By George George Idowu
The federal government of Nigeria has been urged to reintroduce the monthly sanitation exercise across the country.
This is coming from the NatureNews opinion poll organized on Saturday across their social media handle.
The poll generated 68% of votes for those in support of the reintroduction, while those against it were 22%.
It has been consistently explained that one of the major causes of flooding is blockage of drainages, and monthly sanitation will help in removing the wastes blocking drainages.
Recall that NatureNews had reported the recent decision of Lagos state government to restart monthly sanitation in the state after seven years.
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In his address, Commissioner for Environment, Lagos State Tokunbo Wahab, said “as the government re-introduces this cleaning exercise, all residents are encouraged to clean their homes, surroundings, drainages in front of their houses and streets while LAWMA officials would always be on ground to collect well bagged waste and dispose of it properly.”
He explained that monthly environmental sanitation was a culture in Lagos State as part of an initiative to “promote a clean and healthy environment, encourage community participation in waste management and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.”
Monthly sanitation across the country started in 1984 during Major General Muhammadu Buhari reign as the then head of state. He had enacted a decree called War Against Indiscipline (WAI).
The decree emphasized that movements will be restricted every last Saturday of the month for three hours for people to effectively clean their environs.
Several years after general Buhari left, several leaders had one way or the other redefined the decree but none publically came out to announce the suspension of the decree/law however the enforcement of the exercise was not as serious as it used to be.
However, according to several reports, a high percentage of Nigerians had kicked against the restriction of movement for three hours. As a result of that, states were suspending the exercise in their various states.
Hence, the call for it to be reintroduced with serious enforcement to back it up.
