Delta women journalists make case for clean environment, say malaria can be eradicated from Nigeria
Delta State Chapter of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) weekend undertook a sensitization campaign on the need for Deltans to maintain clean environment which will ward off mosquitoes and at the end eradicate malaria.
Delta state chairman of NAWOJ, Patricia Gbemudu, told journalists during the campaign in Asaba that malaria could be eradicated if Nigerians imbibe the culture of cleanliness.
Gbemudu who led other female journalists in Asaba for the sensitisation campaign, noted thus: “We are using this opportunity to inform people on the need to keep clean environment. When you keep your environment clean, mosquitoes will not get places to breed. Dirty environment, stagnant water help mosquitoes to breed. This causes malaria.”
She went further to say: “We are telling people to keep their surrounding clean. This will help to fight off malaria. We have one of our illustrious sons, Ned Nwoko, who has taken it as a project to fight malaria in Nigeria. NAWOJ is keying into his project to tell the world that it is possible to have a world without malaria.”
She said one of the problems why malaria has remained with Nigerians is that “we have taken it as part of our lives. We have seen it as sickness that has become part of us but we are telling people that if we can live without other diseases, we can also live without malaria. It is possible.”
For her, there is no sickness that cannot be eradicated. She added: “When polio was everywhere, it was as if it cannot be eradicated but today Nigeria is certified polio free. If Nigeria could fight polio, it can also fight malaria.”
She told Emerald News in an exclusive interview that Ned Nwoko, who is taking the fight to eradicate malaria from Nigeria, is doing a worthwhile project, adding that at the end of the research being conducted by the Ned Nwoko Foundation, malaria will become a thing of the last in Nigeria and Africa.
Gbemudu thumped up for Mrs. Onyemaechi Mrakpor, director general of Asaba Capital Territory Development Agency for cleaning up the state capital. She said prior to her appointment, Asaba was dirty but she has cleaned up the city, making it look better and nice
She called on Nigerians and especially Deltans to maintain good hygiene and cleanliness, saying “let us not push it to others, we should all be involved. If I do mine, you do yours, everywhere will be clean.”
