Tunde Akingbade
17 August 2008
SIXTY four-year old Mrs. O.F. Olayinka, a retired businesswoman, has been suffering from arthritis on her legs in the last few years at her high brow area of Babs Animashaun Street in Surulere, Lagos. Because of this affliction, her movement is restricted and she therefore stays at home all day. The same is true of many senior citizens.
Alhaji Babs Animashaun, the renowned businessman and Lagos socialite, who Ebenezer Obey, Nigeria's juju music maestro, sang his praise in 1972 in the hit song, "Board Members", lives in the area. Many of those who live in the area were the movers and shakers in Lagos.
Some of them live close to a freshly dumped suspected internally generated toxic wastes. Unlike the over 8,000 drums of hazardous materials brought into Koko Port by an Italian waste merchant in the late 80s, these were brought by Nigerians allegedly working under the banner of the Lagos Ministry of the Environment.
Regrettably, some of those who reside in the area including children are now being affected. Extensive investigations conducted in the past two weeks revealed that the health of the senior citizens in the area and no fewer than 60,000, other residents and foreigners who inhabit three major communities namely: Chief Natufe Street, Adeonitimirin/Akinbola Street, and Babs Animashaun, is under threat by truck loads of substances believed to be toxic sludge and wastes excavated from canals around Idi Araba/University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
The alleged hazardous materials were dumped under the cover of darkness by the contractors (names withheld). The contractors dumped the alleged toxic sludge which not only blocked the public drains, but broke pipes which carry water to Orile-Iganmu. The entire neighbourhood's landscape has changed and some strange insects have invaded homes biting people at night. The insects invasion is believed by many residents to be as a result of the wastes.
For Mrs. Olayinka, her condition has worsened. She has on several occasion visited Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital, Ikorodu Road for treatment. The surgeon recommended that she needed to travel to India for further treatment of her arthritis pain and the cost was put at N1.8 million, about $30,000. However, the night that the woman returned home, she found that some strange insects were biting her on the bed. She bought insecticides, closed the windows and sprayed the whole house, causing noxious fumes to blow over the entire house.
But the pungent odour persisted. While she struggled to sleep, her son, 30-year old Sola, was battling the insects in the other room. Mother and son could not sleep till day break. The following morning, they procured another set of insecticides. None of the insecticides could combat the rampaging insects.
Within few days, Mrs. Olayinka purchased 30 assorted insecticide cans available on the market shelves in Nigeria. The cost is over N60, 000 ($450). It was a whopping sum for a woman desperate to survive. She suffered constant headache and could no longer sleep. Realising her purse being drained and health worsening, she sought the advice of friends outside the neighbourhood. "Why don't you use Gamalin 20", one of the friends suggested to her.
Mrs. Olayinka went to the market again and bought Gamalin 20, known in environment and science circles as Lindane. Lindane is regarded as one of the most hazardous chemicals in the world. It is toxic and banned or severely restricted and is no longer in use in the developed world. Unfortunately, this was what Mrs. Olayinka found useful and handy. Yet, her tummy, hands and legs were not spared by the strange insects. She showed the scars left on her body to Sunday Vanguard in the course of the investigation. She was then warned to discontinue the use of Lindane but she retorted, "I have no choice, I could not sleep. I agree if you say this thing is no longer safe but these insects eating me and my son won't go!"
The case of Master Ayo Feyiji, a seven-year old pupil of Christ the King Nursery and Primary School, Surulere, is poignant and pathetic. The little boy lives directly opposite the dump with Mr. Simon Feyiji, his father. This boy, whose mother does not live with them, has been coughing seriously since two weeks after the dumping of the sludge.
His father, who is a guard in charge of one of the properties facing the dump, lives with the boy in the gate house. The wind blows across the house from the dump and any visitor can feel the itching effects within few minutes of entering the vicinity. Master Ayo Feyiji was urinating every five minutes and looked very sick when Sunday Vanguard visited last Wednesday. His father had already taken him to a chemist's shop and purchased drugs worth N2,500 but the cough refused to stop.
Following the persistence of the cough and the emotional statement by the little boy, Sunday Vanguard had to offer financial assistance to push the father to take the boy to a medical doctor at Randle Hospital, Surulere. "I have been coughing. I was coughing. But I don't know why o!", said the little boy emphatically as he coughed repeatedly and spat with water running out of his eyes down his cheeks.
The case of Prince Anyanwu, a 30-year old engineer, is not different. While Mrs. Olayinka is not finding it difficult to explain the unfolding scenario to her son, her son Sola who is a stammerer muttered incoherently his anger and the strange insects he had picked for Sunday Vanguard to see in a plastic container. Anyanwu was utterly confused and dumbfounded in his case. He found no words to explain to his wife-Juan - a Chinese national, who barely spoke English about the sudden transformation taking place on the pristine wetland across the road - facing their house.
"What you have there on the wetland over there facing our house is a bunch of death!", Anyanwu explained. From investigation, the landscape where the contractors dumped the alleged wastes is a fragile ecosystem (wetland). The contractors had dumped the sludge without taking into cognizance of any scientific test, ecological or health consideration to the living things in the area. The Ministry of the Environment is also not helping matters with their alleged backing. With almost permanent power outage from the national electricity company, Anyanwu and other residents found it difficult to switch the air-conditioners on.
The windows across the entire neighbourhood are also permanently locked to prevent both the invading insects and smoke emanating from the dump from entering. The odour from the site was nauseating. When Sunday Vanguard visited the site the first time, the peppering effects on the eyes were obvious. Sunday Vanguard had to run away from the place after spending about two hours. Walking along the streets linking Orile with Babs Animashaun can be traumatizing. Passersby have to either block their nostrils or run across to avoid the pungent odour oozing out.
For the residents, it has become a permanent feature and they may have to contend with it for a while. A representative of the contractors was once accosted and queried on the site by Dr. Pat Akinbobola, an epidemiologist who resides in the neighbourhood. The representative told Akinbola that they were working for the Ministry of the Environment and that their aim was to transform the wetland and make it a terminus for the BRT buses.
On further questioning, he bolted away and never returned. Few days after, the signpost of the contractors which bore their name, telephone numbers and insignia and the Ministry of the Environment was removed under the cover of darkness.
On one of the numerous visits to the site to capture the grim picture facing the inhabitants, Sola Olayinka, who is deformed and stammers, uttered some words obviously in anger. He again showed some things inside a plastic bottle. He thought this was evidence. When Sunday Vanguard asked what he was talking about, his mother retorted: "He is showing you the strange insects that invaded his bed.
I am always having constant headache since they brought these toxic materials," said Aminat Adeola, a resident in one of the streets. Mrs. Olayinka corroborated this when she confirmed to Sunday Vanguard that she had been having headache and unable to sleep at night.
"You do not see the insects when they are biting you but when you wake up in the morning, you see the effects and their bites all over your body", said Anyanwu. Akinbobola, an epidemiologist who trained in the United States of America, warned that unless Lagos State government stops this dumping, there could be an outbreak of epidemic in the area very soon.
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