Hon Desmond Elliot, representing Surulere constituency at the Lagos State House of Assembly has urged Nigerians to take cleanliness as a personal endeavour.
Elliot gave the advice on the sideline of the sanitation exercise for Surulere, organised by the African Cleanup Initiative (ACI) on Saturday in Lagos.
He said that taking cleanliness as an individual issue would ensure that homes are clean, and it would transcend to the environment.
According to him, the state House of Assembly will continue to sensitise people on the need to be clean.
”The #KeepSurulereClean, organised by African Cleanup Initiative is a good cause and should be supported by everybody.
”Refuse around Surulere is getting better, it was really bad but with the collaboration of the local government to make sure that refuse were cleared, it became better.
”But we have not got to the desired goal yet. I think that with an initiative like this, it will get better.
”Individuals should take sanitation and cleanliness as a personal thing and I am here to throw my support and to lend my voice to the cause.
”The issue of refuse everywhere is not a Surulere problem, it is a general Nigerian problem and we need to take it personal; we need to do individual cleanliness,” he said.
The lawmaker thanked volunteers for their efforts in coming to clean the Surulere environment, and the ACI for taking up the initiative.
The founder of ACI, Mr Alex Akhigbe, said that the initiative is an environmental sanitation that involves bringing together of volunteers to a particular community.
Akhigbe said that it was a way of giving back to the society and also to emphasise the fact that keeping the environment clean is not an assignment meant for the government alone, as everyone has a part to play.
”Most times; people do not have a platform to give back, so when they find an opportunity like this to give back, they are excited about it.
”For ACI, it is the volunteers coming together to make it happen; if there are no volunteers, there is no ACI .
”Our volunteers are our strength, we also have other teams that are not part of the ACI team.
”Our major activity as an organisation is clean up. We have embarked on this clean up exercise for eight years now and to a large extent, we have built a brand around clean up in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, Nigerians are gradually getting over trash blindness, and with the sensitisation still ongoing, it will get better.
He said that there was the need for people to know more about the dangers of littering the environment and how to minimise waste.
Also, Mrs Gloria Adaba, the founder of Thumbs Up Initiative, said there was the need to create awareness among the youth on the issue of waste management.
Adaba said that the research carried out by the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) showed that 0.5 kg of waste was generated by a baby everyday.
”Everyone generates waste, from the drink you take, the water you take, the Gala you eat, even the rice you cook is first bought in a bag .
”There is a tendency for people to discard waste; we want to re-orient our youth about waste, waste is a resource.
”We cannot be polluting the environment by discarding waste indiscriminately.
“We have to start taking responsibility for the waste we regenerate,” she said.
NAN
