The Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) is seeking partnership with Daily Trust to create awareness and be part of future campaigns to harness change in climate and environmental health.
The Registrar/CEO of EHORECON, Dr Yakubu Baba Mohammed, made the request on Wednesday during a visit to Media Trust headquarters in Abuja.
He expressed conviction that the media would play a vital role in promoting the work of the council and help Nigerians understand that prevention is cheaper than curative health.
“Environmental health came to Nigeria with the colonial masters because they came with no intent to spend too much on curative health which is why they established the three schools of hygiene for the purpose of training sanitary inspectors – Duba Garis, Nwaole-ala and Wole-Wole – to be able to police the environment and make sure that it is not being polluted and set for human growth,” Mohammed said.
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He explained that under his leadership, the council had hosted the first national summit on environmental health.
“Also, the council organised an environmental business health forum last year as the council believes environmental health cannot only be driven by the government as the private sector equally has a major role to play.
“The issue of climate change is real and environmental health has a key role to play in the issue of mitigation and building resilience within vulnerable communities in Nigeria. Another aspect that is important to the council is the issue of the circular economy because Nigeria as a nation is left behind in this aspect.
“I am proud to say there’s no organisation that has the manpower disposition that the environmental health has because we have over 50,000 personnel who are domiciled to police the environment and Nigerians should leverage that in order to harness and achieve set goals,” he said.
In his remark, Daily Trust’s Executive Director, Business Development and Strategy, Malam Ahmed Shekarau, appreciated the council for the visit.
He said the company is known for maintaining relationships and working with relevant councils like EHORECON to impact society.