Adamu commends ‘Clean Nigeria Campaign’ for efforts to end open defecation

By YANGE IKYAA

The minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu, has commended the Clean Nigeria Campaign team for its untiring efforts and commitment towards achieving a more hygienic nation and ending open defecation in the country.

The minister gave the commendation on Thursday in Abuja during a press briefing on Nigeria’s hosting of the World Toilet Summit in the nation’s capital, beginning from November 18 to 19.

“With the hosting rights granted to Nigeria, it will be a massive boost to the Clean Nigeria Campaign as an imperative to end the menace of open defecation in all nooks and crannies of the country, and we are not resting on our oars to ensure that all the 36 states of the country are certified open defecation-free,” he said.

In November 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a state of emergency in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector, demonstrating political will at the highest level of government. Following this declaration, the Federal Government launched a national campaign tagged ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ in order to jump-start the country’s journey towards becoming open defecation-free by 2025.

Domiciled in the federal ministry of water resources, the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” campaign is headed by Chizoma Opara, who is the national coordinator.

Adamu referred to the World Toilet Summit as “a global event which will provide an excellent opportunity to address the issue of open defecation in Nigeria, and which is also expected to enhance Nigeria’s capability to be better equipped towards meeting the target of ending open defecation by 2025.”

It would be recalled that the national campaign to end open defecation was approved by the Federal Executive Council on May 8, 2019, with the aim of mobilizing the whole strata of the society in fighting the menace of open defecation in the country.

However, the national campaign proper was flagged off on 19th November 2019 by the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, which was closely followed by executive order 9 that was issued by President Muhammadu Buhari on 20th November, 2019.

About 48 million Nigerians are said to be defecating in the open, according to the latest Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outline Routine Monthly Survey 2021.

However, the minister assured that “the World Toilet Summit, which started 22 years ago, has left a positive legacy on each of the previous host countries, and I have no doubt in my mind that Nigeria will have a lot to gain after hosting the 2022 event.”

According to him, the summit will also facilitate global conversation around the creation of sustainable sanitation markets and will actively stimulate economic growth within the water and sanitation value chain of Nigeria. This, he claimed, will also spur financial gains in the use of sanitation technology and deployment of private sector innovation.

The minister also took out time to thank Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State, as well as Unicef for their commitment and steadfastness to the cause of the campaign to end open defecation in Nigeria.

His words: “I can affirm here that Nigeria is committed to ending open defecation. As of 2017, it was only one local government in Nigeria that was open defecation-free. But today, about a total of 85 local governments have been certified to be open defecation-free.

“Yesterday, October 26, 2022, Jigawa State validated the last local government to be open defecation-free and, therefore, that state has become a trail blazer as the first state in Nigeria to be become open defecation-free.”

Also delivering a keynote speech, Didi Walson-Jack, who is the permanent secretary in the ministry, said “the conference will spur a robust interaction with journalists for the expansion of the media landscape on sanitation support systems, building and sustenance of political will, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and increased awareness of the entire populace towards building a new culture of safe sanitation. And this will promote our collective efforts towards ending open defecation in Nigeria by the year 2025.”