Beach Clean Up Initiative By Brothers Natse And Totse

It was a beehive of activities at the Elegushi Beach side on Thursday, August 7, 2014 when the two young UK based Nigerian brothers, Natse (16 years) and Totse (13 years old) Ayuli-Jemide launched their "Beach Clean-Up" initiative at Elegushi Beach in Lekki Area of Lagos State. 

The exercise, which lasted for over four hours, was rounded up with a passionate appeal by the brothers for Nigerians to embrace sanitation as a culture to hold in high esteem. This is more important now then ever before especially with the current Ebola scare, a heightened awareness of personal and spatial sanitation is imperative as a way of life for all Nigerians.

The mother of the two young boys, Mrs. Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a reputable Horticulturist, committed to building this new sector in Nigeria, in her opening address, praised the Lagos State government for its efforts to beautify Lagos and urged the administration to extend this to every nook and cranny of the metropolis. She called on Lagosians and indeed all Nigerians to "complement what our leaders are doing at the macro levels, to beautify environments, at the private and individual levels of the society".

The young boys, described the exercise as very enlightening and fun-filled. They were particularly grateful to their friends and the many volunteers that came out en-masse to participate in the event. 

They gave out many dust bin baskets, disposable garbage bags as well as tee-shirts to participants and well-wishers, urging everyone to adopt habits that will bring about clean environments especially in areas that are tourist attraction as this will, in many ways, boost the economic fortune of the tourism sector.

The boys described “health as wealth”. According to them, "maintaining clean environments is a sine-qua-non to healthy living and this invariably impacts positively on the socio-economic well being of our people". They wish to continue this exercise as often as possible anytime they find themselves in Nigeria during holidays or the Christmas period. They hope the exercise becomes a lasting, memorable occurrence that people come to expect and participate in.

They lamented the insecurity that faces Nigeria as at present and urged those behind the insurgency to sheath their swords. In their words, “We hope to be able to carry out this exercise in major cities of the six Geo-political zones of Nigeria but we are handicapped by the current insecurity which we hope would soon cease. We are saddened by the rampart killings in Nigeria today. We call on all levels of government and the entire citizens of the country to please join hands to put an end to this menace".

The boys were proud of what they were able to accomplish with the Elegushi Beach exercise. A resident of the community commented "we are impressed by the zeal of these young boys. The beach is looking so clean and appealing. A lot of people will spend more time on the beach and patronise our little businesses if it looked clean like this all the time." Another passer-by said "thank you Natse and Totse what an impressive exercise".

 A guest and participant added "many young boys are so pre-occupied by having fun. These two have managed to find the time to contribute to society in this small but significant way. I hope more young people get involved in this campaign". Natse and Totse promised to mobilise more youths, friends and volunteers to keep the campaign alive. The next exercise, which will hold,at another public location in Nigeria, is expected to take place in the last quarter of the year.