Efio-Ita Nyok|24 May 2016|6:10am
'Madam, der tie you for der? De place de smell you still stand de cover your nose. Nah you sabi o! Calabar is clean and beautiful'.
—Emmanuel Oko Ogar
23 May 2016
Calabar.
The above statement is attributed to Comr. Emmanuel Oko Ogar. It's comical but sends a serious message.
Ogar could not help but use the incident, which transpired at Atimbo by Edim Otop Junction in Calabar Municipality, to send a very sensitive information about the general cleanliness, aesthetics and hygiene of Calabar, Cross River State capital city.
In the featured picture you find a girl standing by a heap of refuse. This rubbish site exudes putrefying stench, but the lady instead of exiting from the site of the rubbish is understood to be still standing there, as if strapped, and using a cupped palm to cover her nostrils from inhaling the uncomfortable odour!
The question is, 'why don't you leave there young lady!? Must you stand there!?' Her obvious reply is, 'there is no where to run to; every where is literally the same. Where you expect me to run to is no different from where I am standing. So, what purpose does it serve to leave this sordid site to another, probably worst?'
What is trending in Calabar now or the transformation notably taking place in Calabar is the proliferation, not of arms, but of sites for refuse dump! The popular Goldie Market bordering the University of Calabar from where we have the stadium facility is harbouring a refuse dump right inside the market. This evolving pyramid is stretching towards the Goldie Road. That is an impending disease outbreak waiting to happen on Calabar. There is another similar heap of rubbish at Hewett surrounding the round about at Watt Market.
I can go on and on, Calabar has been finally transformed into a city of dirts and refuse dump! I don't know what the brief of Ministry of Environment and Calabar Urban Development Authority is any longer. In fact, Cross Riverians, like myself, are confused. We have been strapped, trapped and transfixed to inhale and behold a wonder —the evolution of Calabar dirt site! It's a modern miracle, miracle in the sense that it's happening very fast, and defying scientific explanation.
It seems even the governor of Cross River State don't really understand how and why Calabar is becoming this dirty! To his Commissioner for Environment, Mike Eraye, the owing of 11 months salaries to those who are responsible for cleaning Calabar can't be the reason. They maybe lazy.
Hmmmmm, hilarious things happen in Executive Councils!
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroid Haven