The National Technical Study Group ( NTSG) has announced Akwa Ibom State as the cleanest state in Nigeria with a cumulative score of 78.2 per cent while Kogi State took the rear position with a cumulative score of 11 per cent.
It also disclosed that Nigeria is rated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the country with the highest incidence of open defecation in the world.
Announcing the result in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, the National Co-ordinator and Secretary of NTSG, Prince Ene Baba Owoh, said the result followed a five-year review, tagged STONE Pro-Max 2023.
Owoh also announced Ebonyi and FCT in second and third positions with 50 and 47 per cent scores, respectively.
Akwa Ibom has successively been the cleanest state in the country since the inauguration of the project in 2018.
Owoh encouraged all stakeholders to engage in a peer review mechanism by making time to visit both the best-performing states and cities and the backward states and cities to gain more insights into what the top states are doing to improve their performance ratings.
He also urged government at all levels to step up their knowledge, attitude, and practice, KAP, of hygiene and sanitation to improve their living conditions to increase their average life expectancy, noting that in 2018, life expectancy in Nigeria was 44 years and has presently dropped to 40 years.
Owoh further urged the government to work towards meeting the target set by the World Health Organisation, WHO, to end open defecation in 2025 by increasing the provision of public toilets.
He said: “For emerging as the overall best-performing state in the six years performance indicators and the five-time cleanest state in Nigeria under the six-year project circus review period (2018-2023) tagged STONE Pro-Max 2023, Akwa Ibom State will be conferred with the STONE 2023 Pro-Max 2018-2023 Cleanest State in Nigeria Green Crystal Award.
“We also call on government at all levels to re-introduce the monthly sanitation exercise and enforce the regular clean-up of drainages with renewed energy, as 87 per cent of the citizenry have seriously neglected their role on environmental sanitation,” he said.
In his goodwill message, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Environment, Uno Etim Uno, while commending the Clean Up Nigeria Initiative for the recognition, pledged commitment to proper waste management, an end to gas flaring and other practices that threaten the serenity of the environment.
The commissioner, represented by Permanent Secretary Iquo Abia, also noted that the state government would maintain a safe and secure environment.
Reacting to the awards, the Chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency, AKSEPWMA, Prince Akpan Ikim, commended all the past governors of the state for laying the foundation of cleanliness and the present governor for providing the necessary support for its sustainability.
He said his agency is working with the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Committee on Environment for a law that would be in tune with international best practices, and encourage investors to come in.
