Leadership (Abuja)
18 August 2008
As part of efforts to boost tourism, the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), plans to organise road shows to sensitise the citizens to the need for a clean environment.
The first in the series, tagged "Clean Environment for Better Tourism", was held in Abuja on Saturday to reawaken the residents' consciousness for a healthy nation.
According to the Director-General of the NTDC, Chief Olusegun Runsewe, the programme is to attract tourists into the country.
"Nobody will come to a country noted for filth. The first thing you see in any country is a clean environment but, in our case, what you see is a dirty environment which does not tell a good story about us.
"If we clean our homes, streets and indeed, our surroundings, it will go a long way to presenting us as a decent people," he said.
Runsewe said that it was everybody's social and moral responsibility to make the country clean and tourism friendly.
He said that a healthy environment would save Nigerians huge medical bills since a dirty environment could lead to outbreak of epidemics.
In her remarks, Mrs Aisha Adebayo, the Deputy Director of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, said that littering the environment was a punishable offence and would be treated seriously.
She said that the road show was to remind Nigerians to keep a clean environment and to ensure the payment of their waste disposal bills.
(NAN)
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