FCTA, reconsider ban on scavengers
The Federal Capital Territory Administration’s [FCTA] announcement last week that it was banning scavengers or waste pickers from Abuja City center is its second controversial policy in recent times. The first was in April this year when FCTA’s Transport Secretariat directed that all taxis operating within the FCT must be air-conditioned on or before October 1, 2018. The ban placed on the activities of scavengers otherwise called Baban Bola was made public by the Secretary of the FCTA Social Development Secretariat, Ladi Hassan, in Abuja on Wednesday last week.
Hassan said the action was necessitated by outcries from various residents that many valuables have been lost to scavengers in the territory. “Following the resolution of the FCT Administration to combat armed robbery, kidnappings, vandalism and other forms of crime and criminality in the territory, the Administration has banned the activities of scavengers within the city”, Hassan said. He said many public utilities that have been targets for vandalism and robbery carried the footprints of Baban Bola operatives. He said that under the guise of scavenging from refuse bins in neighbourhoods across the city, scavengers were found to be involved in many criminal activities. Hassan also said scavengers’ criminal activities range from petty stealing to armed robbery and vandalization of public utilities. To put an end to the criminal activities of scavengers therefore, Hassan said scavengers are to operate only at the approved dump sites at Gousa, Karshi, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji and Kuje.
Scavenging involves the search for and collection of anything still usable from discarded waste. Many of those who engage in this trade belong to the unskilled group of unemployed persons; most of them youths. Scavenging emerged in many developing countries including Nigeria as a response to abject poverty and frightening unemployment rate. As a survival strategy, scavengers collect materials for which there is a market. They sort and sell them out for re-use or recycling.
The ban will affect a large number of self-employed youths. Given its population and modern set-up, tons of wastes are generated daily in Abuja city, which explains the large presence of scavengers within the city. In spite of the reasons that informed the ban on scavengers, the cost of throwing the sizable population of scavengers out of their self-employed jobs would arguably be greater than the menace of theft and vandalism occasioned by scavengers’ activities. While effective policing can check these crimes, no alternative jobs are readily available to accommodate the large number of scavengers to be affected by the ban.
Scavenging reduces the amount of solid waste at dump sites as some households sell some of their unserviceable items to scavengers instead of discarding them at dump sites. Scavenging provides employment for many unskilled and unemployable youths in the country. It is believed that the average monthly income of a scavenger is higher than the N18,000 national minimum wage. It also propels the country’s economy as recycling industries source their raw materials cheaply from scavengers. The enforcement of this ban would not only affect the earnings of thousands of trailer drivers and owners but shall likely disrupt the operations of recycling companies.
We therefore encourage FCTA to formally structure and regulate scavenging activities by organizing scavengers into unions; defining periods, techniques and areas of operation. A template for organizing scavengers may include licensing their operations and designing the uniform to be worn by licensed operators while on duty. The wearing of boots and hand gloves should be part of their dress code. The licensing and regulating of scavenging would be another source of revenue for FCTA.
To avert theft and other crimes associated with scavenging, scavengers could be made liable for theft and breach of security in their designated areas of operation within the city. An advanced approach to scavenging would be for FCTA through the AEPB to provide separate refuse bins for various solid waste including plastics, cans and metals which could be sold to licensed scavengers on demand.