Worrisome phenomenon of open defecation

Recently, the country Director of the WaterAid Nigeria, Dr.
Chichi Okoye, revealed that no fewer than 123m Nigerians lack access to hygienic toilets as a result of which they defecate or urinate in the open.
This is a sad commentary for a country with a population of about 180m.
Okoye made this revelation at the end of Sustainable Total Sanitation (STS) project meeting held in Abuja, noting that the situation “is most dangerous for women and girls.” She called on the government to promote the construction of gender-friendly and inclusive toilets in all schools, healthcare facilities, work environments and public places to address the problem.
The director further disclosed that Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country, occupies the third place on the list of nations with the worst access to basic sanitation and lamented that the state of affairs exposes the womenfolk in particular to indignity of relieving themselves in the open, a practice that is commonly seen in rural communities.
The WaterAid boss, however, gave the assurance that the organisation was working to make clean water and decent toilets available to everyone.
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 from poor sanitation and hygiene-related conditions before attaining the age of five, globally.
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 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.
As recently as March, 2014 or thereabouts, 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 man named 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 murdered by security agents for allegedly urinating in the open in Sanyuli, Guangzhou Province.
As much as open defecation or urinating by the roadside can be seen as an act of indiscipline which the Buhari regime was out to correct by introducing the sanitation culture in the early 80s, there is a compelling need to provide the right environment aimed at discouraging the unhealthy habit as well as public enlightenment on the hazard that it creates.
Besides the health hazards that are associated with open defecation, girls and women are known to attract the attention of men, consequently leading to rape.
Government at all levels should provide public toilets in strategic parts of the towns and cities and even on the highways, and they should be accessed without any payment.
The relevant agencies should also be mandated to ensure that modern sanitation facilities are provided by operators of motor parks, markets, public and private schools and such other places.
Provision of mobile toilets should also be considered with minimum payment charged.
Once these facilities are available, Nigerians would be discouraged from practising the old habit, and sanctions should be imposed on violators.
In developed climes where high premium is placed on good sanitation, incidents of diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and the likes are long forgotten.