FCT, Kano, Lagos residents differ on activities of scavengers
Scavengers, popularly known as baban-bola, are said to engage in both legal and illegal activities as they source scrap materials for recycling. While majority of them collect items from refuse bins with their trucks, there are also notorious ones who wander neighbourhoods with large bags slung over their shoulders. Residents usually feel the impact of […]
Scavengers, popularly known as baban-bola, are said to engage in both legal and illegal activities as they source scrap materials for recycling. While majority of them collect items from refuse bins with their trucks, there are also notorious ones who wander neighbourhoods with large bags slung over their shoulders.
Residents usually feel the impact of the scavengers’ absence whenever they are not around like during festive periods, and especiallywhen the authorities crack down on them.
During these times, refuse bins quickly fill to capacity. The scavengers provide a valuable service by collecting refuse, which is likely due to the profitable items they find within the trash. Weekend Trust spotlights the good, bad and ugly sides of scavengers in the society, with some noting that they are necessary to the growth of the recycling economy of the country.
In Kubwa, one of the major towns in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), scavengers had a designated colony set up by the Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD), an agency under the FCT Administration.
The facility, popularly known as Gidan-Bola, was located off the expressway and served as a dumping ground.
Scavengers would bring the refuse they collected from neighbourhoods across the town to this facility, where they would sort out materials like plastic waste, iron and empty cartons. The unneeded refuse was then taken away by truck drivers hired by the same FCT agency.
Recycling dealers used to buy the sorted items from the scavengers and supply them to recycling plants for a profit.
While the activities of this group of scavengers could be considered a legal business, the same cannot be said for those who carry sack bags.
Many of them are alleged to pick up whatever they see in an exercise that usually begins before dawn.
A community leader, Musa Madaki, noted that many residents had lost valuable items to these activities, which are often carried out with confrontation.
According to him, anyone who tries to speak out against them risks being attacked with a sharp object.
He said, ‘’There have also been cases of vandalism of public infrastructure, such as aluminum and iron protectors installed around bridges, manhole covers and electrical cables. Both categories of scavengers have been linked to these thefts.
Worried by this development, the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, recently declared a state of emergency against scavengers and the scrap dealers accused of patronising them.
As a result, the Gidan-Bola facility, where scavengers had also set up their wooden makeshift homes, was torn down by the same authority that had established it years before.
The facility has since been taken over by a market developer and its original fence was pulled down on Wednesday.
Our reporter, who was at the facility during the exercise, interviewed some of the scavengers, who expressed their worries about the development.
‘We Make out a living scavenging’
One of them, Abdullahi Lawan, who hails from Mashib Local Government Area in Katsina State, said he had spent 15 years operating in the facility, even when it was considered a lonely, bushy location.
He said he didn’t know where to relocate to after being ejected from the centre that served as both a workshop and a home for over a decade. He said he lost a lot of property during the authorities’ crackdown at the facility, where many of their wheelbarrows and other belongings were set ablaze.
His colleague, Rabilu Aliyu, said he spent about 12 years at the centre, providing for his family and relatives back home through the business. “Following our ejection from here, we attempted to relocate to another site near a river, but we have since been sacked from there as well,” he lamented.
He urged the FCT authorities to provide them with a new location.
Zaliha Aminu, a widow with about 10 orphans in her care, supports them by buying plastic waste from the colony and supplying it to a recycling plant. She said that every day she would go to the dumping ground to source items from the scavengers to make a living. She said her late husband was a businessman with shops in the Gwarimpa district in Abuja.
“He fell ill as a result of the demolition and ultimately lost his life. I have no option but to engage in this business to look after my children,” she said.
With the demolition of the scavengers’ colony, there is concern that the illegal dumping of refuse by both residents and the scavengers will increase, particularly around the river.
Similarly, hhundreds of poor teenagers in Kano eke out a living scavenging solid wastes and plastic bottles in the streets, which end up in recycling plants. Metal and rubber scavenging has become a source of income providing means of livelihood to many amidst risks associated with the business.
A 12-year-old Mustapha Inuwa covers a distance of 5 kilometers trekking from Gama Quarters to Kwakwaci, a scavenger’s colony, to sell solid wastes he gathered.
Mustapha attends a Quranic school in his neighbourhood but he must scavenge to get what to eat and support his family. His mother works at a factory in Bompai, while his ailing father is bedridden.
“After Quranic school I go scavenging every day to get some money for food. After searching waste sites to gather trash, plastic bottles and pure water sacks, I make between N500 and N1,000 a day, with which I buy food for myself and support my siblings.
“I have a younger one and a sister attending public school but they cannot struggle like me to earn money,” the young Mustapha said.
A scavenger’s colony located at Kwakwaci, behind Hajj camp, is the destination where many scavengers like Mustapha go to sell his collected wastes.
Sabo Tanko, a collector of wastes, said whatever he bought was sorted and sold to other people who recycle them.
“Here, I collect recyclable materials like nylon and plastic bottles. We pay N400 for each kilogram; and many boys bring collected recyclable wastes here to get paid,” he said.
But unlike Mustapha, Ismaila Sani, another scavenger from Sheka Quarters, evacuates refuse wastes on his wheel cart from residential buildings at just N50 or N100, depending on the volume. He scavenges for plastic bottles and other recyclable materials from the evacuated refuse and sell same to other collectors.
“There are no refuse dumpsites close by, so I evacuate waste for a fee and look for plastic bottles and other items that I can sell to make money. Before now, we took the refuse to dumpsite at Court Road, but the place has been fenced now and they don’t allow us dump waste there,” Sani told our correspondent.
Deenu Umar collects empty old sack to resell at Kwalema recycling market at Tudun Murtala in Nasarawa Local Government Area.
He said he earned a living coming to the market to sell collected old sacks, which are usually crushed and resold to sack manufacturing companies.
Najib Abubakar, who runs a rubber crushing outfit at the Kwalema recycling market, said collectors of coloured plastic rubber from Kwakwaci and other places usually supplied the goods to him, which he crushes and sells to plastic factories at the Sharada industrial area and even Lagos.
He said, “I buy scrap rubber directly from collectors at Kwakwaci and other places. I buy only coloured plastic rubber, preferably yellow or blue, which I crush with machine and resell to plastic factories.”
Similarly, Mukhtari Magashi, who owns a recycling outfit at Sharada, said the business relied on scavengers to collect the recyclable materials for them to recycle and reuse, making them critical to the business, thereby contributing to the economy.
He noted, “Scavengers contribute to the success of our business. They collect and bring scraps of rubber, which we recycle to produce items, such as rubber plates, buckets, cups, gallons and other things.”
But the business has its ugly side associated with security risk or petty theft. Some of the scavengers are accused of petty theft of items left unattended by owners.
The Kano State Government has, for instance, banned scavengers and waste recycling plants from buying or selling hospital and other medical waste, with a strict warning that violators would face severe sanction.
The special adviser to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf on environment and sanitation, Abdullahi Shehu Bichi, an engineer, announced the ban during an inspection of the Dakata small scale industrial area, where recyclable items are often sold without authorisation.
Following heavy explosion at a metal scrap metal park in June, the Kano State Government ordered all metal scrap dealers to stop import of waste metal from the North-East into the state.
The state Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, AVM Ibrahim Umar, gave the directive as a consequence of the explosion which ended the lives of five people, with others sustaining various degrees of injury.
The commissioner said preliminary investigation had shown that explosives were concealed in the scrap materials from the North-East.
Rains put pause to scavenging in Lagos
In Lagos, scavengers have become a common sight, pushing their carts through neighbourhoods, dumpsites and roadsides in search of discarded materials. Their activities, though central to the city’s informal recycling economy, have also drawn concern from residents and the authorities over alleged links to theft and vandalism.
Many scavengers start their day at dawn, combing streets, refuse bins and dumpsites for recyclable items, such as plastic bottles, aluminum pots, copper wire and iron rods. These are sold to middlemen and scrap dealers, who in turn supply recycling companies and metal factories.
Traders in the sector told our correspondent that a kilogram of aluminum pots sells between N1,500 and N1,800, while plastic bottles fetch between N150 and N200 per kilogram, depending on quality. On a good day, a scavenger can earn between N3,000 and N5,000.
Receivers at scrap yard in Fagba and Ishaga confirmed that most of their supplies came from these informal collectors.
“They bring the bulk of the aluminum and PET bottles we sell to recycling companies. Without them, factories will struggle to get raw materials,” said a scrap dealer in Fagba, who requested not to be named.”
However, the authorities in Lagos have repeatedly expressed worry over the excesses of scavengers. Earlier this year, the Lagos State House of Assembly urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to enforce provisions of the Environmental Management and Protection Law, 2017 to check their activities.
The lawmakers cited cases of theft of manhole covers, vandalisation of public infrastructure and insecurity in residential areas.
The Speaker of the House, Mojisola Meranda, alleged that scavengers often served as cover for criminals. She called on the police and other agencies “to arrest any person found stealing and vandalising public infrastructure and ensure that offenders face the full wrath of the law.”
The Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) also issued several warnings to individuals and private property owners against allowing unlicensed scavenging and recycling activities on their premises.
LAWMA’s managing director, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, said the agency would “apply strict enforcement measures and penalties on anyone found engaging in illegal recycling or scavenging.”
According to him, the informal sector remains vital for waste recovery, but unregulated practices expose communities to crime and environmental hazards.
They have their good and bad sides — Lagos residents
Alongside officials, many residents also spoke on how the activities of scavengers have affected their areas, both positively and negatively.
In Ojodu, Kafayat (surname withheld), said her community had suffered repeated losses whenever scavengers passed by.
“They usually come to the front of our gates and remove the padlocks. If the gate is unlocked, they just take away the padlock. It has happened to my compound twice; and other landlords have also made similar complaints,” she said.
However not all residents share this view. At Iju Ishaga, Mr Samuel Adewale described scavengers as “helpful in their own way.”
“They reduce the dirt in our streets by picking bottles, plastics and irons. Sometimes, when I have old pots or damaged irons, I call them to take it away. Not all of them are thieves; many are just trying to survive.
“Recently, I had issues dumping my old standing fan and I left it outside my house; before dawn, it was gone. A lot of scrap and damaged appliances have been effectively put away with the help of these scavengers,” he said.
Officer Laraba Idachaba described scavenging as “a legal dealing” that supports recycling, but warned that it is increasingly being exploited for crime.
“They are helping us to recycle our waste into something useful; however, you will see scavengers vandalising amenities and critical government infrastructures like railway lines and bridges. They even sometimes steal cars in the name of scrap,” she noted.
According to her, the removal of manhole covers has created dangerous sinkholes that expose night-time pedestrians to serious accidents.
She also alleged that kidnappers and criminals sometimes posed as scavengers to gather intelligence information.
“Scavengers even give information to criminals and provide insights into activities happening in a community,” Idachaba said.
She recommended that scrap buyers only deal with licensed scavengers who carry valid identification, while waste management agencies in each state should work more closely with the groups. She also called for stronger community policing.
“The community should also help. Members know those in and out of their environment very well. They should monitor scavengers’ activities, ask valid questions about the scrap in their possession and report suspicious movements immediately,” she said.
Despite the challenges, experts note that scavengers play a crucial role in the Lagos State waste management chain.
Recycling companies and other metal processing firms rely heavily on supplies from informal collectors such as scavengers.
Environmentalists argue that with proper registration, training and monitoring, the sector could create jobs, reduce waste and feed raw materials into industries, while limiting opportunities for crime.