The Clean Nigeria Campaign on Wednesday declared 102 local government areas Open Defecation Free in the country.
The National Coordinator, Clean Nigeria Campaign, Mrs. Chizoma Opara, revealed this at a two-day ‘2023 Northeast Review Meeting’ themed, ‘Clean Nigeria, Use the Toilet’ held in Bauchi State.
Opara lauded the multi-sectoral platform involving line ministries, agencies, NGOs and the media, which certified and declared the LGAs open defecation free.
“As of July, 2023, 102 local government areas have been declared open defecation free; this is good progress.
“It is, however, not significant enough to put as a course to our national target of an ODF by 2025.
“Also, the spread of the 102 ODF local government areas is limited to 14 states out of the 36 states and FCT.
“This means that 22 states and the FCT have not been able to contribute any ODF local government to the National Statistics,” he said.
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Opara said that in the North East Zone, Bauchi State had taken the lead on the Clean Nigeria Campaign over time, with seven LGAs declared ODF and another local government area on the verge.
“It is worthy of note that the best results for the campaign so far in the North East were from Bauchi State.
“Also, to be noted is that the entire North East has recorded 10 local government areas as Open Defecation Free with Bauchi leading with seven LGAs out of 20 LGAs followed by Borno, 2 and Yobe, 1,” she said.
Earlier, General Manager, Bauchi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Alhaji Adamu Sabo, said the objective of the North East review meeting was to share experiences and challenges from the states, for the way forward.
He said that there had been a series of measures adopted towards achieving the target since the commencement of the campaign.
Sabo commended Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State for converting the Water Sanitation and Hygiene unit of LGAs into departments to enable them to function well and achieve a 2025 ODF-free state.
A UNICEF representative, Mr. Uba Lawal, said the review meeting was timely as 2025 was drawing near and urged the states to step up their clean Nigeria campaign strategies to achieve the ODF target.
