As part of ongoing efforts to promote sanitation and hygiene across the country, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation has taken the campaign against open defecation to the Catholic Church.
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, who led a delegation in a courtesy visit to His Grace, Most Revd. Dr. Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja on Tuesday, underscored the pivotal role of religious institutions in advancing national development and public health.
Prof. Utsev noted that the purpose of the visit was to discuss the national campaign against defecation in Nigeria, in line with the Federal Government’s determination to end open defecation in the country by the year 2030.
“Putting an end to open defecation in Nigeria has a lot of things: one, to make our society very clean, two, to prevent the occurrence of waterborne diseases. Because, with the occurrence of open defecation in Nigeria, the effects are on our water bodies.
“And as we all know, water is life. And by the utilisation of this water comes along with diseases that are associated with this open defecation. The Clean Nigeria Campaign, Use the Toilet, is aimed at eradicating open defecation in Nigeria by the year 2030,” he said.
The Program was flagged up by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on May 18, 2019, and Executive Order 9 was signed on November 20, 2019 to give full effect to the campaign.
Speaking, Prof. Utsev, informed His Grace that some progress has been made since the launch of the campaign.
For instance, he said, before this administration, there were 102 local governments that were open defecation free. But as of today, about 142 local governments are open defecation free, with Jigawa State being the only state for now that is completely open defecation free.
While stating that the government would not be able to achieve the task alone, the Minister appealed to the Church to collaborate with government in spreading the message.
“Our appeal is that we cannot achieve this without the support and collaboration of the church. And that is why we are calling on the church also to support us by supporting the entire Nigerians.
“The expectation, Your Grace is that the church is the house of the Lord and is the place where the good news is being propagated. And is the place that is expected that the right thing, the right gospel is being preached to Nigerians, the most populous part of Nigerians.
“By incorporating this message of open defecation into its public and spiritual engagement. By making emphasis on the dignity of human life and the importance of caring for one’s neighbour,” he said.
The Minister advised Churches to provide and maintain their sanitation facilities as a model for the community. And also encourage parishioners through the preaching, through the messages of the church to promote behavioral changes within their families, their communities, so that this will have a wider reach to both those that are living within the urban and those in the rural areas.
He expressed the federal government’s readiness and willingness to provide any technical assistance that the church and the parishioners will need to enhance the promotion of the campaign.
Utsev joined millions of Catholics globally to pray for the quick recovery of Pope Francis who has been ill and receiving treatment.
In his response, His Grace, Most Revd. Dr. Kaigama, thanked the Minister and the delegation for bringing the campaign down to the Church.
While describing the campaign as crucial and life-saving, the Archbishop assured the Minister of the total support of the Catholic Church in deepening the campaign.
He pledged to help in propagating the message as an individual, and would encourage his priests to also talk about it in their churches.
“So I will make sure we convey this message. During the COVID era we also did our own part. We educated the people, we encouraged them and I think it worked.
“We maintained the rules that the government set that we shouldn’t be so crowded in one place and so on. It worked. So with this now also we are going to tell our people, at least in the urban area here I think there is some bit of compliance with that.
“But for our churches here in the urban area there are toilets facilities. It is maybe in the rural areas that we have to talk more about this. Because they go to the river and they defecate there, the rain flushes into the river, they get the water to drink.
“Definitely you expect all kinds of diseases to come. So thank you for embarking on a mission to save lives. Lives are so sacred.
“So we join you in this crusade. I call it a crusade because it is a war against what will destroy our health,” he said.
