How Not To Fight Poverty

Submitted by LEADERSHIP EDITORS on February 21, 2012 - 6:45am

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• JOHN OBA

Nigerian youths, the fabled leaders of tomorrow, have curiously been  scavenging in a desperate move to survive the hard times, and cater for their families. Scavenging in itself is synonymous with poverty and for it to be a means of sustenance for families is worrisome. In this piece, JOHN OBA makes a case for youths who find themselves in this situation and urges the government to address the condition that gives rise to the degrading job.

For a section of the youths in Nigeria, scavenging is assuming an alarming dimension in their attempt to eke out a living. For most, the attraction is the waste-recycling component, which is not that bad in itself.It is now a common sight for young Nigerians going around dump sites and waste bins searching for wastes or scraps to be collected for recycling.

Scavenging, for most, can provide decent livelihood from the sale of the salvaged items. there are many more uses of the dirty  job:  it reduces the volume of solid waste, it reduces the cost of collection and disposal of solid wastes; it sustains some industries that use salvaged items as raw materials, it provides jobs to unemployed youth and it creates the potential for sophisticated recycling plants to be established as some of it advantages. But it comes at a cost.

According to Mr. Ayo Thomas, a youth expert, the future of the youth involved in the trade is very bleak. The reason is because for them the trade is poverty driven in contrast to the modern thinking of annexing local skills, competencies and resourcefulness to complement government and international organizations efforts towards promoting recycling and re-use of waste in a way to reducing its nuisance  and in turn create more wealth from the waste.

The overall thinking in this regard is to create enterprising business opportunities in waste disposal, management and recycling using local know-how.

“Since poverty is worsened by dearth of social amenities like schools, hospitals and other forms of government empowerment support programmes, the future of the youths will continue to be locked in poverty and the consequences will be dire for the society," Thomas said.

However, scavenging has some detrimental effect on the health of the scavengers, according to Mr. Adepoju G. Onibokunin in his write up, “Managing the Monster: Urban Waste and Governance in Africa.” He said, “They run the risk of suffering from eye irritation; respiratory diseases, with coughing, sneezing, etc; skin disease, especially scabies; minor injuries from stepping on broken bottles or sharp objects in the refuse; headaches from working in the sun and backaches from bending down most of the time. These, according to him, are only a few of the dangers of life on the streets.

“Just as in rural areas, a young person alone is an easy target. Many become victims of criminal adults who make money through child trafficking. For too many Nigerian young people, life is about work than anything else. And in many cases, it is certainly not work by choice.

Chronic diseases like respiratory disease and cancers resulting from exposure to dust and hazardous compounds, accidental injuries, which include skeletal disorders resulting from the handling of heavy containers; infected wounds from contact with sharp items; poisoning and chemical burns resulting from contact with small amounts of hazardous chemical waste mixed with general waste; and burns and other injuries from occupational accidents at waste disposal sites or from methane-gas explosions at landfill sites.

This set of youth is prone to crime and they pose security threat to the society and could pass as potential recruits for terrorism. The companies they scavenge for also are not helping matters as they buy the waste from them for a pittance even as they do not provide any welfare incentive or training knowing the risk of scavenging especially to the health of the scavengers. And the government also feels less concerned as if this set of people is not part of the society.

Speaking with a senior official in a department of the Ministry of Youth Development, he said that the youth policy of the Federal Government captured this set of youths but lamented that there was no fund to activate it. He further revealed that the ministry had no programme for them. “One of the problems here is that most of the directors are neither youth experts nor professionals; they are administrators brought from other ministries, have no knowledge on how to implement programmes that will benefit this set of youth”.

But the Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi while speaking with LEADERSHIP through his special assistant on media, Mr Julius Ogunro, said that the ministry was set to engage this level of youth in the society through the Youth Employment Programme targeted at the unskilled youth.

“The minister is trying to address the root cause of this through his youth Employment Programme targeted at training youths in marketable skills, because the problem is not unemployment, but it is about lack of skill. We will commence this this year, they will be picked up from their different areas and trained in skills that would provide them an opportunity to make a living.”

This, he said, would be done through the Development Centres in partnership with the private sectors.

The government should assist this group financially while the scavengers should form cooperative societies so that members could secure loans through such  societies.
Besides, the government should recognise the scavengers union and give it legal backing; the scavengers should be trained to go about their business in a way that maximises profit–they  should be trained to wear protective gears, such as overalls, jungle boots, gloves, helmets and nose masks, which would further enhance their dignity and the scavengers should receive basic health training (first aid) to learn how to take care  of themselves in case of any minor injury.

The ministries of Youth Development and Environment must harness the potentials of these  youths by rehabilitating them and training them, ensuring that they become agent of industrialisation,  enlightened, educated and involved in the recycling programme of the government.

The Non-Governmental Organisations too should reach out to help this youth segment by saving them from becoming a menace to the nation in the future.

Mr Thomas further advised the government to build recycling industries and create massive feeder dumping sites to receive all scavenged materials in meaningful transactions where the buyers and sellers would meet and engage in a business environment. The sites should be equipped with social amenities like schools, hospitals etc to provide those actively engaged in it the opportunity to be schooled, given necessary orientations on the hazards of the jobs  and  modern ways of scavenging that would further bring relief, reduce infections and create better jobs opportunities in a traditional recycling trade business. As it is today, those young scavengers are the forgotten race.