By Kingsley Adegboye
MEMBERS of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, AWAM, have decried the recent statements being credited to the Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Cleaner Lagos Initiative, CLI, Adebola Shabi, stating that such pronouncements were capable of undermining the efforts being made by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to find a lasting solution to the current waste management crisis in the state.

Domestic refuse dump …awaiting evacuation by the PSP waste disposal officials

The PSP waste operators in a statement signed by their chairman, Alhaji Oladipo Egbeyemi, noted with dismay that Shabi has been reported several times, to be going round the LCDAs in the state to meet with market, community and religious leaders and making very disturbing statements, including advising residents against paying PSP operators’ charges for waste evacuation.

“He has been telling the people to consider PSP operators not contracted by Visionscape as illegal, thereby branding majority of PSP operators that refuse to sign to work under Visionscape as not recognised. By this, Shabi is undermining the efforts being made by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our Grand Patron, to find a lasting solution to the ongoing waste management crisis in the state,” Egbeyemi stated.

According to them, after their protest to Tinubu’s house on April, 27, 2018, as widely reported in the media, the former Governor of the state had said among others that he and the state APC leaders would meet with the House of Assembly and the Governor, Mr Akinwumni Ambode, to find a lasting solution to the waste management crisis and ensure that collection of both residential and commercial wastes reverts to PSP operators.

“This was followed by a ministerial briefing by the Ministry of the Environment on Wednesday, May 2, 2018, where the government gave its word that the PSP operators will resume the responsibility of domestic waste collection. On the contrary, recent moves and statements of the Special Adviser are inconsistent with this position, further  creating uncertainty and confusion which are beginning once more to erode the confidence being restored in the state’s waste management sector. They could jeopardise the recently recorded gains.”

AWAM reiterated its confidence in Asiwaju Tinubu’s intervention as they anxiously await its outcome while advising government to vigorously focus its efforts on making the dumpsites safe and more accessible as it now takes up to two days of queuing for trucks to be able to dump evacuated waste at some of the three existing dumpsites.

The waste operators bemoaned the damage being  done daily to their trucks as they are pushed out of some of the dumpsites with caterpillars and are appealing for enforcement of environmental sanitation practices, including payment of PSP waste charges to strengthen their operations.