By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
A new dawn is set in Abia, the God’s Own State. With the inauguration of new set of commissioners and assignment of portfolios, the state is set to recover some areas that the citizens have not adequately lived up to expectations or it feels things are not properly done.
The new commissioners of environment and information and strategy, Hon. Sam Nwogu and Dr. Eze Chikamnayo are leading these laudable campaigns. On this note, other things being equal, and God willing, the era of indiscriminate waste disposal, and other negative practices that endanger the state environment, especially the newly constructed roads, in a matter of months, will be over.
From now henceforth and in this new regime of waste disposal, waste must be properly packaged in cellophane bags, and disposed at the appropriate periods as stipulated by environmental protection agency, ASEPA. Defaulters would have themselves to blame as reports indicate that the appropriate agencies are set to work.
The time for this auspicious intervention is apt. If these interventions have not been introduced by these honourable commissioners, things could have gone from worse to worst. Indeed, most Abians have very poor environmental sanitation attitude.
The waste disposal attitude among some Abians are very appalling. Right from their homes, they will litter the waste meant for disposal to the point of the receptacle. To judiciously dispose the waste properly into the buckets amounts to the proverbial camel passing through the eye of the needle. It becomes an eyesore when waste are littered several metres away from the buckets. It paints the environment very negative and highly compromise the aesthetics of the cities.
It takes two to tango, and when government is deploying frantic efforts to better the lives of its citizens, the citizens should not hesitate to reciprocate by cooperating. But here, the reverse is the case.
Most street corners, even major streets are now converted to mechanical workshops where motor mechanics, motor cycle and tricycle mechanics ply their trades. Some of the lubricants employed in servicing these vehicles are highly corrosive and have the capacity of compromising the newly constructed roads. This can only undermine the unrelented efforts of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to recover the road infrastructural deficit that bedeviled the state.
The make the situation more complex, strategic locations in major cities in the state have also been converted to car wash. The implications are that the detergents and other materials employed in the process are highly corrosive and also have the capabilities of undermining the integrity of the roads.
The more laughable is that sometimes ago, a video trended where a woman cited her beer joint on the centre of the newly constructed Milverton Avenue. These actions can be labeled sabotage to the efforts of the government.
Some residents of the state have deemed it more convenience to dispose their waste through the drainage. This obstructs the flow of storm water and return such water to the roads thereby causing flooding that may later deteriorate the quality of the roads. Most times, the components of these waste are fecal materials that may cause havoc public health.
It is time for every hand to on deck to recover the state from this dangerous trend some disgruntled elements are plunging into. All relevant agencies must sit up for this big task ahead. The state environmental protection agency, ASEPA, should ensure that these actions are strictly implemented as well as law enforcement agencies.
The state orientation agency headed by Hon Godwin Adindu should relive their green walk that took round the streets of Aba and Umuahia here they sensitised on the need to keep cleen. This campaign requires huge sensitisation.
Another area that the state is striving to revolutionise is the information management. The new commissioner for information, Dr. Eze Chikamnayo is insisting that the era of government information flowing through unofficial and not the appropriate channels is over and he means every bit of it.
Information is power and key, especially that of the government.And because of this information should flow only through the appropriate channels who serve as mouth pieces of the governments at various levels. At the local government level you have the information officers, and at the ministries and agencies you have the public relations officers. Quite unfortunate these days that government information, especially at the local government areas is disseminated or handled by persons other than the information officers. This makes the funds of these officers almost redundant.
Indeed, a new dawn is set in Abia and the paradigms are shifting for good!
