EDITORIAL: Messy battle over toilets in Anambra: Pecuniary or public interest? Soludo must intervene

BY TONY OKAFOR

The unfolding controversy over the management of public toilets in Anambra State is becoming increasingly embarrassing. What should ordinarily be a straightforward matter of public sanitation and hygiene has degenerated into a messy turf war involving allegations of intimidation, competing claims of ownership and accusations of vested interests.

The questions are many, and the Anambra State Government owes Ndi Anambra some answers.

Why should the Ministries of Environment and Transport be entangled in a controversy over public toilets in motor parks? Which ministry has the statutory responsibility for approving, regulating and managing such facilities?

If there are conflicting interpretations of their respective mandates, why can the matter not be resolved internally through administrative consultations rather than allowing it to spill into the public domain?

More troubling are the allegations that armed men invaded a private motor park, assaulted its operators and forcibly took away a female toilet attendant.

The Commissioner for Environment, Clems Aguiyi, has dismissed the account, insisting that no such incident occurred.
Yet, the allegations are serious enough to warrant an independent investigation. A government agency cannot enforce sanitation regulations through intimidation if the allegations are established.

There is also the question of ownership. The ministry says it is recovering government-owned public toilets, while the management of Goodness and Mercy Mass Transit Limited insists that its facility is privately owned. Who is telling the truth?

The government should publish a clear inventory of the affected facilities, indicating their ownership and the legal basis for taking over each one.

Perhaps the most important question is: who are the cabals said to be benefiting from this mess? If, as the commissioner alleges, some powerful interests have hijacked public toilets and are enriching themselves from the proceeds, who are these people? Why have they been allowed to operate outside the law? And is the new management arrangement free from the same vested interests the ministry claims to be fighting?

The government must not allow a sanitation policy to become a vehicle for private enrichment, political patronage or bureaucratic rivalry.

Public toilets are essential public infrastructure, not cash cows for politically connected individuals or government officials. Ndi Anambra deserve clean, accessible and affordable facilities, not a spectacle of competing authorities.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo must step in, establish the facts and resolve this controversy. The battle should be about public health, not pecuniary interests masquerading as public service.