Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday signed an executive order to ensure that the West African nation takes concrete steps to ensuring it is an open defecation free society by 2025.
The announcement of the signing of the order comes a day after the world marked World Toilet Day.
The order establishes a national secretariat called the “Clean Nigeria Campaign Secretariat” whose core mandate will be ensuring that all public places have accessible toilets and latrines within their premises.
According to the order, the secretariat’s mandate shall only cease once Nigeria is declared open defecation-free.
“The President had declared a State of Emergency on Nigeria’s water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector, the action being imperative as it will reduce the high prevalence of water borne diseases in different parts of the country which have caused preventable deaths,” a statement from the Nigerian Ministry of Information and Culture said.
Additionally, both the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly will enact legislation on the practice of open defecation with necessary sanctions and penalties.
Buhari further directed all ministries, departments and agencies to cooperate with the secretariat in fulfilling its duty.
According to the Nigerian government, the West African nation is ranked second globally in terms of open defecation with more than 46 million people practising it.
In 2015, the Nigerian government estimated that more than 50 million people would be added to that figure in the next decade.
Moreover, more than 120,000 Nigerians, including more than 80,000 children under 5, die annually from diarrhea. Close to 90% of those deaths are directly attributed to water, sanitation and hygiene.
According to the United Nations, 4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation and an estimated 673 million people still practise open defecation globally.
