By Emmanuel Onwubiko
The suspended Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia who governs Benue State recently signed an executive order aimed at enhancing good Sanitation and checking the increasing trend of open defecation in his state.
Open defecation is a national problem which demands a national agenda to end it. There is therefore the urgency of the now for states to confront the environmental sanitary hydraheaded monster of open defecation.
This decision is salutary because open defecation is a very serious health issue all around the Country particularly now that more of Nigeria’s households have been pushed in multidimensional poverty.
There are about 133 million Households in Nigeria that are multidimensionally poor and all of these population of Nigerians are obviously lacking good environmental sanitation.
The troubling issue however is that not so much is being done in many of the 36 states to confront the environmental sanitary conditions and surely, not many of these states have effective and efficient steps to tackle and end the practice of open defecation. Open defecation is a challenge in both the urban and rural areas in many parts of Nigeria. This is what makes this policy by the Benue state governor significant and attractive.
Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia made history by becoming the second Roman Catholic Priest to be elected as the governor of a state in Nigeria. He emerged victorious in the Benue State gubernatorial election held on March 18, 2023. He won a landslide victory over the ruling political party in his state.
From the website of the Nigerian governors forum, we are informed that Fr. Hyacinth Alia was born on May 14, 1966, in Mbangur, Mbadede, Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria.
His educational journey began at St. Francis Primary School, Agidi, Mbatiav in Gboko. He then attended St. James Minor Seminary in Makurdi, where he started his religious studies. Alia continued his education at St. Augustine’s Major Seminary in Jos, where he obtained a diploma in Religious Studies and later a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology.
Hyacinth pursued further studies at Fordham University in Bronx, New York, United States, and earned a Master’s degree in Religious Education with a specialization in Psychology and Counseling. He also obtained a Master’s degree and a doctorate in Biomedical Ethics from Duquesne University in Pennsylvania in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia was ordained a Catholic Priest on July 7, 1990, by Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh of the Makurdi Catholic Diocese.
Prior to entering politics, Alia gained international experience in educational management and healthcare administration. He served as the Director of Pastoral Services at the Catholic Health Service, North Campus Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, United States of America. He is a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, the Catholic Health Service System Wide Ethics Committee, and the Broward Ethics Committee.
In March 2023, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia was declared the winner of the Benue State governorship election, securing 473,933 votes. He surpassed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Titus Uba, who received 223,913 votes.
Back to that significant executive order against open defecation, we must commence this reflection by posing a big challenge to the 36 states and the FCT to be up and doing regarding implementation of initiatives to end open defecation which is a national nightmare. The Benue example is worth emulating.
This is because the executive order, Alia explained, was in according with section 14 (2) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and section 10 of the Public Order Act (CAP 382) laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004.
A copy of the order with effect from the 28th day of February, 2024, also said loitering about at late hours from 12:00 midnight to 5:00 A.M unless for emergency or very important matters, cross-usage of public lavatories by men and women, indiscriminate dumping of waste or garbage on road-dividers, gutters and other unauthorised places, have henceforth become punishable offences in the state.
Other listed offences include; indiscriminate throwing of empty water sachets and polythene bags in the public, excavation of roads and causing of any form of obstruction on the road, farming on empty unfenced plots of land or in front of any premises, or on the street, or by the roadside within urban areas, farming on undeveloped areas of government offices or quarters or reserved areas/lands building across water channels or drainages, building structures, kiosks, shanties, and others on the right of way, and hawking or selling of goods of any kind by the roadside or on the road.