It’s no secret that in Nigeria, some of the streets are littered. There ae people the government hired that are responsible for the cleaning of the roads and streets, however they can only do what they can and besides, they are not always there (24/7) cleaning the roads and streets. You wonder what makes the streets dirty and full of litter right? Well, it’s obviously the citizens. Ghosts don’t do that.
I believe that if we want to maintain a clean street, it begins with me, it begins with the Nigerians and foreigners living in Nigeria. There are common practices that Nigerians can do. First of all, I’d love to appreciate those that don’t litter and properly dispose their wastes. You might not know, but you are doing a great job. For starters, you are making Nigeria less dirty and you are making it easier for the sweepers.
Concerning littering, I don’t think there’s an excuse to throw a biscuit packet on the street because there are no waste baskets around. It’s true that not all streets have got places to throw dirt but that does not justifying throwing paper or half eaten cake, or groundnut shells on the street.
If an illiterate litters, I can in some way understand that. If an illiterate throws a biscuit wrapper on the ground, we could assume or justify it by saying, s/he is just an illiterate, and they don’t know better, probably where they were brought up is how they do there. However, it irritates and annoys me so much when someone who is learned or obviously went to school litters, it’s like “why? You should know better”. I guess one might have gone to school and still not be literate enough, because I don’t get it.
Once upon a time, I was on a long queue at the ATM and I saw a lady and a guy (also waiting on their turn) eating cooked groundnut (peanuts). While eating, they just threw the shells around, mind you, we were all in the bank, and the ATM was located in the bank. That’s how uncle and auntie were just littering the place. I felt so disappointed, I expected them to know better. After they had gone and it was almost my turn, I saw the security guard sweeping it, I felt so bad.
Just last week, on my way back from work, I saw a guy, he was seated on the passenger’s seat. He was eating sugar cane and as you probably guessed, the guy was just throwing the chaff straight from his mouth unto the floor. I felt irritated and disappointed. Later he will be doing fine boy fine boy. Fine boy that cannot be civil enough is not a fine boy! In my head, I was just like, what would it cost you to get a polythene bag to put all that in so you tie it once you are done and throw it in a bin or when you get home, you dispose of it properly. By the way, there were waste bins around. Another examples that gets to my bone marrow is when people throw corn or groundnut shells from a moving vehicle on express o, like why the hell would you do that?
Now someone might be asking, do you want me to keep holding my sweet wrapper in my hands and so on. No not really, that would be uncomfortable but if it’s any consolation, holding it doesn’t kill, I also hold mine, be it pure water nylon and whatnots until I find a place I can dispose of it.
I would encourage everyone to take with them a polythene bag for situations like these. It’s even easier for females because most times, they carry a bag and so they can easily put the polythene bags in there. As for the males, I really don’t know if that would be comfortable but like I mentioned earlier, holding it is an option, so yea, hold it till you find a place to dispose it. If you buy groundnut or sugarcane, it always comes with a polythene bag, the seller doesn’t put them in your hand without packaging it. You should use the polythene bag to put the shells or the chaff inside. Or you could put the shells somewhere on the floor, table or whatever and when you are done, use the bag to pack it and then dispose it. It doesn’t kill.
I believe we don’t litter in our home, we take good care of it, except you don’t then that’s fine. So I’d admonish anyone to do the same, maybe, just maybe, our streets would be cleaner. It’s not every time government government. We have our parts to do. It begins with you.
Picture from: http://www.dowitcherdesigns.com/putting-a-face-on-litter-literally/ and designed with canva.
