TO mark the World Environment Day, some Oyo State government officials and environmental advocates of the Clean Up Nigeria group—made up of volunteers from Young African Leaders Initiative, Epower, Social Sugar, Planet 3R, African Creative Synergy Hub, Recycla, and the National Institute of Environmental Engineers, with the support of the United States Consulate—came out en masse around the Mokola axis of Ibadan City for a rally to drive awareness for a cleaner environment and a massive clean-up exercise.
The advocates and government officials trooped out bearing posters with inscriptions like ‘Cleaner cities, healthier citizens’, ‘Be part of the solution, not the pollution,’ and ‘Where are the brooms, where are the parkers, where is your voice’.
While addressing the clean-up volunteers and declaring the World Environment Day open in Oyo State, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Dr Abdullateef Oyeleke—accompanied by the Special Adviser to the state governor on environmental matters, Mr Ademola Aderinto, and other officials from the Ministry—stated that the message the governor of the state, Engr. Seyi Makinde, had for the citizens and residents of the state is to ensure that they contribute their quota in cleaning up the environment.
“Cleanness is next to godliness. The cleaner our environment, the healthier our society will be,” Oyeleke said. “We encourage Oyo State citizens to take after this exercise to ensure they clean their environment, not on a weekly or monthly basis, but on a daily basis, because we generate waste every day.”
The Special Adviser to the governor, Aderinto, while reacting to the speculation that the weekly environmental sanitation exercise in the state has been abolished, stressed that it is not true, that the governor only strengthened and enhanced it.
“What we’re trying to do is to strengthen our environmental sanitation culture in such a way you know you have to do it every time, and what we’re doing today is part of that sensitisation,” Aderinto said. “In fact, very soon, you’ll be seeing more things that’ll encourage people to make sure that they observe environmental sanitation in their shops, houses, on the roads, and everywhere they find themselves.”
Olugbenga Ogunbowale, one of the conveners of the clean-up event, stated that the Clean-up Nigeria Campaign, in commensuration of the World Environment Day, apart from Oyo state, also took place in Rivers, Enugu, and Lagos states. He emphasised that people should be ambassadors of cleaner cities in their homes, streets and places of work.
“It’s not good to use things in your homes and turn the streets into your dustbins,” Ogunbowale cautioned. “We want to turn Ibadan and Oyo State that currently has a reputation of being dirty to a state that can be a role model to other states in terms of cleaner environment.”
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day celebrated every June 5 since 1972, is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’.
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