Iwo road is one of the largest and arguably the most popular among the vehicle terminals that give Ibadan a commercial advantage as a major transit point in southwestern Nigeria. And because of its centrality to navigating the region, it doubles as a commercial nerve of the city in its own right.

But the same Iwo road — the length and breadth of it — also enjoys the notoreity of being a putrid dumpsite. The waste appear to have been accepted as a permanent feature of the bus port. No one bats an eyelid; residents, stall owners and visitors, simply walk through it and go about their different businesses

The severity of it all first tugged at my consciousness in November 2023 while I was returning from a field trip to Okeho, where I travelled to document the fate of a young girl who was about to be forced out of school into an early marriage due to poverty.

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Design by Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite image captured at Iwo Road on November 24, 2023

Dumpsite image captured at Iwo Road on November 24, 2023

I was walking across from Rose Wale fuel station to the Lagos bus section at the extreme end or entrance of the bus port — depending on how it is approached. I had to cross the road through the dump and almost accidentally dipped my foot into decomposed fecal waste. The dump, consisting of waste of different layers and intensity of decomposure, sat comfortably in the middle of the road and in smaller pockets at different parts of the asphalt.

More recently on August 3, I spent enough time in Iwo road to experience the severity of the waste crisis, while reporting the #EndbadGovernance protest for the Foundation for Investigative Journalism. This time, I consistently struggled to converse with sources because of the stench oozing from the waste, especially in points that enjoy rapid decomposition.

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

Dumpsite in the middle of the road, captured at Iwo Road on August 3, 2024. Credit: EQ/Timileyin Akinmoyeje

The situation appeared even more hopeless to me when I decided to sample the opinions of the stall owners and traders in the vicinity on waste management. Two things became apparent to me. The first was that despite the size and location of the market, the government did not have a proper structure for waste collection.

Secondly, littering is a cultural problem in the market. Many people do not see the issue with disposing any type of waste on the floor or in the most righteous situation possible, at the intersection of the road.

For instance, I bought a bottle of Maltina from Aliya, a woman in her late 20s who sells cold drinks at a makeshift mall beside the NIMC verification centre, and asked her how to dispose of the bottle. She looked at me like I made a bad joke.

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I insisted and asked if there were dustbins around the market. I told her I didn’t mind walking the distance to look for these dustbins. One man who had been paying attention to our conversation laughed and asked me if I thought I was in Lagos.

“Do you think you’re in Lagos? This place is called Ibadan. Throw it somewhere there”, he said in Yoruba while trying to stiffle a rather throaty laughter. This third party works at the meat stall, also situated beside the verification centre.

So, when I asked him how he disposes of his waste, he told me that his paper and plastic waste first go inside a bin before he offloads them to the road intersection. “The only thing I don’t throw around here is the remains of meat, so that everywhere won’t smell too badly.”

To find out more, I donned my repertorial kimono and crossed the road towards Rose Wale filling station. There is a small shed where some women, about five, make and sell fries by that side of the road, not too far from fuel station. I requested for fried yam and Akara (beans cake) and asked the ladies if there were dustbins around the market where I could throw the paper after eating.

The responses were not so different from what I had heard from Aliya. With a hint of mockery in their responses, the ladies made it very apparent that there were no public dustbins around that vicinity. The most friendly of the three ladies pointed me to a sack nearby and told me I could eat and dump my refuse inside it.

None of the other stall owners around gave me a different response. Not Taiwo, who receptioned at Banky Roy ventures, where I charged my phone for a fee. Not even Khadija, who sells food and drinks a few meters away from Rose Wale. And definitely not the Point of Sales lady who would not give her name if I would not do business.

On Monday, I wrote to the Oyo State Government about the waste disposal situation at Iwo road and the persistently stinking dumpsite. The State feedback system responded and stated that it had escalated the ‘blackspots to the authorities’. More importantly, the state responded that several deep cleans had been done to the blackspots in Iwo road in the past, as “stop gap measures”.

“The government is already putting skip bins in markets and more waste bins will be deployed in public places across the State.  We have escalated reports about the black spot at Iwo Road to the authorities, and several deep cleans have been done as a stopgap measure,” the response read in part.

As of June 2023, Nigeria was ranked among 30 countries with the worst waste management practices in the world, according to a report by Dataphyte. Similarly, Oyo State itself had been evaluated to be only 25 percent hygienic, according to a 2022 technical study the of cleanliness level in Nigeria done by Clean Up Nigeria.
The post Iwo Road, Ibadan’s Most Popular Park, Is a Putrid Dumpsite. And Gov’t Is Not Doing Enough appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.