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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
A pest control expert, Mr Bamidele Abiru, has called for stronger community action against mosquito breeding sites, warning that environmental neglect remains a major driver of malaria transmission in Nigeria.
Abiru made the call during a medical outreach organised by Greenbox Facilities Limited at Gosa Community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as part of activities marking World Mosquito Day.
He said preventing mosquitoes from breeding in residential areas was critical to reducing malaria infections and the deaths associated with the disease, particularly in a country carrying one of the world’s heaviest malaria burdens.
According to him, between 600,000 and 700,000 people die from malaria-related complications annually across sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria accounting for an estimated 180,000 to 200,000 of the deaths.
“Most people do not know that mosquitoes are among the deadliest killers of humans. Between 600,000 and 700,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa die from malaria every year,” Abiru said.
He noted that Nigeria accounts for about 27 per cent of global malaria cases and more than 30 per cent of malaria deaths worldwide, stressing that reducing the disease burden required greater attention to prevention at the community level.
Abiru called for routine environmental sanitation exercise rather than an occasional exercise to prevent breeding of mosquitoes, spreading and by extension, malaria in our various neighbourhoods.
“We must eliminate stagnant water, clear overgrown vegetation and maintain clean surroundings,” he said.
He also advised households to prevent mosquitoes from gaining access to their homes by adopting appropriate protective measures, noting that effective mosquito control must begin from the immediate environment.
Also speaking, the Coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Dr Nnena Ogbulafor, urged Nigerians to take greater responsibility for keeping their surroundings free of mosquito breeding sites.
Ogbulafor, who was represented at the outreach by the Assistant Chief Scientific Officer,Integrated Vector Management Unit , Mr Henry Odume, said sustained environmental management was important to the country’s efforts to eliminate malaria.
She, however, noted that the malaria situation in the FCT had recorded significant improvement in recent years as, according to her, its prevalence in the territory dropped from 18.8 per cent in 2021 to 7.9 per cent in 2025.
The NMEP coordinator stressed the need to sustain the gains by ensuring that communities do not allow conditions that encourage mosquito breeding to persist.
The outreach provided an opportunity for residents to receive health education on malaria prevention while Abiru and the NMEP representative emphasised that community participation remained central to reducing mosquito-borne diseases.
