Group sensitises Nigerians on clean environment at 2020 Green Independence Cleanup exercise
Ayodele Olalere
African Cleanup Initiative has urged Nigerians to be conscious of their environment by ensuring they keep their environment clean so as to avoid communicable diseases.
At the 2020 Green Independence Cleanup nationwide program, which took place simultaneously in 12 states and 18 locations across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the group, Mr. Alexander Akhigbe, while speaking from the Lagos cleanup area said that the project was a good platform to bring about a national awakening of the country’s consciousness to her environmental challenges and to sensitise Nigerians on the importance of keeping a clean environment.
He urged Nigerians to take responsibility, clean their immediate environment and ensure that their drainages are not blocked again.
“With this great national clean up and sensitisation project, GREEN INDEPENDENCE CLEANUP (GIC), we will collectively be making a bold statement that unity is the wheel of progress and social impact for any country.
Representative from the Federal Ministry of Environment, Ms. Faith Gbagidi, who was at the Abuja location stated in her keynote speech that no amount of efforts aimed at tackling the issues of environmental sanitation and waste management can be said to be too much in view of the sorry state of our environment and resultant effects.
She stated that to effectively improve our sanitation and waste management challenges in Nigeria, the country needs the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders including government, the private sector and the Non-Governmental Organisations.
She also enjoined stakeholders, not only to do the talking, but also take practical steps and actions individually and collectively as agents of change to ensure everyone has access to and use appropriately environment sanitation and waste management facilities.
Some of the states and locations where exercise took place were Jigawa state (Dutse, Gwaram, Birnin Kudu, Babura, Kaugama, Ringim), Kano state, Kaduna (Sabon gari, and Ahmadu Bello way Zaria), Oyo state, Ogun state, Ekiti state, Osun state, Lagos state, Benue state, Rivers state, Anambra state and Abuja.
