A Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) specialist with the United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF), Bioye Ogunjobi has hinted that one out of every four Nigerians still practice open defecation.
Speaking at a media dialogue in Kano, Ogunjobi said 47million Nigerians are practising open defecation and that the situation is worrisome as it constitutes danger to the lives of the people, especially the children.
The media dialogue with the theme “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” was organised by Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, (CRIB/FMI) in collaboration with UNICEF, the European Union and the Department for International Development (DFID/UKaid).
Ogunjobi warned that the situation must be addressed so that government would stop spending billions on drugs to cure diseases that could have been prevent through cleanliness.
Speaking at the meeting, UNICEF Communication Specialist, Dr Geoffrey Njoku appealed to journalists in the country to raise awareness of sanitation, particularly by sensitising the people on the benefit of using toilets.
Njoku urged the participants to see themselves as ambassadors of sanitation and deploy their tools to educate people on the need to stop open defecation.
He said a deliberate campaign using hashtag #Endopendefecation #cleannigeria has been set up to sensitize people on the danger of open defecation and benefits of using toilets.
Njoku said “this media dialogue was aimed at equipping journalists with facts and figures and other relevant information on the sanitation situation in Nigeria, especially the use of toilets.”
“It is also to coopt the media to join the clean Nigeria advocacy son as to enhance improved sanitation and end open defecation.”
Leave a Reply