by Eromose Ileso
The ancient city of Benin and by extension Edo State is
referred to as the heartbeat of the nation, and rightly so, because it got that
moniker by virtue of its strategic location in being a link to the North, West
and Eastern part of the country via it network of road.
However over the last couple of months, one
of the oldest state capitals in Nigeria
has gradually descended into a heartbeat of dirt. Several sections of the city
are littered with little refuse here and there that looks like an art work, or
drains that are like sand dumps and roads that make a mockery of the few that
where reconstructed or rehabilitated by the present government.
Benin City, the Edo state capital has expanded over the
years, whereas, most of it development was previously restricted to just one
local council, Oredo local government Area, today it has expanded to four other
local councils, namely, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, Ovia North-East and Uhwunwonde.
Yet as the city has experienced expansion with new private structures springing up,
the government has not been proactive in making sure that the new satellite
towns that are effectively an extension of the city meet up with the required
environmental standards that would ensure sustainable development.
What you see
in most of this new areas, is a complete lack of government presence, and an
haphazard planning of the area, without a pre-conceived plan from government to
provide the basic infrastructure like road network that would easily link these
new suburbs to the main city, it is no wonder that most of the emerging
extension of Benin are already having environmental issues with gully erosion
now ravaging some areas.
While the new areas of the city reeks of lack of
developmental planning and environmental impact assessment to ensure that
structures are not erected in low lying areas which would inevitably distort
the flow of water, it is the main areas of the city which should have been
paragon of pristine cleanliness, that has instead turned into an arena of dirt,
foul smell and roads that make the lanes of South Sudan’s capital, Juba to look
like a Formula One race track in comparison.
From the city centre at the Kings Square round about,
popularly called the Ring-Road to the Government Reservation Area (GRA), there
is little or no place in the city that is a bastion of cleanliness, instead
what you get is dirt almost everywhere.
The GRA used to be a place that took people’s breath away
with it well paved roads and serenity, the place has become a sorry sight,
where there are more roads that fit for fish ponds than actual roads, from
Giwa-Aimu, Boundary, Capionna, Ihama and several roads, it is really a sad
commentary of a place that should shed light on the beauty of the city, rather
it is a case of a system working against itself.
Granted several roads have
been worked on, but it is the complete abandonment of some key road network
which plays an important role in linking several parts of the city that has
left many in bewilderment.
Most of these roads have failed portions that would
not take much to fix, yet they are left unattended to, from where they become
like ponds. The state of these roads have robbed the GRA of the beauty it once
enjoyed, besides you are likely to be greeted by flood water when it rains in
the GRA rather than a sense that you are in the area of the city where the
government house is located.
The irony about Benin City is that even the paved roads are
not devoid of dirt and filth. When it rains, moving around the Ring Road,
Saponba Road, Murtala Muhammed Way, Oba Market Road, Stadium Road, Plymouth
Road and New Lagos Road around the market, you are more likely to walk on a mud
than a paved road, this is because the spate of unchecked street trading has
made some of these areas so dirty that when it rains it makes the entire place
to be filthy.
The less said about the state of market in the city, the
better, as that is where the dirty nature of Benin City is really at its
zenith.
Moving around Benin City whether in a vehicle or through
taking a walk in some areas, you see refuse on the road, along the walkways,
even in some flood prone areas, the walkways have become a curse rather than a
blessing this is because the drains are too modicum in size to absorb the
volume of flood water.
In the Upper Mission Road part of the city, around the
Ewah Road axis, where the drains were constructed in such a way that it under
the walkway, while a little outlet by the side of the walkway was provided for
water to flow into the drains, however, what you get is that when it rains, the
flood water instead flows on the paved road rather than through the drains,
thereby causing more problems.
In several capital cities in Nigeria, there are places that
are really quite beautiful and clean that you can easily differentiate it from
other part of the city, after all that is what obtains in most cities in the
world, but Benin City has become a city where you cannot draw a line between a
place that is clean, and the others that are not, the entire areas of the city
can be lumped into one category, because most of it is all dirt.
Visitors that arrive through the Benin Airport, with a ride
through the well paved Airport Road, could easily fall into a false sense of
the beauty that that part of town gives the city, but that is where it mostly
ends, a drive through the network of roads in the GRA which the Airport road is
part of, is a complete contrast.
Benin City is blessed with a network of roads few state can
boost of, but what it has in good road network, it lacks in maintenance. In
reality, there is no area of the city that you cannot assess even when there is
a lock jam, you can beat it by using these link roads, but the state of these
adjoining roads really paints the true state of the city. Most of the link
roads are in such a bad state that they look like dump site. This is reflected more by the state of roads
in the Evbotubu axis of the city.
The filthy nature of the city is also reflected in the
attitude of the people, most of them wait for the rains for them to remember to
dispose their refuse.
What they do is that they empty their waste into the
drains without recourse to the consequences. It is not restricted to drains
alone, in suburbs that have a sloppy terrain, those at the top, usually empty
their waste in the flowing water for it to flow down to those in the low lying
areas, where they will now have to feel the brunt of the moral bankruptcy of
others.
The reason why the state of the city has reached this status
of uncleanness is not far fetched; there is no longer a sense of
responsibility, because the government of the day is gradually winding down.
With just a little over a year left, there are few things going on. Little
wonder that the city is now in such a state that it is an unclean republic. The
local councils that should play a role in this are complicit in their inertia.
This is not to say that the government of the day has not tried in the last
seven years that much is obvious, but the standard has indeed fallen from the enviable
heights it previously set.
The unfortunate place in which Benin City currently finds
itself is reflected in some of the entry points into it, coming from the
Eastern part of the country, you are greeted by the terrible state of the
Benin-Asaba expressway by the bypass, on an unfortunate day when an articulated
vehicle falls into one of the bad spots, travelers can spend man hours there
with queues of vehicles stretching for long kilometres.
The same can be said of
the Benin-Auchi road, where coming into Benin from the Northern part of the
country, the failed portion close to the headquarters of the Electoral body,
INEC results in serious traffic problems.
The road leading to the Federal High Court which is close by
is now a stream, while the compound of the nearby Court of Appeal, Benin
Division is a tributary of that stream, as the place is a right off when there
is heavy downpour.
It is difficult to find any level of cleanliness in a place
where there is litany of bad roads that is exactly what the state of Benin City
is at the moment. Nobody can possibly go into a road filled with water and mud
to carry out cleaning exercise.
The state of affairs has been exacerbated by the rains, with
the dirt and filth now more pronounce.
It can be forgiven when the various extension of Benin City whether from
Ikweniro in Uhwunwonde, Oluku in Ovia North-East to Obagie in Ikpoba-Okha is
littered with dirt, this is not to say they should not be clean, but it is
unforgivable that the City Centre and the GRA all in Oredo are all unkempt. It
is an indictment on those saddled with keeping the city clean.
It is not enough for the government to air jingles on the
need for people to keep their environment clean when it gets to the monthly
environmental exercise, the government has to show concerted effort to turn the
state of Benin City around, the fact that there are several roads in a state of
disrepair does not preclude the government from at least making sure that the
Edo State capital attains a minimum standard of cleanliness.
