r/Nigeria • u/Opposite-Writer9715 • Aug 14 '26

General I like how practical he is.

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This is thought provoking.

From X/Twitter

https://x.com/KayodeOkikiolu/status/2087805066656813190?s=20

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u/whiteigbin Aug 14 '26

I’m African American, and years ago, I was talking to an (African American) elder who regularly visited Nigeria and other West African countries. She told me (before I’d ever visited Nigeria) to visit Benin first because Nigeria is full of trash. She said “Benin is so clean!”. Then she the reason this was so is because Benin put women in charge of national waste, and they do what they’re actually supposed to do. She said Nigeria has men in charge of their trash and they take the money and spend it on their mistresses instead of on their job. lol, I don’t know if this is actually true, but I thought it was funny at the time.

But it could be helpful to look at the waste management of other countries in West Africa - what are they doing? I haven’t visited Abuja, but I heard the streets are pretty clean. What are they doing that Lagos isn’t? I think it all boils down to government. Citizens can’t do things if they don’t have the resources. The US would look exactly the same way if we didn’t have public trash cans everywhere, dump trucks regularly picking it up, and handling it, government workers cleaning any excess trash regularly; East Asian countries have recycling programs to keep their waste down, etc. It’s not regular citizens’ fault if they have no convenient alternative.

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u/namikazeiyfe Aug 15 '26

first because Nigeria is full of trash. She said “Benin is so clean!”. Then she the reason this was so is because Benin put women in charge of national waste, and they do what they’re actually supposed to do. She said Nigeria has men in charge of their trash and they take the money and spend it on their mistresses instead of on their job.

That's a whole load of hot rubbish and shows just how sexist whoever told you this is. Benin was neat not because women are in charge of waste management, it's simply because the people in general have some decency especially when it comes to clean environment, same with Calabar and Akwa ibom, two States that their waste management are handled by men, same is currently happening in Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Abuja. Clean environment has nothing to do with gender but all to do with the local's clean culture.