Cleanliness, they say, is next to Godliness. Cleanliness also promotes good health and health they say is wealth.
From the above premise, cleanliness should, therefore, be an imperative, not a choice. Yet, a lot of people do not care either for their personal hygiene or that of their environment.
Mr. Macaulay Enebechi, an indigene of Enugu, is one man who firmly believes that cleanliness is an imperative and has taken the responsibility of getting Enugu cleaned up as his Personal Social Responsibility project.
He does his beat and gets others to join him by throwing them a challenge.
Speaking on why he initiated the clean-up project, Enebechi, who hails from Udi Local Government Area of Enugu, said: “I’m trying to awaken the sanitary consciousness of the people. It’s a health and safety initiative aimed at controlling and preventing environmental related diseases such as malaria, cholera, and other respiratory diseases, etc. There is a Paris agreement on Climate change, the Environmental policy initiative; I’m trying to raise awareness on these as well.”
Through the challenge, he said not only is the state cleaned, but participants get rewarded.
On Twitter, Enebechi has the “hashtag Enugu Trash Challenge” where he posts before and after pictures of private citizens cleaning up various parts of the State.
According to him, he has budgeted the sum of N1million for the challenge and so far more than 10 people have got cash prize of N5,000 each for completing the challenge.
“The money is given to encourage and motivate participants. We all know that Nigerians won’t key into such an initiative without a serious benefit attached.”
On how the challenge works, he further explained: “When one cleans up a dirty area in his or her environment, the person posts the before and after picture of the cleaned up area on Twitter using the hashtag.
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“All you need to do is put up a video of before and after and where in Enugu you cleaned and the time and you win a prize. Cash prizes range from N10,000, N5,000 to N2,000.”
Enebechi said he intended to give N2,000 to about 480 people in Enugu, adding, “If my financial budget is exhausted, I’ll stop while the awareness will keep going on.”
He also said he would be glad to take his vision further if he could get committed partners.
He disclosed that he had received requests from States like Abia, Anambra, Lagos, Oyo, Kwara, among others, for a version of the challenge.
“I would like to move it to other States and as such l’m open to any interest from Government Agencies, NGO’s or parastatals relating to environmental issues,” Enebechi added.
There is a saying that “A clean person is not the one who runs away from dirt but one who takes the time and effort to tidy-up a dirty environment.”
Going by this saying, Mr. Macaulay Enebechi, is truly a clean man and many more Nigerians would do well to take a cue from him.
