Waste Management in Contemporary Nigeria : The Abuja Example

Environmental hazards of varying magnitude dangerously threaten human and animal lives in most urban centers in Nigeria. As the case of Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, used in this study revealed, rapid urbanization, rural-urban migration, little or no town planning efforts coupled with attitudinal irresponsibility, lack of political will, ineptitude and graft have independently and collectively created environmental challenge in Nigeria. With human/solid waste decorating street corners and public space everywhere in Nigeria, the study teased out the institutional measures taken to confront waste management in Nigeria. Can Nigeria cope with the consequences of the avalanche of solid waste its citizens produce daily? What values of cleanliness abound amongst the people and why do we have solid waste all around? By adopting the sociological approach, the study answered these and many other questions using archival and survey research methods. As the study found, solid waste management has overwhelmed Nigerian government. Besides, the spirited efforts to combat the problem, which began, for Abuja, in 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo has since been relaxed under the incumbent, President Sheu Musa Yar’Adua