Take it or leave it, one thing is certain about Abuja: it is clean, serene and compares favourably with similar capitals of the world. The features of cleanliness are evident – trimmed lawns, well swept streets and flourishing shrubs -that breed fresh air around the city.? As a result of this, residents wake up to a clean environment without knowing what has gone into the making. Ruth Choji unmasks the faces behind the Abuja beauty and the hazards associated with keeping the city tidy.
The men and women behind the beauty of the capital city could be likened to miracle workers. The reason is simple: they work like magicians and disappear before most residents hit the streets.? Although these men and women belong to the low cadre in the society, they nevertheless render an indispensible service to the residents. If they were to stop work for a single day, the city would lose its serenity and the dwellers would be at risk.
As risky and tasking the job of keeping the city in good shape is, those saddled with the job have devoted themselves to it, insisting that doing it daily gives them a sense of fulfillment. “I wake up as early as 5am to prepare for my day’s assignment,” Mama Vero, who lives in Garki Village, but works in Utako District, declares. The mother of three children says she must first prepare her children for school, before reporting at the Utako office of her employers to collect necessary working tools-brooms, parkers and bags to begin the day’s assignment. “We usually start around 6am and only close when the whole portion assigned to you is completed,” she said.
Mama Vero, who has been sweeping the streets of Abuja in the last four years, says however that her salary has not gone beyond N15, 000. “Sometimes, when I close and return home, I can hardly bend down to prepare food for my family; the job is tough but I have to do it because that is the only thing that I have for now. Although she does not know how much her supervisor earns monthly, the woman does not intend to quit the sweeping job soon.
Beyond the problem of poor pay, which is below the recently approved minimum wage, the most threatening to her is the hazardous nature of the job itself. According to her, the job exposes them to hit-and-run drivers who sometimes known down their members. She lamented that a mother of five who used to sweep the street with her was recently killed by a ‘wicked’ driver and that the company did not do anything about it. The most painful aspect of it is that if you misplace any of the company’s items, you must replace it or be sacked. Again, because of the many people who are looking for the same sweeping job, the owners of the company do not waste time in sacking people who miss their job even for a day. So, if you are unable to do your work for a day, you must look for someone to do it for you. In addition to all this, the job gives you waste pain and exposes one to the vagaries of the weather. The dust that continuously pervades your nose can easily harm you and that is what we pass through daily,” she lamented.?? ?
Narrating his experience, Peter, who refused to disclose his real name for fear of being sacked, admitted that the job was a tedious one and that only strong willed and able-bodied persons could do it.? He said: “We are divided into different categories and given different assignments in order to keep the city in good shape. For my group, we are made to go round and cut grass using machines. You have to be strong to use the machine because of the way it vibrates. They assign a portion to you and you have to finish it before you close. The machine we use produces debris and throws it into your eyes and there is not much we can do about it. Sometimes, the tiny stones tend to break the glasses of passers-by or parked cars and the owners insist you must pay them or risk arrest for willful damage. Occasionally, the company pays and then deducts from or meager salaries and if you complain, you are sacked. There is no security in the job at all,” Peter stated.
Dr Philemon Bulus, a doctor with a private hospital in Masaka described street cleaning in Nigeria as crude and exploitative. According to the medical practitioner, the contracting companies only engage? poor people to do the job and? are exposed to disturbing health hazards. He also accused the companies of being concerned with the profit they make from the government and called for a change of attitude towards the workers. “They do not? provide the basic things needed for this cleaners. When they sweep and dust gathers in their lungs, this leads to sickness such as pneumoconoxis, asbestosis, baritosis, bauxitefibrosis, caplan’s syndrome, black lung disease silicosis, hypersensitivity, pneumonitis and related conditions like bagassosis sinusitis that affects their respiratory organs.?? Some of them end up with tuberculosis and all manner of sicknesses, which would have prevented with the use of proper equipment. Others are? weak and appear older than their real age and exhibit symptoms of hepatitis B and C.
A supervisor with one of the private companies ( names withheld) said that they appreciated the problems associated with the work of the sweepers but that they was nothing the company could do about their fate. He lamented, “I have lost two women under my watch, one was hit by a taxi driver and another by a bike. We? have been telling management to procure some of these modern tools for the workers but they keep telling us that they are working on it. People considered as troublesome by the company are promptly sacked and we cannot help. We have been hearing that Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, has ordered for mechanical sweepers, but we have not seen them till date. For now, they keep ferrying us in the? back of open pickup trucks? every morning? to our designated spots. Worse of all, there is no security in the job? and if? somebody misses his job for a day, he misses for pay for the number of days. But there are times we try to cover for them because some of them are very old and have a lot of responsibilities back home.
This sometimes backfire if we are caught trying to help. Sometimes, l cover for those who are sick or have genuine reasons to? travel.? If you talk too much as a supervisor, they will replace you and accuse you of taking side with the sweepers instead of being loyal to management. They don’t treat you or take you to the hospital when you are sick. The best they do for you is to give you a little money, and if it gets worst, they sack you. As supervisors are afraid of talking too much because it will affect our jobs and you know how difficult it is to get work in Nigeria. In my capacity as a supervisor, I am being paid only N20,000 a month. It is from there I pay my rent and also pay my two children’s school fees. My wife is a petty trader. Most of the women sweeping are the bread winners of their families and some of them are so old, but they don’t have anybody to help them and that is why they still come here to sweep.”
?Thus, as you wake up to a clean Abuja city, there lies the fate of those who toil daily to make the place suitable for others to live, work and move about.
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