By Ebuka Obidinma
Clean-Up Nigeria (CUP), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has expressed worries about the environmental situation and called on government and relevant stakeholders to provide preventive measures to tackle it.
The National Coordinator of the organisation, Mr Prince Owoh Jr, made the call at a public presentation of the NGO’s 5th State of the Nigeria Environment 2022 Report (STONER) in Abuja.
Owoh said CUP was concerned about the state of the environment, adding that collaboration of the government and other relevant stakeholders would tackle the situation.
He commiserated with the families of hundreds of people who lost their lives and millions of internally displaced persons following the worst flood disaster in the country in recent times.
“We are not unmindful of the synergy of non-governmental organisations like CUN, both within and outside the country, that help the sufferings of IDPs.
“We are also calling on our government and corporate bodies to continue to render more assistance.
“Tthe deaths and displaced persons could have been averted if access to rescue and relief materials reached them on time.”
Owoh, while presenting the 5th edition of STONER, announced that Akwa Ibom State emerged the cleanest State in Nigeria, for the year 2022, with a cumulative score of 62 per cent.
“Ebonyi took 2nd with 45 per cent while Bauchi emerged 3rd position with 44 per cent.”
He said Abuja, the nation’s capital city, emerged the cleanest city in Nigeria for 2022 with 79 per cent followed by Uyo with 63 per cent.
“We, again, congratulate Akwa Ibom people and the government for emerging as the cleanest State for the year 2022 in Nigeria, with a cumulative score of 62 per cent.
“The 2nd and 3rd States, Ebonyi and Bauchi, we congratulate you.
“Also we congratulate Abuja capital city for emerging the cleanest city in Nigeria for the year 2022, closely followed by Uyo.
“While appreciating the winning States, the other States and town/cities need to seriously step up their performances and improve their living environment.
“We call on all stakeholders to engage peer review mechanisms by making out time to visit both the winning States and cities and the backward States and cities.
“Also, to gain more insights into what the top States are doing in order to improve their performance ratings.”
Owoh advised Nigerians to embrace strong personal hygiene and good sanitation habits and to dispose of their
waste appropriately.
“We are encouraged by government at all levels and the populace in the sense that after the initial forth cleanliness index ratings studies we carried out in 2018, 2019 and 2020 there has been encouraging improvement.
“The improvement in hygiene and sanitation practice across the States is by 2 per cent in 2022; however, it could be better.”
He said the essence of the report was to bring sanitation and waste management to the front burner of both the government and the populace and, in the process, increase awareness.
He said that the effort would also encourage alternative actions on personal hygiene and sanitation to ensure a cleaner, healthier and safer Nigeria for all.
According to him, the performance indicators from the studies show that, in 2022, over 176.3 million Nigerians live in unclean environments compared to 172 million in 2021.
“This development is not only alarming but urging the government to key into the global best practices of waste modernisation with related benefits.”
Owoh thanked the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Canada; Germany; SUEZ Foundation, France and Clean-Up the world, Australia, among others whose financial and technical support enabled the study .
