Vice-President Kashim Shettima has called on governors of the 36 states of the Federation to intensify efforts to end open defecation in the next five years.

Shettima made the call on Tuesday during the 5th anniversary of the ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ campaign and the launch of the Revised Strategic Plan at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Vice President, who was represented by Ibrahim Hadejia, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, urged state governments to be deliberate in mobilising high-level political support to drive the campaign, especially at the sub-national level.

He noted that sanitation sector in Nigeria has great economic opportunities for growth.

According to him, aligning these opportunities with the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration could create jobs, provide alternative energy sources, and produce biological fertilisers.

“It is against this background that the need to re-strategise the critical elements that will progressively increase our level of advocacy and awareness came to be.

“The new Strategic Plan for the Clean Nigeria Campaign is a comprehensive, actionable framework for Clean Nigeria that will help to actualise the call for reasonable access to use a toilet by the year 2030.

“I, therefore, urge State Governors to provide the necessary support to drive the campaign at the State and Local Government Areas levels to achieve our target of an Open Defecation Free Nigeria within the next five years,” he said.

Double your efforts to end open defecation – Shettima tells governors