₦airaland Forum

OPINION: Roads, Bridges Can’t Mask Abuja’s Growing Waste Disaster

Abuja was once a city admired for its serenity and relative cleanliness. Today, those glory days are gone. Under Nyesom Wike’s stewardship as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the capital has witnessed an alarming decline in its environment. Mountains of refuse now line street corners, drainages are choked with silt and plastics, and the stench of neglect lingers in neighbourhoods where residents once took pride in their surroundings.

Wike is desperate to be seen as a “performer,” but performance is not measured only in asphalt and concrete. His tenure so far has been marked by ribbon-cutting ceremonies for roads and bridges, vanity projects that create photo opportunities but leave behind a city buckling under the weight of poor waste management. Abuja is a capital where prestige has always rested not just on its architecture, but on its order and its cleanliness. That reputation is now in tatters.

In just two years, the transformation has been unmistakably negative. Refuse piles stay uncollected for weeks in the city centre, while satellite towns have been reduced to open-air dumps. Heavy rains turn blocked gutters into cesspools, fuelling floods and exposing residents to cholera, malaria, and other diseases. The minister’s fixation on showpiece projects betrays a lack of understanding of what makes a city liveable.

Wike’s defenders argue that infrastructure matters — and they are right. But infrastructure without sustainability is hollow. A city is not defined only by how quickly one can drive across its bridges, but also by whether its children grow up free from the hazards of environmental decay. The capital of Africa’s largest economy should never look, smell, or feel like a neglected slum.

Other cities have faced similar crises but responded with foresight. Curitiba in Brazil became a global model of urban renewal by investing in waste-for-recycling schemes that engaged citizens directly. Seoul in South Korea transformed its waste system by introducing accountability measures that forced both government and residents to act responsibly. Even cities like Kigali, with far fewer resources than Abuja, maintain standards of cleanliness that Nigeria’s capital can only dream of today.

The contrast is stark. Where others embraced sustainability, Wike clings to vanity. Where others saw waste management as central to governance, Abuja’s leadership treats it as an afterthought. The result is a capital city in decay, one where residents are forced to live with filth while their minister boasts about highways.

Abuja’s decline is not inevitable; it is a direct product of leadership choices. When governance prioritises optics over essentials, when competence gives way to theatrics, the city suffers. Wike has shown glaring incompetence in understanding that sanitation is the backbone of urban life. Without clean streets, functional drainage, and an efficient waste system, no bridge can hide the shame that Abuja has become.

For those of us who live here, the pain is personal. The Abuja of today is not the Abuja we knew. It is a city stripped of its pride, buried in refuse, and betrayed by the very leadership meant to preserve its dignity. Unless there is a radical change in priorities, the decline will only deepen. And history will remember that under Wike, the city once known for order and cleanliness became a cautionary tale of environmental degradation.

Bewaji, a Recycling Specialist lives in Abuja

https://independent.ng/roads-bridges-cant-mask-abujas-growing-waste-disaster/

Wike is the worst FCT minister after Bala Mohammed.
FTC after many years

Woke doing well with the roads and bridges but he need to step up on environmental and security

I must confess that this is true, especially for Gwagwalada. Hmmm Refuse eating up the roads

Meanwhile, Wike did just well in the Gwagwalada roads, but for refuse.

Wike thinks Abuja is Rivers state. The once clean and green city is now looking dirty like the slums of Rumuokoro. He's busy inviting media houses, erecting canopies and commissioning the commencement of installation of streetlights.

AMINDA:
Wike thinks Abuja is Rivers state. The once clean and green city is now looking dirty like the slums of Rumuokoro. He's busy inviting media houses, erecting canopies and commissioning the commencement of installation of streetlights.

Is wike that poured the dirt on the ground. Nigerians should learn how to dispose waste properly first

Nigerians will blame everybody apart from themselves

Wike only does things that benefits him, he has looked at the waste management and seen it will not benefit him like roads and bridges...

Even if some people mess , they'll blame wike for the stench, you'll hear he should have prepare somewhere where the stench will go, inside all of una wike haters church mind, you all knew wike is the best fct minister so far in the history of Nigeria, one thing I know be say, if you like kill yourself for people, who hate you no go like you.

lordm:
Is wike that poured the dirt on the ground. Nigerians should learn how to dispose waste properly first

The Agbadorians are here again. Waste collection, management and disposal is a core function of government. That's part of what taxes are for. Abuja is not Lagos that has surrendered to filth.

This one needs mental health check. I mean he needs to visit a mental hospital

lordm:
Is wike that poured the dirt on the ground. Nigerians should learn how to dispose waste properly first

he has never flag off the clearing of those waste that is the reason the waste is there

Hold Nigerians responsible.
How do you litter everywhere just like that
Dump refused indiscriminately
Drink and drop plastic bottles and water sachets
Nigerians need serious orientation

No matter what you do to make Nigeria better, haters and saboteurs will always look for another avenue to damage your creditability.You dispose refuse indiscriminately and have sympathy Boko Haram and bandits but turned around to blame the minister, because he is not from your tribe .

Don't mind them. They are not smart to understand that even though roads and bridges are good, they are very good conduit of embezzlement and centre of attraction with media unlike waste management that simply requires a systematic approach.

ogugwa1992:
OPINION: Roads, Bridges Can’t Mask Abuja’s Growing Waste Disaster




https://independent.ng/roads-bridges-cant-mask-abujas-growing-waste-disaster/

When I saw the headline, I thought the writer would post pictures of the growing waste disaster as evidence but he was just rambling about…… he’s definitely doing a hatchet job for an opposition party

There's no how you will be developing a city, with people living there...
eating and shitting up and down...
They are going to produce waste, and if you don't start recycling,...
your waste systems will get overloaded and the whole place
will become a mess.

Waste management should be top priority.

The inside matters more than the outside

As they have nothing to use to attack Wike again, they have now moved to waste management. They keep throwing everything at him with the hope that one will stick.

Proper management of waste is government duty ...u issue a law on how waste should be disposed and follow it up by providing the place where it will be disposed. Then makes sure those agency created for it ,regularly comes with their refuse truck to take the wastes to their final distinction

Saig:
Hold Nigerians responsible.
How do you litter everywhere just like that
Dump refused indiscriminately
Drink and drop plastic bottles and water sachets
Nigerians need serious orientation

You are the one who needs orientation. Have you ever heard of the term waste management? From your contribution I doubt you have. Wherever there are humans there is bound to be waste and the state provides a system of managing such through a systematic and comprehensive process of handling, storing, collecting, transporting, processing, recycling, and disposing of waste materials to minimize their negative impacts on public health and the environment. This is more than trashing dirt. Some of you really have a lot to learn. Go and drop that phone and start learning for your own good now!

osuofia2:
Woke doing well with the roads and bridges but he need to step up on environmental and security

Wike will never do anything about waste and drainage.
The only thing he knows cares about and do is build roads and bridges and collect his cut from the inflated contract sums.
That's how he ran Rivers State when he was with us here.
Wike cares nothing about administration or man power development.
He left all the fantastic schools and health centers Amechi built to rot away.
He never promoted workers through out his tenure and never recruited any.
He is so selfish that the only thing he does are things that bring huge monetary returns to his personal pocket.

AMINDA:
Wike thinks Abuja is Rivers state. The once clean and green city is now looking dirty like the slums of Rumuokoro. He's busy inviting media houses, erecting canopies and commissioning the commencement of installation of streetlights.

Doing projects instead of putting FCT money in beer factory isn't a bad thing.

The waste issue will be sorted out. Trust wicked to put deterrence measures in place soon where you lot will soon cry over it.

Stop embarrassing we Igbos on this forum please

lordm:
Is wike that poured the dirt on the ground. Nigerians should learn how to dispose waste properly first

As the dust bin for road don full, they should start swallowing their refuse, while they pay tax and dues for something that was not done.

Stop victim blaming, and support of your oppressors

AMINDA:
Wike thinks Abuja is Rivers state. The once clean and green city is now looking dirty like the slums of Rumuokoro. He's busy inviting media houses, erecting canopies and commissioning the commencement of installation of streetlights.

all what wike is doing in Abuja is needed and necessary, when he asked people littering Abuja including beggers to leave... Some of una carry placards.... Tell me one significant thing the past FCT minister did under buhari and under Jonathan almost 14 yrs FCT has been stagnant... Make wike perform magic in jst two yrs.... Waste wey dem no pack for 14 yrs make wike use 2 yrs pack am... Kai

osuofia2:
Woke doing well with the roads and bridges but he need to step up on environmental and security

These ones won't give him money. It's same thing he did in Rivers State.

So who is better, Buhari's FCT minister for 8 years that did zero new project but hired only cleaners to clean Abuja for 8 years with bad roads and lagos like traffic and insecurity.

I prefer Mr Wike, Mr Projects a billion times. All members of the national assembly are singing wike's praises. Including the northern assembly members.

We should tell our fellow Nigerians to dispose off their waste like reasonable people.

AMINDA:
Wike thinks Abuja is Rivers state. The once clean and green city is now looking dirty like the slums of Rumuokoro. He's busy inviting media houses, erecting canopies and commissioning the commencement of installation of streetlights.

lordm:
Is wike that poured the dirt on the ground. Nigerians should learn how to dispose waste properly first

How do you dspose waste properly
By swallowing it right?

Chachalogo:
Wike is the worst FCT minister after Bala Mohammed.
FTC after many years

Cry cry IPOB. W sight una. Shane no dey catch una. Wike is a performer.

seunmsg:
As they have nothing to use to attack Wike again, they have now moved to waste management. They keep throwing everything at him with the hope that one will stick.

Don't mind the IPOB people they are terrible. There messiah obi dud not buikd a single secondary school for good 8 years