The policy, according to the minister of environment, Col. Bala Mande, contained three elements of the main policy which include guidelines for its implementation and the action plan for realising the objective of the policy.

Col. Mande (rtd) who revealed this shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting held at Presidential Villa Abuja, said the ban of the use of the bag will take immediate effect after an alternative and viable one is found.

He further said, already, an inter-ministerial committee has been set up with a view to looking for a viable and available alternative, adding that government is ever ready to ensure that the policy succeeds.

The minister who said that, federal government would assist in building the human and physical capacity of local governments in the implementation of the policy, however said, the new policy also recognizes the role of all stakeholders especially state and local governments.

According to him, the private sector will be fully involved in the implementation of the policy aimed at putting the country among the cleanest nation in the world.

Currently, he said, government is working towards enactment of relevant legislations that would assist in the implementation of the policy, adding that by implementing the policy, government would increase access to toilets, in all the 774 local governments areas in public places by 100 percent by the year 2010, to ensure effective sanitary management.

Col. Mande also said under the new policy, animal rearing especially in urban centres will be discouraged, while sanitary education needs to be intensified through organizing educational programmes in schools on sanitation.

To achieve this, he added, the ministries of education, agriculture, health, industry, water resources and private sector will all be involved in the implementation of the new policy.

"Government for long was spending a lot of money in various sectors with a view to maintaining environmental cleanliness, but unfortunately due to poor sanitation, this has proved abortive,” he observed.