By Idowu Abdullahi,
Worried by waste generated from Lagos markets daily, wife of the State Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, has urged traders and market leaders to keep the state’s markets as clean as possible with aim to curb possible spread of Coronavirus and ensure health of traders and customers in the state.
The first lady, who pledged that gifts and incentives would be made available to any market deemed to be cleanest market in the state, also urged residents on need to imbibe habit of regular handwashing with soap and water as well as lots of fruits intake to build immunity against Coronavirus disease, which has been code-named Covid-19.
Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu explained that such was important for people to adequately fortify themselves so as to stay healthy and boost immunity needed to ward off any threat of disease and prevent spread or future outbreaks of epidemic.
Sanwo-Olu, who spoke at a Special Sanitation Visitation of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) to Tejuosho Ultra Modern Market in Yaba, reiterated that market sanitation was a critical factor in protecting the health of residents and that the government would do everything possible to ensure hygiene in markets across the state in line with health and environment components of the present administration’s THEMES Agenda.
She stated that markets were melting pots, congregation areas for people of all works of life and from many areas of the state and as such proper measures to keep the environment clean was necessary, adding that any place where food products and other products were sold needed to maintain high levels of sanitary conditions.
“Coming into the market this morning, I saw a banner placed at the entrance gate to educate the people about CoronaVirus and I must commend you for that because it is important for the markets to be clean. It is also important for people to imbibe the habit of regular washing of hands with soap and water,”
“It is very important that we should all be aware that as long as we are eating clean and healthy vegetables and fruits, we would be able to increase our immunity so that we will be strong to fight the virus,”
“But eating well is not enough, we have to keep our environments clean and sanitary, especially markets, not only because of the public who come to buy items, but also for yourselves, the traders who spend hours here breathing in the air and going about your daily activities”.
She reassured the market traders and leaders of government’s commitment to their welfare, saying that her visit was sone of such intended to educate them and ensure health and wellbeing of all Lagosians, adding that in line with ongoing campaign to end Tuberculosis, it had become essential to educate people on use of handkerchiefs to cover their mouth when coughing or coughing into the hand or elbow to prevent disease spread as well as regular medical checkup.
In addition, the First Lady commended the Babaloja and Iyaloja of Tejuosho market for maintaining a clean environment and urged them to go further to ensure that shop owners in adjourning areas to the market also key into the efforts to foster cleaner environment.
In her response, the country’s Iyaloja General, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, said the initiative of Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) to visit markets in a bid to play up sanitation was in line with the vision of market leadership in the state to ensure that hygiene was accorded the needed priority.
