By Murphy Akanji
The Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter under the chairmanship of Pastor Jolaoluwa Emmanuel, has passionately appealed to the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun to offset the sum of N650m bridging allowance the state government owed them.
According to Emmanuel, the refusal of the state government to clear this huge debt despite several appeal letters has not only hampered their efficiency but has equally sent over 100 operators and hundreds of workers out of jobs.
He explained that while the state government owes the waste managers 18 months’ bridging allowance for general refuse disposal totalling over N450m, the highway operators who he said are in charge of managing public waste dumped across the highways in the state have a backlog of four months running which is over N200m.
The AWMN chairman also lamented the state of the dumpsites across the state saying that many of them are in terrible form making it difficult to access them with their refuse disposal vehicles and should as a matter of priority be fixed before the rainy season begins.
Jolaoluwa stated this on Wednesday while addressing newsmen at the secretariat of the association at Adigbe, Abeokuta, the state capital.
“While we want to appreciate Governor Dapo Abiodun for doing so much to take Ogun State from being one of the dirtiest to the cleanest since he came to power in May 2019, we also want to say that as much as we have been instrumental in achieving this milestone, we are however getting frustrated with the backlog of 18 months bridging payment of over N450m that the government is owing us.
“The bridging payment is a result of the fact that not many people pay for the disposal of their refuse, some see it as pure responsibility of the government or part of the dividends of democracy. So, government make this bridging payment to make up for this shortfall
“This backlog is from September 2022 and each time we wrote the government, it has been promise upon promises which were never fulfilled. We used to be over 200 operators but we are now less than 100 because many could no longer cope with the hardship,” he said
Emmanuel added that many waste managers are presently sick while some battle to pay their banks back because of some facilities they have collected to enhance their performance.