 It is my very special pleasure to join you as we mark the first anniversary of the Clean Nigeria Use the Toilet campaign under the National Program to End Open Defication in Nigeria. Today's event provides a platform for us to reflect on the progress being made in meeting the objectives of the Clean Nigeria campaign and to further reiterate our commitment to improving the living standards and quality of life of our people. We're all aware that access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene services is a critical factor in the socio-economic development of any nation and contributes to human capital development outcomes such as early childhood survival, health and educational attainment. Access to these services is also one of the key preventive measures of the raging global COVID-19 pandemic. The practice of open defecation is linked as we know to sanitation-related diseases which affect productivity and other socio-economic outcomes and aggravates poverty. The cost of poor sanitation is there and they impact us all. These costs include healthcare costs, loss of productivity, premature deaths, poor educational outcomes among others. The social costs of open defecation, though intangible and no less grievous, this include loss of dignity, lack of privacy and increased vulnerability to physical attacks and violence especially against women and girls. Meeting target 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals for Water Sanitation which seeks to, and I quote, achieve by 2030 access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. End of quotes. This is expected to contribute significantly to the achievement of other goals as we build a healthy and viral nation. To this end, this administration has consistently affirmed its commitment to the development of the wash sector in Nigeria as evidenced by the launch of the National Action Plan for the revitalization of the sector and the declaration of a state of emergency by Mr. President. The implementation of the partnership for expanded water sanitation and hygiene, pee wash and launch of the Clean Nigeria campaign last year. The Clean Nigeria campaign is backed by Executive Order 009 which gives effect to its implementation. The Executive Order provides that the national open defecation free roadmap be put into effect towards meeting the national target of ending open defecation by 2025. It mandates the Clean Nigeria campaign secretariat in collaboration with relevant government institutions to ensure that all public places including schools, hotels, fuel stations, places of worship, marketplaces, hospitals and offices have accessible toilets within their premises. It also provides for the enactment of legislation, appropriate sanctions and penalties to back up the fight against open defecation while ensuring that all development projects include construction of sanitation facilities as an integral part of the approval and implementation process. Between last year and now in furtherance of the campaign and with the support of our development partners, 17 additional local government areas have so far been declared open defecation free making a total of 33 open defecation free local government areas in the country. Today we'll be recognizing these local government areas that have led the process in our nation's journey to an open defecation free status as we understand that significant efforts were made to achieve these results. Each of these open defecation free local government areas will receive donations of sat upon toilets provided by Lixill Nigeria Limited. We're enjoying states to prioritize these local government areas for the provision of water supply facilities and the federal government will be supporting these as part of its ongoing initiatives. The federal government will continue to engage all stakeholders and harmonize actions to end open defecation in Nigeria and will reiterate commitment to support subnational level initiatives towards ending open defecation and improving access to wash services for the populace. To this end I wish to commend state governments who have taken the initiative to develop their state specific action plans for the wash sector with the declaration of a state of emergency and have commanded the rollout of their state level campaigns to end open defecation with the provision of needed financial resources. It is evident that we are making progress although marginal in the fight against open defecation in the country as seen in the statistics from the recently launched 2019 Wash National Outcome routine MAPI wash norm report. Consequently we must all increase our efforts and work together to meet the nation's water supply sanitation and hygiene needs as we cannot continue to expose our citizens to preventable water and sanitation related diseases due to inadequate wash services. Ending open defecation is not just about access to toilets it's about generating demand for toilets and changing people's behavior towards toilet usage. The clean Nigeria campaign as a transformational and behavior change campaign will require the contribution and commitment of everyone governments at all levels civil society private sector our development partners and the entire populace in building a new culture of safe sanitation. In our desire to aggressively mobilize the entire country towards ending the practice of open defecation we have identified campaign ambassadors to support the national drive towards open defecation free status. These are citizens who have contributed to the existing successes achieved so far under the campaign or have been identified as persons of influence who can significantly advance the campaign. As a clean Nigeria campaign ambassador you will require to provide leadership in advancing the objectives of the campaign and engage in campaign activities as may be initiated by you or other stakeholders. I enjoy all nominated ambassadors to give their best to this assignment and to bring their wealth of experience within and outside the wash sector towards meeting the national target of ending open defecation in Nigeria by 2025. The success of the clean Nigeria campaign will contribute to some of the key priority areas of the government which include enhancing social inclusion and poverty reduction, expanding business growth and entrepreneurship and expanding access to quality education, affordable health care and productivity of Nigerians. It is in this regard that the initiative of the organized private sector in water sanitation and hygiene OPS wash tagged flush it which aims at promoting private sector led innovative financial strategies in wash is a welcome development. The role of the private sector is critical in building a viral sanitation economy and will drive the sustenance of the results being achieved under the clean Nigeria campaign. On this note, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to officially launch the project flush it initiative of the organized private sector in water sanitation and hygiene and to formally appoint clean Nigeria campaign ambassadors towards achieving the objectives of the clean Nigeria use the toilet campaign for an open defecation free Nigeria by 2025. Thank you very much for your attention.