Jos city is known for its cleanliness over the years for which it was once rated as the second cleanest city in Nigeria. In this piece, MUHAMMAD TANKO SHITTU examines whether the city still retains that status.
Jos, the capital city of Plateau state is known for its natural and pleasant weather. Beside that is the added beauty of a clean and hygienic environment it had over the years. As a matter of fact, everything about Jos spoke of ambience, no wonder, there were several Europeans who settled there because of the pleasant condition the city offers.
Although in the recent past, crises situation has nearly made the cleanliness to become almost eroded, but with the measures put in place by the present administration in the state, the city can, to a greater extent, be said to still retain its beauty in many areas even though cannot be compared to what it used to be.
Jos city centre which is situated within the famous burnt ultra modern main market along Murtala Muhammad way, the terminus hotel, the commercial area of Ahmadu Bello way, is the commercial nerve centre of the state. It could be seen to be the most congested area, where all sorts of businesses, large and petty trading take place. Expectedly, lots of disposed refuse could be seen to becloud the serenity of the area.
The role of PEPSA
Although the general area will give a first-timer to Jos a bad impression that the city is not clean, however, if such a visitor is to be at the area in the afternoon or towards evening when the markets would have closed for the day, however, the story will be different. This is simply because a glance over the place in the early hours of every day will gladden the eyes and perhaps prove the visitor wrong having seeing that government own town cleaners from the Plateau Environment Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA), under the Ministry of Environment are doing the cleaning and evacuation of refuse.
Blueprint, gathered from some traders in the market that all collections and evacuation of the refuse are still rendered by PEPSA, free of charge just to ensure that there is no compromise on the serenity of the city.
Market traders testify
Alhaji Mustapha Ibrahim is the chairman of the traders association at the main market. In an interview with Blueprint, he commended the government for its ability to sustain the tempo of cleanliness that has become a trade mark in the state.
He said, “The government is really trying; to be honest with you, I think the terminus area is the most congested area in Plateau.
“It is a place where people are carrying out their petty, medium and large scale businesses and so definitely this place must be a dirty area but the government is really trying because every day early in the morning, you will see the town cleaners going round with their vehicles evacuating the refuse”, he added.
According to him even though the government has initially said people will be paying for the collection and evacuation of refuse, he said the government has, however, gone ahead to contract some companies to do the job. “That is why up till now, the tempo of cleanliness is still sustained”.
Another trader, Alhaji Ahmad Muhammad, is of the views that Jos residents have no reason whatsoever to keep their places dirty, for the fact that government has employed the services of men and women to sweep and clean every area in the city.
“We have been cleaning our business premises and dumping the refuse in a place along road side. The government has employed many people and going round not only the market places but all over the town to sweep and evacuate the refuse”, he said.
The man recalled that sometimes back, two firms had approached them and had given their proposed charges for each market as well as houses to pay for the collection and evacuation of the refuse, adding that those people never showed up again.
“But for now, government is still cleaning and evacuating the refuse in all the street of the city. Because of that, we are grateful and you can see that Jos is still a clean city”, he enthused.
However, some other people hold the views that much need to be done most especially in terms of keeping the city centre cleaner. “You can see that these market areas are dirty since the Christmas eve and up till now, the dirt are not evacuated. This is always the situation when there is festivity but not like that always.”
Taking a drive to some major streets of Jos, such as Rough Road, Massallacin Juma’a Street, Tafawa Balewa Street, DB Zang Street and others, one can confirm that the city actually retains its beauty in terms of cleanliness, even though almost all the truck buckets otherwise referred to as dustbin, kept in some strategic places are no more there, yet the streets are kept clean.
Blueprint gathered from a resident of Ali Kazaure Street, Mr Ifeanyi Okechukwu said that they always wake up to see sweepers, mainly women very early in the morning, sweeping their environment.
“They sweep and clean the streets; they also gather refuse we usually dump in front of our homes and later, a truck will come to evacuate all the dirts away.”
Mr. Okechukwu, further said that the sweeping exercise is done without residents paying anything.
“Even though about a year ago, our houses were marked including mine for the payment of N500 every month and some papers were pasted on our gates, I think the programme has been cancelled because no one has demanded anything from anyone any more.
Different stroke for different folk
However, a resident of Bauchi Road, Alhaji Sani Danladi Marshall, opined that even though his areas are one of those that are kept clean, he noted that there are others that are not. He said, “For instance, when you go to Anguwan Rogo and Nasarawa areas, you will a lot of waste that are not collected.”
Several phone calls to the state commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources, Alhaji Abdullah Abbas, for his comments were not responded to as at the time of filling this report.
Ikenna Okonkwo
5:02 PM (18 minutes ago)
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Why Igbo people prefer New Year to Christmas visitations
It sounds weird but it’s true. In the South East zone of Igbo extraction, the people consider New Year celebration more important to them than Christmas celebration for obvious reasons. OKEY CHRIS in this piece gives the reasons for this narrative change.
Yuletide is a word usually employed to describe the Christmas and New Year seasons. Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25 every year, is a date most Christians all over the world set aside to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, while January 1 of every year is generally viewed as New Year day for almost every religious adherent because it ushers everyone into a new calendar year, irrespective of religious affiliations.
Available records show that these periods witness mass exodus of people from all walks of lives and regions to another area for merriment and other activities probably because government, private institutions, groups and individuals always declare those days work-free or official holidays.
The South East geopolitical zone is one of such areas where people, mostly indigenes and their friends travel to within these periods especially the New Year celebration which to them starts from January 1 to 15 every year. Investigation shows that much of the activities in the region hold within this period.
It is, therefore, not uncommon to see Igbo men or women and their families shut down their businesses and services in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and travel to their villages in Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo states, respectively for the New Year celebration unlike what they will do in the Christmas season.
In villages, the ‘home comers’ would directly or indirectly participate in annual football competitions, marriage ceremonies, community cultural, social and religious events, child dedications, house dedications, charity works, etc.
Reasons
Mr Tony Oji, an ex-Catholic seminarian and chairman, Anambra State chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) observed that New Year witnesses much influx of South easterners to the geopolitical zone than the Christmas season.
According to Oji, “Our people prefer to return home mostly in the New Year season due to many reasons. One is that the cost of transportations is usually high during the Christmas season which sometimes is caused by transporters or the fluctuating prices of fuel. Apart from that, New Year is usually packed full with activities such as traditional and matrimonial weddings, village, town and kindred meetings unlike the Christmas season.
“In the zone, people don’t usually excuse themselves from those meetings because of the consequences. It is during the New Year that wise decisions and laws binding on the community members both within and in the Diaspora are made. This is also where taxpaying male adults of most communities/kindreds share the lands inherited from their forefathers, accordingly.
“High fines which individual members of these communities and groups might find hard to pay are usually imposed on absentees to discourage them from staying away from homes (the meetings). This is why some will decide to attend the meetings rather to absente themselves and pay fine which they might not even recover from while transacting their businesses this period. You know also that workers are usually on holidays then.”
Corroborating Oji’s postulations, Comrade Dede Uzor A. Uzor, the Board of Trustees chairman, Human Rights, Liberty Access and Defenders Foundation (HURIJE), posited that South Easterners visit homes for the New Year season because it is generally celebrated by people from all religious backgrounds.
Uzor, who is also, the chairman, Campaign for Democracy (CD), South east zone, added that people of his geopolitical zone prefer to celebrate New Year at homes with their loved unlike Christmas season where they hustle to make ends meet.
“People may transact their businesses from 25 to 29. But when it comes to 1st January, they will close shops to go home for prayers; to reflect over their lives and rededicate themselves to God and for merrymaking. Also, in some parts of Igbo land, some communities usually restrain or ban their members from organising burial and other events sometimes from December 15 to January 1.
“As a result, these individuals would fix their programmes and events they could hold in Christmas (December) to New Year. These include wedding anniversaries, birthdays, traditional or matrimonial wedding, meetings, social and other events. Most traditional rulers prefer celebrating their Ofala or Igu Aro festivals, and so on in New Year period”, he explained.
Little wonder communities like Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikoka Local Government Area, Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area, Amawbia in Awka South Local Government Area, Akpoga-Mbu in Isi-uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State, to name a few, held their ofala festivals between January 2nd and 10th, 2019.
Buttressing the fact, Hon Chiedo Chibuike, a community leader and public relations expert said, “Yes, Igbos return more for New Year than Christmas. They prefer to enter the New Year in their zone than anywhere else in the world; it’s a tradition that cannot be wished away.”
According to Chibuike, among activities that attract easterners back home for the New Year celebrations are harvest and bazaar sales, crusades, kindred/village and town’s meetings; social club meeting, etc.
Traditional events hold within the period
“Some Igwes always do their Ofala festivals after the Christmas celebration. Most people celebrate their traditional marriage and white weddings after the Christmas, precisely the in New Year. Sometimes, transportation fare is relatively cheaper after the Christmas. Traffic tends to be difficult during Christmas than New Year. Some believe that Christmas should not be celebrated because December 25 is really not really when Christ Jesus was born, for example, that is the belief of Deeper Life church members and Jehovah’s Witness members”, he submitted.
To the traditional ruler of Nawfia, Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo, the reasons most Igbo prefer the New Year homecoming is because they want to celebrate with their people; they want to be prayed for by their parents and elders. They believe that receiving God’s blessings from their homes will help them to prosper in the year.
Igwe Nwankwo, however, attributed the reasons most traditional rulers celebrate their ofala, igu, alo and other events within the New Year period is the advantage of the dry season which he said were mostly preferred for organising such events in the zone than in the rainy season.
South-east Nigeria, like other parts of the country, is a tropical rainforest area where rain drops mostly from February to November annually. It is also home to majority number of people classified as Christians in the country of which one expects them to attach higher importance to the Christmas season but because of the sociological belief of the people of the zone, the New Year holds more appeal to them than the day Jesus Christ was said to have been born.
