Clean environment, personal hygiene improve man’s life span – Amosun
As the 2018 toilet day was celebrated across the world on Monday, Olufunso Amosun, wife of Ogun state governor, has declared that Nigerians could have longer life span well above the present world ranking if issues of clean environment and personal hygiene were taken seriously and with utmost priority.
Olufunso Amosun, wife of the governor of Ogun state and President of UPLIFT Development Foundation, harped on the need for a clean and safe environment, especially in market places to prevent outbreak of unavoidable sicknesses and diseases in the state.
Speaking during the commissioning of the UPLIFT Development Foundation Blocks of Toilet located at Panseke, Lafenwa and Adatan Markets in Abeokuta, Amosun said sicknesses and diseases like malaria, cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and skin rashes could be prevented when the environment are kept clean.
“We are here to observe the United Nations 2018 World Toilet Day, a day set aside for everyone to maintain good personal hygiene and live a healthy life style because health is wealth. We need to have clean toilet facilities and stop defecating all around our environment. This is why the UPLIFT Development Foundation has deemed it fit to provide modern toilet facilities in our communities and market places,” she explained.
The governor’s wife enjoined other stakeholders and well meaning Nigerians to join hands with government to improve the quality of lives of the people by investing in facilities that would affect the lives of the people and the environment positively, urging the market people to take good care of the facilities by cleaning them regularly.
She added that the absence of toilet facilities in the three market places necessitated the actions of her foundation to construct the toilet facilities for the people, expressing her joy over the promises of the Iyalojas and Babalojas of the markets to always ensure the cleanliness of the toilet facilities.
Responding, the State Commissioner for Environment, Bolaji Oyeleye, noted that the construction of the toilet facilities were in line with the Goal Six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, saying the the efforts of the governor’s wife in providing the facilities was a good way of complementing the work of the state government.
He expressed deep appreciation to the foundation in its bid to sustain the environment and promoting a healthy living for the people of the state, adding that the state government would continue to do its best to make life meaning for the less privilege in the society.
Speaking on behalf of the market people, the Babaloja of Panseke Market, Mr. Taoreed Amodemaja, thanked the governor’s wife, most especially for all the laudable projects she has been executing across the state since 2011, stressing that her good works speak volume of her kind nature.
The two other toilet facilities in Lafenwa and Adatan markets were also commissioned with the people of the areas commending the governor’s wife for her benevolence and kind gesture to the people of the state particularly in the provision of health delivery.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta