By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
SIR: Long before President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order 009 in November 2019, issues relating to open defecation, and inherent dangers that Nigerians face in defecating openly have been matters strong in public discourse.
A report in the Vanguard newspaper of February 20, with the title, 47.5million Nigerians engage in open defecation, says FG, indicates that from the time that the president signed executive order 009 less than six months ago, most Nigerians still do not have access to water sanitation and hygiene.
The problem is two-fold at the moment and they are related. One is that even though governments in most states of the federation frequently ask Nigerians not to defecate in public, there are as yet no functional public toilets in public institutions like schools, markets, government institutions and hospitals.
While there may be toilets in most of these public institutions, issues of access to these toilets is often a big issue – most of the toilets in public institutions are either reserved for the oga for issues of respect and decorum, but also for the fact that the toilets cannot run because all modern toilet systems run on water, and in our environment where even drinking water is hard to come by.
And at a time when there is an explosion of certain diseases like Ebola, corona virus and Lassa Fever, issues of public toilets or toilets in public institutions come to the fore.
With functional toilets in public institutions or at street intersections, most of these diseases will constitute little or no hazard to Nigeria’s teeming population. Take the example of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
Even though most public institutions indeed have functional toilets, can the same be said for toilets on major and minor streets in Abuja? Absolutely not.
At many prominent street corners and intersections, (and you find this in all major capital cities in Nigeria) we find warning inscriptions such as Do Not Urinate Here – Fine N100 thousand’, without ever finding a toilet on any street corner or intersection to take care of our pressing urinary needs.
While there may be indeed some toilets at motor parks and markets, the risks involved with using them often far outweigh the need to answer the call of nature in these public toilets.
The problem is often that there is no water and therefore sanitary conditions are very poor. Those unable to hold their systems, and have taken the risks have often contracted serious infections. Therefore, the opportunity cost of not using a dirty public toilet is the issue of open defecation.
Making a commitment to end open defecation in Nigeria before 2025, without ensuring access to water or that there is a water policy driving that commitment is like cutting our noses to spite our faces. The government knows it would not be there in 2025.
It knows that if its party takes the elections in 2023, chances are that it would have bequeathed an unattainable quest to its successor, or to the opposition. Either way, we encourage the present administration to move beyond the rhetoric and begin in earnest to work towards giving Nigerians access to water.
Nigerians have become local government areas to themselves in this area in sinking boreholes at random to meet their water needs. Nothing would be gained in asserting that in the indiscriminate sinking of boreholes to meet our water needs, we continue to compound issues related to climate change, and work against its mitigation thereof.
We encourage the government to deepen discussions on these issues through engagement with stakeholders working in the areas of water sanitation and hygiene. That way, Executive Order 009, signed in November 2019 by President Buhari would not become just one of those ineffectual monuments to be arrogated to his presidency.
- Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku,
majirioghene@protonmail.com.
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