Nigeria’s Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation, Rt. Hon. Bello Muhammad Goronyo, has affirmed the willingness of his ministry to collaborate with Senior Special Assistants to the President on Community Engagement in ensuring that the ‘Clean Nigeria; Use the Toilet Campaign’ of the Federal Government gets to hinterland communities of all the 774 local government areas of the country.
This commitment, he said, is geared towards ending open defecation in the country by the year 2025.
The Minister made this known when the Senior Special Assistants to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Community Engagement, Abdullahi Tanko Yakassai (North-West), Abiodun Essiet (North-Central), Moremi Ojodu (North -West) and Gift John Bull (South-South) respectively paid him a courtesy visit Tuesday, April 30 in his office in Abuja.
Goronyo, while acknowledging the track records of service and unflinching commitment of the SSAs to their people at the grassroots level, as well as their vibrancy, passion, intelligence and deep knowledge of community related works, also pledged the Ministry’s strong alliance with the group not only on the Open Defication Free (ODF) campaign across all the 774 LGAs of Nigeria but also in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) programmes in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
His words: “I want to commend Mr. President for appointing you to serve in this capacity. I know it’s a herculean task, but with your track records, it’s a well-deserved appointment. I know your pedigrees. Most of you who worked in the Presidential Campaign Council, I know your capacities and I know you can deliver.”
Goronyo further informed the group that he and the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Terlumun Utsev, have been visiting the length and breath of the 36 states in the country to carry the Clean Nigeria campaign to governors and other stakeholders in the sector in order to seek their buy-in towards ending open defecation in the nation by the year 2025.
This, he noted, was in line with executive order 9, including assessing the situation of other programmes of the ministry, such as PERWASH, SURWASH in their respective states, as well as to also seek areas of possible collaboration with them.
Goronyo emphasized the consequences of lack of proper access to good portable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, which underlie monumental loss in Nigeria’s GDP and causes various diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and typhoid in communities.
He also expressed deep appreciation for the visit and urged the SSAs not to relent in their shared determination of ensuring the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, noting that posterity will find them well in their various endeavors of ensuring a better and greater Nigeria for all.
According to him, “we will continue to partner with you. Our dream is the success of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a true leader, a grassroot politician, a mobilizer and someone that is ever ready to deliver on any mandate.
“I have no doubt in my mind that you are picked for the job, and you can do it”.
The Director of Water Quality Control and Sanitation of the Ministry, Mrs. Elizabeth Ugoh, while speaking in the same vein, recalled how the then Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, launched the ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ camping in 2019 and since the launch, the Ministry has been up and doing on the Campaign.
She noted that most of the states have keyed into the campaign but regretted that the Ministry in recent time has been faced with paucity of funds to push the campaign as desired. Ugoh stressed that till date only 122 LGAs out of the 774 have been declared open defication free. She appealed for proper funding of the ODF programme in order to meet the target year of 2025 for making Nigeria open defication free.
Speaking earlier and on behalf of the SSAs to the President on Community Engagement, the leader of the group and SSA North-West Community Engagement, Abdullahi Tanko Yakassai, pledged their unwaivering determination to partner with the Ministry on ODF campaigns and other Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programmes of the Ministry.
Yakassai and his colleagues assured the Ministry of leveraging on their expertise, connections and relationships with other stakeholders across the country to carry the campaign to a logical conclusion.
