Samuel Bello, Abuja
For so long, residents of Mabushi have been enduring the agonising stench that emanates from the open space that sits opposite the ministry of environment and the ministry of power, works and housing.
The place has been a no-go area for many people in a long while as hordes of urchins defecate there. The situation has been attracting a lot of complaints and lamentation from the public.
“I don’t feel safe coming near the place because, sometimes, you feel like throwing up,” Paul Onaja, a lawyer told Daily Sun. “The choking stench travels as far as several miles. It has been a horrible spectacle.”
Based on the deluge of complaints from the public , the environment ministry, last week, deployed some machines to clear the faeces. The move attracted mixed reactions from residents and civil servants.
Henry Inyama explained that “we have been battling it for years now. People come there every time, very early in the morning, men and women, both young and old, to defecate. The place was supposed to be a short path that leads to the ministry of environment and other ministries around the place, but it was abandoned. It is now a no-go area because of the stench that comes out of there. Now that they are trying to remedy the situation. I hope it would be for a very long time. Nobody can tell.”
“Why did they wait this long to fix it? For more than three years now, everybody knew that place to be where people defecate openly. How are they sure those people would not come back again and what measures are they putting in place to make sure that those people who defecate there openly don’t come around again? This place is close to the expressway; many people come there especially at night when nobody is around to monitor and chase them away.”
A worker in the area who pleaded anonymity said “on this same road, for a long time, road safety workers have been penalising people that park their cars there. They have never for one day tried to tell relevant and concerned authorities to fix it. All they seem to care about is removing plate numbers from cars and waiting for the owner to come and bribe them.
“If you pass that place everyday, that stench must hit you. To add to the problem, traders who sell fruits sit directly behind the stinky place. People would still buy, forgetting the implications of bad hygiene. I am sure many civil servants in those ministries are aware of it.
“What baffles me is that this happens in front of the environment ministry. Several complaints have been submitted to the ministry and nothing was done. Now that they are trying to rectify the sistuation, I hope they would be able to sustain it because things like this need serious work. Obviously, the people defecating there are homeless people or something and that has probably been their toilet for a long time.
“What if they start operating at night, which I think they will, I think the ministry of environment should put a security person there that would be monitoring them or this their new project and efforts would just be futile and completely ineffective.”
In his submission, Godwin Tamara said, “The place has been abandoned for a long time and I don’t think it is being fixed by the ministry of environment. The place got so bad that the smell was even reaching the expressway. What we should be doing now is to be happy that the government is trying to fix it, whoever approved the project has done a good thing.”
Another civil servant who did not want to be named said, “It was getting out of hand. Sometimes, I could not pass that place without holding a handkerchief over my nose. I am happy it has been rectified and hope it does not come back.
“For God’s sake, it is in front of major ministries in the country and it would be very sad for that to be noticed and ignored. I think they are trying to make it look like a garden now and a pathway. Efforts are being made in that direction.
“These are little things that should have been done immediately. It is not a road or one major infrastructure that they need to do that is causing so much nuisance. Just do the little things that need to be done. I think most Nigerians are naturally selfish. They barely work for the people anymore.
“Sincerely, I think the problem is from all these our greedy leaders that siphon funds meant for little purposes.”
A trader, Gladys Omoarebu, who sells fruits and groundnuts in the area, also shared her experience: “Being a trader here is so hard. Imagine seeing the interest of a buyer in your goods passing by and you call on them to bargain, but then they perceive the offensive smell coming from my surroundings. It’s very discouraging.
“It amazes me how a ministry as big as this could sit and watch people suffer like this, especially traders. I can’t count how many times I have had to explain to customers what the smell they perceive is from.
“Some won’t even wait to buy anything the minute they realise what the smell is. There was a day one lady stopped by to patronise me and I was surprised when she didn’t complain about the foul smell. I’m guessing her sense of smell isn’t as sharp as my other customers.
“When we were bargaining price, I noticed her attention had shifted and she was looking over my shoulder. There and then I knew what she was seeing; her next question confirmed my fears. She saw a grown man defecating behind me. She felt disgusted and dropped the items she wanted to buy. I started begging her to, please, buy because I had not sold anything all day. She pitied me and dropped the money without collecting change or the items she was interested in.
“That was not the first time it happened, especially with people coming to the ministry for the first time and buying from us. However, other regular customers don’t even flinch when they patronise us. They just go about their business, It’s something they are used to. Sometimes when new customers complain about the smell, the regular customers are the ones who explain to them and urge them to just buy. So many times we wrote to the ministry, begged and nothing was done.”