•Epidemic looms in Lagos community where filth, stench make residents’ lives miserable
By Vivian Onyebukwa
If you are a first-time visitor to Oregbile community located on Canal Road, Idiori, Ajegunle, Lagos, chances are that you would get a nasty jar from the unpleasant spectacle staring you in the face everywhere you go. No matter how thick your handkerchief is, your nose would be assailed by a horrendous stench. Strangely, misery is part of everyday life of the city’s subalterns.
When Saturday Sun reporter visited the Oregbile community, residents went about their daily chores unperturbed, despite the evident, dehumanising conditions. In a word, the Oregbile community is a giant mural of filth and want. Residents sleep and wake on top of refuse. They bathe, cook, eat, walk, play, and virtually do everything on top of refuse. No wonder the area has earned an undignified nickname of “Dustbin Estate”.
Oregbile lacks an aesthetic appeal. The houses here are built with planks resting on top of dirt, unfit for human condition. Animals feed on the refuse, too. Though animals, like pigs and dogs, may be used to scavenging for food on rubbish dumps, humans aren’t, especially those living in a big city like Lagos. Sadly, there is little to choose between humans and creatures walking on all fours here.
A dirty environment breeds mosquitoes, which is why Oregbile has become a metaphor for a mosquito enclave. Worse still, the blocked canal makes it difficult for water to flow, so mosquitoes and a host of dangerous insects have made it a heaven. The entire community is overwhelmingly dirty. No matter how much you hate an enemy, you wouldn’t like him to live here for a day. Being banished to Siberia is even a paradise compared to living in Oregbile.
This Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government community, has, therefore, called on the Lagos State Government to come to their rescue. If there is any cholera outbreak, the result would be devastating. In every corner here, a looming epidemic lurks with sinister intent.
The rains are here again, and the stench oozing out of this environment has redoubled. Between now and June, the heavens will open in torrents, adding to the already bad situation on ground. Oregbile, surprisingly, isn’t too far from Apapa, where a large chunk of the government’s revenue comes from. It’s like standing in front of a heaven’s gate yet labouring with a blaze of heat and decay.
The Chairman of the community, Alhaji Aderanti Usman, seems helpless, for handling the matter resides outside his province. He has appealed to the state government to assist them by draining the canal in the area, providing them with drinking water and other essential amenities, such as good roads, electricity and school.
Usman, who hails from Osun State, said he had lived in the community for 30 years. He admitted that the situation had become worse over the years. Again, he is tired of failed promises by the government.
“The government has always promised us that they would remedy the situation for us, that is, Oregbile CDA. We have a good number of people living in this community, so we need government presence here. We have no school. The only government school we have is far from this place at Alaba. Electricity is also a problem; it is not constant. We need help,” he lamented.
A resident, Tunde Shina Waliu from Epe, Lagos, who said he had been living in the area since 1983 with his family, told Saturday Sun he moved to Oregbile when it was swampy before it was reclaimed.
Like the chairman of the community, he also expressed bitterness over the failed promises of the government, and said all the people needed were good drainage, good roads and drinking water.
“The government is aware of the rot in this area. During the campaign, they came here to solicit votes and promised to help us. In the last dispensation, they came and measured the road and promised to do it, but till this moment, we have not seen any action from them. There is no road to enter here freely. Those who have cars park them outside.”
The level of poverty in the area is also unacceptable. One would be forced to ask: Is poverty synonymous with filth? Waliu said no: “We can’t do without the dirt, because it is really helping us in this area. This place is really a swamp. We use the dirt to manage ourselves before we now put it in the sand. We put the dirt under and put the sand on top. The canal we have here moves from Mile 2 to Okoya, but it is blocked. If the canal is flowing freely, the place won’t be flooded like that.” He said he hoped to relocate from the place if he could get some help.
Olatunji Yusuf, also called Asiru, is another resident who can’t forget his sad experience during the five years he lived here before he left two years ago. However, he still visits to see his friends and his mother who still live there. He has joined his voices with those pleading with the government to assist the residents.
He said: “If there is minor rain, all these places would be filled up, and they would surely walk on top of it, because they have no alternative. I am even planning to take my mother out of this place, but I am not financially capable now, because rents are so expensive. We are managing, though it is not under control.
The government can assist by draining the canal. With this, we can still manage to live here. Mosquitoes are also killing us. Here, you eat with shit.”
Pointing at the dirty environment, he said, “This is shit there. Look at pampers! This is where our children play. You can see them playing on top of the dustbin. This can cause malaria and bacteria to them.”
Wishing that the government could assist the residents, Asiru added that some of the residents, though working, were just managing to survive. They include keke drivers, electricians, clearing and forwarding agents, drivers, but they are trapped from leaving the community.
He noted: “They are not comfortable living here, but they have nobody to assist them in life. We need assistance from the government by clearing the canal to avoid bacterial infections. We need good roads, too. People here are hungry. We have a lot of poor widows here. They can’t even afford kerosene or gas to cook, so they just gather three stones and put them together, put nylon bags and blow it to make fire.
“We need water. The water we use comes from the borehole from our personal efforts, which we contributed money to do. Immediately the electricity goes off, water wouldn’t be available anymore. So sometimes we don’t bathe for two days. The major thing we need in life is water. So, if the government can also assist with water, they can manage it. We are hungry in this area, seriously. They can do empowerment programmes by coming here and giving out food, even clothes. Look at our children. They play on top of shit.”
He pointed out that Lukman Sahad Oluomo, the member representing them at the state House of Assembly Ikeja, Lagos, came there to campaign for his second tenure and promised to help the people while soliciting their votes.
“We voted for him. The same thing with Hon Kalejaye who came here to campaign also for the House of Representatives. We supported him, and he promised to help us, too.”
He allayed fears of takeover of the community by the government, saying: “If the government decides to rehabilitate us, it will be better, but they may send us away and take it over as government property, just as they did in Maroko and Ijora Badia, Lagos. But if they do that, they want to kill us, because we don’t have another place to live.
“I have the ambition to go to the Lagos State House of Assembly to represent them, because I know their plight, if only I would be given the opportunity.
Another resident, Segun Samuel, said: “Since I came here from Ibadan to live with my brother for two years now, I have experienced unimaginable things. All my life, I have never seen where they use pako (plank)to build houses. In Ibadan, the only people who use pako to build houses are those who use it for their poultry. It is not meant for human beings. We need help. I often post everything that happens here online, begging Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government to help us. Government should help us, please. We are hungry here. Most of the people who live here have many children but have little income. Some are jobless. We need the government to drain the canal for us. It is the most important thing,” Segun pleaded, his looks forlorn, as the alarm bell ticks.