Edo: Breaking the yoke of chaos, filth

Anyone who was familiar with the unsightliness and disorderliness that defined the King’s Square and its environs in the famous capital city of Benin, Edo State, would be forgiven if they had imagined that the inhabitants of those areas had signed an unbroken pact with filth and disorganisation.

It was not equally impossible that visitors, who witnessed the horrendous disorder and sickening dirtiness common with those locales, had thoughts in their minds that they were parts of what constitute the cultures of the Edo people. What reigned in those localities was, no doubt, the stuff of shame. They not only detracted from the lofty culture of cleanliness and order that stand out the Edo people. They also saw to the loss of valuable productive hours, shrunk human dignity, and stifled economic progress.

Trading flourished errantly on roads and street traders virtually took over two of the three lanes on either side of the roads, with wastes providing an eyesore. The environment was insufferably dirty and frontally debased public health. It was a yoke; one that successive administrations made efforts to cure with devastating consequences.

Then came the new administration superintended by Godwin Obaseki. It recognised the malaise as oppressive, obstructive, and demeaning. Clear-headed in its mind about how to pilot the plane of enduring development in the state to the next orbit, the new administration wasted no time in fashioning out a solution to the problem of filths, congestions, and disorderliness around the state, beginning from Benin. That coordinated response is encapsulated in the initiative christened Edo Clean-up Project. It is the red card of the state government to the offensive practices of turning major roads into trading posts and dunghills, and to the disruptive undertakings that make human and vehicular movements needlessly laborious and hurtful.

With unrelenting decisiveness of termites, the enforcement team of the government launched into action, beginning from the major streets around the King’s Square. Those filthy streets played host to the cleansing implements of the Clean-up Project recently. The resultant effects of those structured purging actions are evident in the applauded restoration of order, cleanliness, and free-flow of vehicles and people.

The understanding of some people by this action of government is that nothing is impossible when the machinery of government is manned by people who are truly committed to the success and wellbeing of those from whom they got their mandate. As it was in Lagos with respect to the famed Oshodi and other notoriously chaotic, congested, and grimy areas in the state, there were people who had thought the clearing and cleaning of the disorderly, murky, and choked roads and streets around the King’s Square in Benin would be impossible to reclaim and transformed.

But just when it happened against all cynicism and doubt, another sarcastic question loomed in the sky of the liberated areas: Would this last? The apt answer to this inquiry came from the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Osarodion Ogie. The chief scribe revealed in his address to journalists that the state government was strongly resolved to sustain the cleaning up of Edo. He explained that the government’s objective with the Edo Clean-up Project was aimed at modernising the state, making it one of the cleanest in the federation, ensuring that law and orderliness prevailed without let or hindrance. He said the unbefitting practice in which traders deserted designated markets and emptied into walkways, roadsides, and major streets for trading activities was no longer acceptable to the government.

Speaking further, the SSG announced some of the efforts being taken by the state government to make sure that markets within the state are fixed and conducive for the business of buying and selling.

According to him, “Edo State government has engaged four contractors to clean up Oba market, fix steel doors in the market to replace all the wooden doors to prevent fire. The government has also had discussion with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company of Nigeria (BEDC) to ensure steady power supply in the market.”

In addition to initiating practicable ideas for the repositioning of roads and markets, and the sanitisation of the environment generally, Chief Ogie clarified that the government has also not been reluctant in spending huge sums to fix public infrastructure. He has a message for destructive hands that are vandalising public infrastructure – the state government would not be indifferent to such willful acts of vandalism. He urged those involved to desist from their ruinous actions.

Similarly, the cleansing of the major areas of the state, as he submitted, was not a one-off, one-area-limited exercise: “The exercise is a continuous one. We started from Ring Road and we will spread it to other areas as we progress in the task of keeping the city clean. The biggest problem we had was the fear of starting, but this government is bold, courageous and has the will power to start and we have started. This exercise is in line with our administration’s objectives to ensure security for the people of the state. We are ready to deal with the cabal that promotes this illegality. We have started the clean-up exercise and will continue unstopped. The exercise will continue all-round the state as this phase is the starting point to send signal to other areas. The traffic around Ring Road is unacceptable to this government. The menace has been on for over 10 years, but this government is determined to fix it.”

An important aspect of the campaigns of the Obaseki Administration towards a cleaner Edo State is the enthroned principle of collaboration and extensive consultation. The democratic ethos of citizens’ participation in the decision-making process championed by the administration finds expression in the Edo Clean-Up Project.

Before the state government embarked on the Kings Square exercise, it had first called several meetings with traders, landlords, shop owners, market leaders, and stakeholders to deliberate on the modalities to be employed in clearing traders from walkways and the streets around the King’s Square to ease traffic around the area.

Similarly, prior to the action, the state government also put up a few weeks of publicity across major markets and road intersections, and in the news media, asking the erring persons to quit their nuisance. Arrests and fines are parts of the measures now in place to keep offenders out of the roads. But the cheery news is that in Benin, especially in the now decongested and sanitised King’s Spare areas, residents see the sense in embracing the logic of transformation. While the changes upset the apple carts of the dirt and anarchy they have hitherto embraced, they are opening up and embracing a new order of peace, sanity, law, and organisation.

Evident in the responses of residents of Benin to the activities of the Edo Clean-Up Project is the need for continuity and humaneness. People want to inhabit clean and decent environment. They have no problem with that as long as government’s exertions in that direction are not short-lived. And on its part, the Edo State government has been appealing for more support from the people, noting that the task of development and its sustenance is one that requires the involvement and cooperation of the people. Sustainable development is possible, the government argues, where citizens are not seeking to take on the yokes it is taking off them. The new administration assures that it is not in short supply of the will to rid Edo of the yokes of disorderliness.

Comrade Cephas writes from Benin City