Life in Jabi scavengers’ colony
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Lawal said the companies that buy the goods from him determine the price,“if they buy from us well, we will also give the pantaker good prices.”
He said a kilo could be sold for N1, 500 depending on the market forces.
Lawal, who lives with his wife in the colony, said the scavengers contribute a considerable quota to government revenue, adding that they sell the products to recycling companies which in turn generate money for the government.
Salisu Ali is another person in the same unit with Lawal. Ali also picks from the street to make ends meet after losing his parents in 1993. Though he said he is thinking of leaving the trade for ‘office work’, he has a house in Kaduna State and says he has been doing well since 1998 when he started the business.
He said companies that patronise them are based in different parts of the country including Jos, Kano, Plateau, Funtua, Kaduna and Lagos states.
He said the scavengers frown at stealing though he admitted that it is a challenge within the association.
“It depends on individual characters; some people in town do steal but here once it is discovered, the executive hands such person over to the police,” Ali said.
With over 1, 089 scavengers and scrap dealers hustling and bustling around the junkyard, Jabi is unarguably the largest haven of scavengers within the city centre. Situated few metres from Utako Motor Park Abuja, and mostly populated by northerners, it is best referred to as Gidan Bola.
Aso Chronicle gathered that the trade is fast growing in the capital city, with the scavengers boasting that they contribute to the revenue generation of the country through their recycling business. Despite their little or no education at all, they appear well versed in their trade, with several of them saying scavenging in Abuja pays well.
For about 17 years, these set of people have been trading in plastics, abandoned metals, condemned iron, used bottles, bad electronics, automobile batteries and several other materials. In this scrapheap, nothing is a waste. A big television set could be reduced to pieces with several parts going to different people.
The junkyard is however a very dangerous place to visit. The scavengers are hostile and do not allow strangers to just walk into their colony without explaining the purpose of their visit.
It took the intervention of Isah Mallam Isah, one of the scavengers, and a phone call to the chairman, who was absent, before our reporters could gain access to the scrapheap.
The vice secretary of the Scavengers’ Association, Ibrahim Saidu, said the place is popularly called Jabi Gidan Bola. He said there are 1, 089 scavengers registered with the association.
The colony could be likened to a manufacturing company comprising of various departments and specialized people. People in the iron section pick from the street and bring to the colony where many of them call home. There is a section for plastics and related materials, and there are those who sort the materials, the ‘tinkers’ who mend them as well as loaders who load gathered goods into the trucks. To complete the production chain is another unit in-between the ‘tinkers’ and loaders who weigh the goods and buy from the scavengers.
While some of the scavengers are married and live with their families in the filthy shanties made of old zinc and wood, others who are financially buoyant get rented apartments for theirs. However, many others Aso Chronicle learnt, have left their families in their home states. But most of the bachelors sleep in the open space.
Due to the large number of scavengers in the colony, they meet twice in a week. The executive meetings of the association hold on Wednesdays while the general meetings for all members hold every Friday.
The scavengers said a permanent place to operate from is still a challenge. Bello Idris said on occasions when government ‘task force’ visits, they leave burnt and destroyed wares in their trail.
Their continued stay in the place is seriously threatened with Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB)’s determination to rid the territory of scavengers and scrap dealers.
AEPB director, Baba Shehu Lawan, while clearing the Nyanya Motorpark of scavengers said scrap dealers were no more welcomed in the FCT though they are seen in various locations even within the city centre.