Emmanuel Ulayi|26 August 2017
It is clearly obvious, that just within a very short time, the Green Sheriff has made its impact in Cross River State by the strict adherence to its mandate of ensuring environmental sanity in the state.
It is just a year since the inauguration of the Cross River Green Sheriff by the erudite governor, Professor, Senator Ben Ayade on the 26th of May, 2016. The impact of this agency is already being felt positively, justifying the rationale for its establishment.
The outfit set out under the name, Cross River State Green Police but recently had the “police” in its nomenclature dropped for, “Sherriff”. It has three main arms: one responsible for nursery development, another in charge of tree planting, while the cadet cadre inaugurated on November 12, 2016 has the mandate to, according to the governor, “to ensure that all drainages are kept clean, all fences painted and kept clean, every single house has a minimum of four trees planted and the environmental contractors ranging from grass cutting to desilting, irrigation, landscaping, urban afforestation renewal, public parks, waste collection and management, remain directly under your control and supervision”.
The governor who described them as the “Green eyes of Africa” said that the Green Police conferred with powers to enforce the state sanitation laws and policies, can arrest and issue warrants while ensuring that all citizens and residents comply with the state’s sanitation and environmental policies. Their core mandate according to the governor was to combat climate change and to “maintain the Calabar status as the most beautiful and cleanest city in the country”, he further charged them to be soft, diplomatic and gentle while hoping that Cross River will continue to lead and dominate the African landscape when it comes to issues of climate change mitigation”.
The agency commenced work in earnest, making good use of adequate equipment such as patrol cars and communication gadgets and adequately motivated by living wages. Calabar, the capital of the state as a result of their activities has truly maintained its status as the cleanest city in Nigeria. This is despite the legalization of street trading by the Ayade administration which many feared would take a toll on sanitation. A resident of the city, Akpan Abang was full of praises for the governor. He said, ” it is a wonder how governor Ayade has been able to balance many thing that hitherto were thought could not go together. Petty traders were being harassed out of the streets with the excuse that their activities made the environment untidy. But Ayade came legalizing street trading thereby giving this people hope of daily food and has also managed to keep the city clean with the establishment of the Green Sherriff”.
Sunday Ariyo, a first time visitor to Calabar could not hide his amazement at seeing a city so clean and neat. He compared the city to other cities in Nigeria, “It is a great relieve to see a city as tidy as this in Nigeria. I have travelled the length and breadth of this country, what you find in most cities is heaps of filth and stinking mountains of refuse repugnant to the nose. But Calabar is just such a world apart. No wonder it is the number one tourist destination in Nigeria”.
The Green Sherriff has also provided the much needed jobs for the thousands it employs. One of the marshals who craved anonymity was full of appreciation, “thank God who sent governor Ayade to establish this and employ me. I had been unemployed for many years after graduating. I could not afford to feed myself. Marriage was a wishful thinking. But I am happily married now taking care of my wife and my elderly parents”.
Calabar has undoubtedly maintained its lead in environmental sanitation and in tourism all due to the vision of Ayade in establishing the Green Sherriff.
Emmanuel Ulayi
Is a media aide to the Executive Governor of Cross River State
