Road to a clean Nigeria

By Aneke Samuel

The importance of environmental hygiene cannot be over emphasized, especially as regards to it’s effects on our health and safety. We already have so many problems that we are yet unable to solve, it’s therefore very unwise to create more or ignore to prevent those that can be prevented from occurring.

A public figure said that prevention is the best cure for every disease. Quite a lot of disasters, diseases and deaths could have been averted if it wasn’t for our attitude towards our environments. This matter is of serious concern because the effects of environmental pollutions had never been any far from devastating but not as much as the impending dangers should we continue with this poor attitude towards our environments.

Illegal dumping of refuse at almost every open spot in Nigeria is becoming increasingly appalling inspite of the effects starring at us everyday. Even the illitrates know or at least can see the bad effects of illegal dumping of wastes but surprisingly, a reasonable number of those who perpetrate this acts are the educated citizens who should be sensitizing the others on environmental sanitations. Does education not include learning the pros and cons of our actions and inactions? One would wonder.

A clean Nigeria is a dream that worth every effort made to achieve it and the earlier we start taking responsibilities for it the better for us.

Good health is tied to a healthy environment; which is a preventive technique against diseases associated with dirty environments.

The way we manage waste in relation to the environment also affect our safety. Disasters such as flood can be avoided by disposing our wastes the right way.

Disposing our wastes the right way also influences the survival and Developments of aquatic lives and other agro products in positive ways, there by resulting in efficient food productions.

THE WAYS YOU SHOULD DEAL WITH WASTES:

*Proper Disposal- stop dumping trash just anywhere you feel like to do so. Don’t dump refuse inside the water bodies like rivers, ocean, seas, etc. They will destroy aquatic lives and also make the

Separate biogradable wastes from non-biogradable ones. Biogradable wastes are mostly organic wastes that can decompose easily and become part of the soil while the non-biogradable ones are inorganic and do not decompose, examples are glasses, metals, plastics, papers, woods, etc. Dumping them carelessly would mess up the environment. Infact you can sell your plastic and metallic wastes to scavengers and earn yourself some money while ensuring that a clean environment is maintained opportunities to compete in the elections. These broad principles are buttressed by several electoral processrelated obligations, as well as a number of key rights and freedoms, each of which derives from public international law. The electoral cycle approach depicts elections as a continuous, integrated process made up of building blocks that interact with and influence each other, rather than as a series of isolated events.

Given the essence of free and fair elections, it is expedient to urge the INEC chairman to ensure that the March 11 gubernatorial election is held as ostensibly to calm fray nerves and engender trust as it is very obvious that freedom and democracy are visibly in retreat. Without a doubt, an election is intended as a mechanism for the peaceful arbitration of political rivalries, but if not well managed it becomes a flashpoint for political violence. At the core of these paradoxes are elections without integrity.

According to Kofi Annan, “All too often, elections serve merely to give autocratic regimes a veneer of legitimacy. But elections without integrity cannot provide the winners with legitimacy, the losers with security, and the public with confidence in their leaders and institutions. This makes polities fragile as it encourages disgruntled groups to find other, less constructive, channels for the expression of their discontent.” water bodies unhealthy for human consumptions. Dump throw trash by the road sides or in the drainage systems, especially the non-biogradable ones. In addition to irritating us, they occupy spaces that could rather be useful in one way of the others and they will also torment the free flow of water during rainy days. That have often caused flood in so many parts of the Nigeria at different times.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to urge the INEC chairman to ensure that the coming gubernatorial election is conducted in such a way that it redeems the commission’s image, and his own integrity even as doing that will in turn strengthen the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral processes and avoid election-related violence.

Isaac Asabor is a Public Affairs Analyst.

*Make efforts to dispose your wastes at legally approved dump sites and if you are unable to go to those places, it’s advisable to employ the service of professional waste disposers who usually drive arround the streets. Their service fee is not quite expensive that an average Nigerian can not afford it.

*Reserve a mini-waste bin in your vehicle so that whenever you or anyone inside the vehicle eat while while driving, you will have to drop the wastes in there instead of dumping them by the road sides.

This particular idea was suggested by a very intelligent Nigerian who called in during Good morning program in Anambra broadcasting program tagged “Keeping Anambra clean”.

Separate biogradable wastes from non-biogradable ones. Biogradable wastes are mostly organic wastes that can decompose easily and become part of the soil while the non-biogradable ones are inorganic and do not decompose, examples are glasses, metals, plastics, papers, woods, etc. Dumping them carelessly would mess up the environment. Infact you can sell your plastic and metallic wastes to scavengers and earn yourself some money while ensuring that a clean environment is maintained.

The last Saturdays of the months is our national day of environmental sanitations, let us live up to expectations.

We can make Nigeria clean for everyone.

Thanks for reading!!!

Aneke Samuel is a Public Affairs Analyst.

The Delta State Government has approved 65 years as the retirement age for teaching and non-teaching staff of all its public schools including polytechnics and colleges of education.

It also approved 40 years as the length of service year for teaching and non-teaching staff in all its public schools.

The State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, said the approval was part of the decisions reached at the State Executive Council (EXCO) meeting, presided by Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa on Monday in Government House, Asaba.

The commissioner, accompanied by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, noted that other approvals which included upward