Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N2.5 billion for 30 kilometre gas pipeline meant to convey gas from the North South joint corridor to the West.
Council also approved N3.2 billion for phase 2 of the Pategi Water project in Kwara State.
The project, approved at its meeting yesterday, will enable the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) provide pipeline installation that will move gas through the North South corridor to the West corridor jointly operated by Shell and Seplat.
The award also comes with about $32 million component and is expected to be completed in about 18 months.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, who briefed the Council, along side ministers, including the Minister of Water Resources, Suliaman Adamu, Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Finance, Zainab Ahmed and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bello Mohammed, after the 10-hour meeting presided over by Buhari, said: “The significance of that is that the more we can gather gas to feedstock the pipelines that were built, the easier it will be to create that hub we are looking for to move gas around the corridors of Nigeria; North,South, East and West as the case maybe.”
This was as the government has concluded plans for President Muhammadu Buhari, to launch the Clean Nigeria Campaign as part of efforts to end open defecation in the country by 2025.
The campaign “Clean Nigeria, Use The Toilet,” is to be launched at a date yet to be announced.
Nigeria still has 47 million people defecating openly, while only 10 out of 774 local government areas are now open defecation free, since the road map on sanitation 2016 to 2025 was launched by President Buhari.
The P
resident had, in November 2018, launched the National Action Plan for Revitalising the Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), where he also declared a state of emergency on water and sanitation sector in Nigeria. An important aspect of the plan is for Nigeria to be open defecation free.
The National Plan of Action is a significant political milestone towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 to reach everyone, everywhere with clean water and decent sanitation by 2030.
Adamu said Nigeria has a roadmap to end open defecation 2016 to 2025, adding that out of the 774 local government areas, only 10 are open defecation free.
“Ten out of 774 local governments is very dismal, but, it is work in progress. We have also made some progress as 20 to 21,000 communities in the country today are open defecation free. The problem is that we still have 47 million people practicing open defecation and Nigeria has been moving up the ladder since 2012 from being number four or five in the world to having the ranking of number two. India is number one, but India has been working to end open defecation, in the last four years, they have taken over 500 million out of open defecation. And India plans to declare itself open defecation free by October 2019. Once that happens, Nigeria will become the number one country in the world that practices open defecation. You will all agree with me that this is an honour we do not want to have.
“So, Council approved a number of measures including the fact that Mr. President will launch the Clean Nigeria Campaign on a day to be decided. So, our campaign is ‘Clean Nigeria, use the toilet.’
“The president and cabinet members are to become ambassadors of clean Nigeria campaign by providing the needed leadership and commitment for successful implementation of the campaign.”