa university (ATBU), Bauchi had died on campus when a pedestrian bridge collapsed as a result of flooding. Meanwhile 13 people die and 29 houses were destroyed in Adamawa state. A resident narrated to the same newspaper the terrible ordeal they went through: “Our local cemetery was over flooded and damaged to the extent that graves were exposed and most of us had to evacuate our families.” This is how deceased ones get a posthumous share of bad governance in their various graves in Nigeria. Also 6 people die while over 2,000 farms were washed away in Jigawa state according to the above named newspaper.
Being so unlucky to have those who have so much similarities with pharaoh whom we have no other choice but to recognise as leaders, doesn’t means a license for us to help them ruin our own lives. Yet, we have the responsibility to keep our environment clean. As a downtrodden masses, we need a serious thinking about these rogues that have already submerged the country into the valley of bad leadership. We need to constantly remind ourselves that we have already put forward those whose collective interests and personal benefits are far more superior to our own well being.
We should at least be regularly call to mind that we have unfortunately find ourselves in a nation plague by infrastructural shortfalls where those who are responsible for the construction of good drainage systems have been in a looting competition. We know perfectly well that we have a poor drainage systems; yet willful among us cultivate the habit of dumping waste in drainages, this clogs the drainages and prevents the free-flowing of water, causing the drainages to overflow.
Somewhere around the globe where political appointment is not given base on one’s perfection in election rigging or political maneuvers or thuggery, ministries of environment and health are well functioning and justifying their existence, and the people in charge are up to their callings. But where the system is totally collapsed like ours, ministries of environment, health and a very important agency like National Orientation Agency had already ceased to exist.
I can vividly recalled how health workers or perhaps environmentalists were in the past conducting house to house inspection which was stimulating and forcing residents to keep their gutters, drainages and other environments clean. This has now become a thing of the past in today’s Nigeria. It’s very disappointing that we are witnessing how our country is moving in a reverse gear each day we wake up while others are progressing like a whirl in the wind.
Ensuring environmental protection and securing a quality environment conducive for good health and well being of the citizens are some of the key functions of the ministry of environment. While national Orientation Agency is responsible for developing a Nigerian society that is orderly, responsible and discipline, where citizens demonstrate core values of honesty, hard work and patriotism.
It also includes establishing a framework for educating, orienting and indoctrinating Nigerians towards attitude, values and culture which project individual’s national pride and positive image for Nigeria. Ministries of environment and health know more than anyone else that improper garbage disposal poses a serious threat to human life.
Unfortunately, there is no approved containers, labeled and garbage pails where harmful chemicals and other waste that are tantamount to air, water and soil contamination can be correctly disposed. Because ours is a society of dumbests where most of us are not civilised and informed enough to know the clear functions of the aforementioned ministries and the agency much less to come out and challenge the heads of these ministries and the DG, NOA to tell us why have they have been in the state of comatose despite the budget they receive annually.
Why do we have these ministries and this agency if they cannot serve the purposes of which they were established to serve? Are we waiting for someone to descend from the heaven and help wake these authorities from their slumber? No one will challenge these people and hold them accountable and force them to do the needful but we — the citizens.
Amiru Halilu writes from Kaduna, and can be reached through haliluamiru@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
