…Toilets, urinaries stinking, locked
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Work formally resumed in Nigeria today, Thursday, 6th June 2019, after the two-day Eid-el Fitr holiday with government workers and staff of public institutions reporting at their various places of work.
At the Rivers State Secretariat that houses the various ministries, some of the workers also reported to their offices while some did not come.
Normally, the secretariat is supposed to be a beehive of activities, being the administrative hub of Rivers State, with workers, contractors, visitors, newsmen and other related service providers riding or climbing up and down the stair cases of the Podium Block, Blocks A, B, C or Point Block buildings, attending to one issue or the other.
However, activities at the secretariat today were dull, as only few workers came to work while most of the permanent secretaries were also absent.
Worse still, the secretariat was hit by water scarcity, which made life very uncomfortable for the few workers that came to work today.
TPCN, which went round the ministries at the secretariat today, discovered that because of the scarcity of water, all the rest rooms or conveniences were dirty, stinking and unattended to, polluting the environment with its stench.
To control the foul stench, almost all the rest rooms were locked. At the ministries of environment, information and education, which are housed at the Podium Block building, the case was the same.
When a member of the TPCN team requested to use the urinary in the ministry of environment convenience, the receptionist told him there was no water and politely advised him to go downstairs to urinate.
When asked what the workers would do if they are pressed, the receptionist declined comment.
At the Point Block, all the rest rooms were also locked. When TPCN went to the ministry of Special Duties, a member of the team also deliberately requested to use the convenience but was told by a staff there that the water was not running.
The staff went ahead to explain: “The convenience is stinking because there’s no water. You can’t use them; that’s why they’re locked. May be you can try other places or go down stairs.”
As a result of the water scarcity, most of the workers could not ease themselves while those who could not hold themselves went to the few fast food restaurants or banks operating in the secretariat complex to empty their bowels.
Other workers who wanted to urinate went to the back of the buildings to help themselves.
TPCN authoritatively reports that the most used places by workers and visitors are the backs of the Podium Block and Blocks B and C buildings.
At the back of the Podium Block building, a group of five men were seen urinating at the same time, facing the office of the Rivers State Pilgrims Board. As they were urinating, others were seen hurrying down from the stairs to come and get rid of their own liquid waste.
When TPCN asked one of the men why they have decided to turn the back of the building to an alternative urinary, the file-clutching, middle-aged man, who was dressed in an ash-coloured suit, replied:
“What do we do now? They refuse to provide conveniences for people to urinate. If you tell them, they will either tell you that water is not running, like today, or that they are not usable. Nothing is working my brother. All the things that Spiff built; all the facilities he put in place, none of them is working again. Even the lifts are not functioning. That’s the situation here. This secretariat used to be the best in this country. But now it’s a shadow of itself. It’s just a pity.”
When TPCN visited the office of the Head of Service, Rufus Godwins, to get his reaction to the ugly situation, he was said not to be on seat at that moment.
Also, the permanent secretary of the ministry of special duties was not around when TPCN visited her office to ask her what the ministry is doing about the situation in the secretariat.
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