Sometimes, one makes news unwittingly. In the case of Michael Anaekwe, a common man residing in Onitsha, the commercial hub of the Southeastern zone of Nigeria, he did not set out to attract the attention of even the local radio stations in the city, which has been labeled the most polluted on earth. The young man simply wanted to contribute to the efforts to clean up his immediate vicinity.
Anaekwe had organized a group of teenagers to clear the trash-laden streets in their local neighbourhood. But unknown to him, somebody caught them at it on camera and posted the picture on the internet. What was intended to be an action of community goodwill immediately went viral and started to receive applause on the internet.
Global networks including the BBC and CNN took particular interest in Anaekwe’s mission. He had to tell them that “Onitsha is very dirty. I don’t think government is doing anything in the state to stop that. The rate at which people are dumping refuse inside the gutters is very alarming.”
Anaekwe said he abhors dirty environment because it makes him sick and so, has been looking for ways to tackle the waste issues in Onitsha.
He told CNN that the idea to help in cleaning up Onitsha crystallized during his compulsory one year stint with National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, after his graduation from the university.
In the NYSC stint, Anaekwe chose to teach college students on the dangers of living in trash-filled environment as part of projects focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
When he returned to Onitsha, his hometown, he decided to practice what he had been theorizing and managed to talk some youths in his vicinity into joining him in cleaning up the blocked gutters and drainage channels all over the place.
It will be recalled that the World Health Organization, WHO, had issued a report in 2016 to the effect that Nigeria has four of the worst cities in the world for air pollution. But the case of Onitsha has gone from bad to worse. The global body says that the port city, which is bursting at the seams, now has thirty times the recommended level of PM10, particulate matter concentration.
So, in every sense of the word, there seems to be little or nothing that one man working without necessary resources, can do to check the situation. But young Michael Anaekwe is not deterred. He is bent on pursuing his cause.
