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For over two decades now, Nigeria has been joining the global community in marking the World Toilet Day (WTD). The day is set aside to draw the attention of humanity to the need to promote healthy toilet habit within and around their environment. This year’s commemoration was observed three days ago with the theme, “A Place for Peace”. It highlights the threats to sanitation faced by humanity as a result of conflicts, climate change, natural disasters and systemic neglect.
The annual commemoration serves as a wake-up for various governments the world over to work towards mitigating the negative impact of the climate change phenomenon on water which is a major factor in the cultivation of sustainable toilet habit.
The World Toilet Organisation (WTO) founded by Jack Sim in 2001 declared November 19 every year as the day to deepen and sustain global interest in the way and manner the call of nature is answered. About 12 years later, a joint initiative between the Government of Singapore and the WTO led to Singapore’s first United Nations resolution named “Sanitation for All” which addressed global sanitation challenges and called for collective action through commemoration of the WTD. The resolution was adopted by 122 countries at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly.
Available statistics have revealed that 2.4 billion people (about 1 out of every 3 persons) lack access to improved sanitation facilities, and about one billion defecate openly. This exposure to human faeces is one of the major causes of life-threatening diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid fever and even hepatitis contracted through unsafe water and poor sanitation habit. Victims of poor sanitation cut across all strata of the society. However, children especially those below the age of five are more vulnerable. For instance, in 2013, over 340, 000 kids died globally from poor sanitation and hygiene-related conditions before attaining the age of five.
Poor sanitation habit is peculiar to developing countries like Nigeria where poverty and ignorance hold sway. Open defecation is a common sight both in rural and urban centres in this country. Most residential and business premises are not provided with adequate or modern toilets, soap and water to wash their hands after defecation. Pit latrines are still in use in many homes in a 21st Century Nigeria. Public toilets are few if any in places like markets, motor parks, schools in most towns and cities. And where they are available, the users are made to pay for using them. Not many are prepared to pay for such services. Consequently, many who are pressed by nature are seen urinating by the roadside or disappearing into the bush, gutters or any secluded spots to empty their bowels. Women and girls forced to defecate in the open not only lose their dignity and honour but sometimes also fall victim of sexual assault.
In March, 2014, the primordial habit of open defecation triggered off a massacre following the shooting of a young man who was caught by a soldier while answering the call of nature near the premises of the Dangote Cement Company in Gboko. According to reports, the manc, Terhile Jirbo, was ordered by the soldier to evacuate the faeces with his mouth. He pleaded to be allowed to do so with his hands. The request angered the soldier who eventually shot him in the mouth. Although Terhile survived the brutal attack, the soldier’s action angered the youth around, and the protest that followed led to the killing of about seven innocent people. Earlier in faraway China, precisely in September 2008, a Nigerian businessman was shot dead by security agents for allegedly urinating in the open in Sanyuli, Guangzhou province.
About five or so years ago, Nigeria observed the commemoration with the launch of the Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaign tagged “Clean Nigeria: Use The Toilet.” This initiative was a precursor to the signing of an Executive Order by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari to criminalise open defecation in the country. He also kickstarted a campaign to make the country open defecation-free by 2025, stressing that the Order would mandate all federal agencies to maintain adequate toilets in their offices and open up such facilities for public use.
The Buhari administration had hoped that individuals and organisations would key into the project by sponsoring toilets in schools, medical institutions, market places, motor parks and such public spaces.
We do not need a soothsayer to tell us that the desire to free Nigeria of open defecation by 2025 remains a pipedream. Vice President Kashim Shettima is fully aware of this impossibility. Speaking during the 5th anniversary of the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” Campaign at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to mark this year’s commemoration, Shettima, represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, charged all the state governors to take every step towards ending open defecation to improve health, boost productivity and enhance the dignity and safety of Nigerians.
He noted that sanitation sector had great economic opportunities for growth. When aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration, it could create jobs, provide alternative energy resources as well as organic fertilisers.
Shettima urged the state governors to provide the necessary support to drive the campaign at the state and local government levels to achieve “our target of an Open Defecation Free Nigeria within the next five years.” It is hoped that the Tinubu administration will learn from the challenges that stalled Buhari’s deadline from being achieved.
One road map towards achieving the target is to provide mobile toilets with minimum charges in view of the egregious nature of most Nigerians. Once these facilities are available, citizens would be discouraged from practising the old habit. In developed climes where high premium is placed on good sanitation and availability of public toilets, incidents of diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and the likes are long forgotten.
