Wife of the governor of the state of Osun, Mrs Kafayat Oyetola has berated acts of indiscriminate open defecation in all public places in the state.
Mrs Oyetola who doubles as the President of IOD-Initiative advocated for immediate stoppage of the obnoxious act of littering the environments with excretal, which she said is capable of causing unrest through the spate diseases, infections as well as environmental pollution.
The wife of the governor, in her address on Tuesday at a conference held in Ikire, Osun West Senatorial District on open defecation described the practice as an agelong, which is mostly perpetrated among all age grades.
According to her, “open defecation carries grave health consequence for all of us. It is a destroyer of our health and pollutant of our environment. Every time we step out to openly defecate, we are deliberately inviting water borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid to ravage’.
She emphasized that, though open defecation has become a recurrent decimal which most people engage in due to lack of toilet in various houses and in public places, and most times causes high rate of children mortality, particularly, children under five years old will be flushed out throughout the state by the present Governor Oyetola led regime.
“The present administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola has made healthcare one of the major pillars of its programs. This is the reason resources are being committed to enhancing the health facilities in the State especially the primary health care facilities”.
“So many of these facilities are being updated and re-equipped to deliver purposeful health services to our people. Osun health insurance scheme (O-His) which is being implemented by the present administration is also one of the best in the country”.
“We have a role to play in order that we shall achieve the optimal objective of the programs, which are to enhance the overall health of our people. This goal of health for our people cannot be achieved if we continue to avoid the usage of toilets, even in just a single community in the state”.
She advised the mothers, particularly, nursing mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies in the for st six months, which according to her, breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infants.
She equally used the venue to call on parents and guidance to be at the forefront of this campaign to stop open defecation order to guarantee the health of our communities and our state.
Mrs Oyetola said the campaign will be taken to communities immediately after the inauguration. She called on traditional leaders, religious clergies, local government authorities, our women groups, market organizations, transport organizations and school proprietors to support the campaign against open defecations.
“The time has come to free our state of open defecation. Let us imbibe the practice of using toilet and enhance our health. I thank the State Governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola and his team for supporting this campaign”.
Speaking at the venue, the Deputy Governor in highlighted reasons for open defecation which includes carelessness, laziness, lack of public conduct and ignorance on the part of the general public on the dangers of Open defecation.
He therefore urged the local government chairmen across the state to make stringent laws to curb open defecation and enforce such laws.
He also admonished all stakeholders to take proper measures in sensitising the public on the dangers of open defecation.
Ends
Leave a Reply