By Edoamaowo Udeme
I had an appointment to catch at the Airport road in Abuja, The Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, so I left early from my residence which is after Mararaba axis. With the level of traffic in Mararaba, any appointment you need to catch outside the area will only warrant an early rise, better still, 6 am shouldn’t meet you at home.
In my haste, I had completely forgotten to empty my “bowel” before leaving home. There I was on my way to a meeting, suddenly caught up in traffic and then, my worst nightmare began, my bowel was filled to the brim, I decided to hold on, did I have a choice?
Goose pimples visited me and became my friend. We discussed. I instructed it not to disappoint me. My legs were shaking, there was no way to disembark, even if I did, there was no place to urinate.
I cursed my immobility, If I had a car, I would have diverted, parked and downloaded my “stuff, but no! here I was in a loaded bus that was moving in a snail speed.
I imagined messing myself up, imagined people in the bus whipping out their camera and video phones, imagined being laughed at and mocked, worst still, I imagined a viral video of me, I could visualize the headlines….
I told myself “Edoamaowo Udeme, you can hold on” Oh yes I did! Yet traffic chose that day to go on holiday or call it vacation and refused to be friendly.
I imagined all sort of things, every movement the bus made I could see a potential place to urinate, my legs were giving way, my phone was ringing and I couldn’t pick, it was as if I picked, everything inside me will just spill.
I truly can’t tell how long it took but I remember seeing myself in AYA Junction, I dashed off the bus, knew I was supposed to collect my balance from the bus conductor but money meant nothing to me at that moment. Even if Ganduje had thrown a bundle of that ‘thing” he stuffed in his Agbada across to me, I would have refused to catch it.
I looked around and saw no place except a thick small overgrown weed just by the junction, I made a dash for it. I bumped into a woman with a baby strapped on her back apparently on her way for the same purpose.
Before I could say sorry the scornful look on her face threw me off balance, I donated a cold stare at her as I threw my bag on the pavement, I didn’t give a hoot if it was stolen.
The stench emanating from that small thicket weed was enough to cause a miscarriage, I didn’t care. All sorts of human waste were sprinkled all over like red clothes we see in Nigerian movie shrines. I couldn’t go in, I did mine there and then very close to the road, without a care in the world.
At that point, I cared less about videos.
After downloading what was left of my bowel, goose pimples said goodbye and traveled, sweat overcame me, I needed to sit for a while, the woman I had bumped into walked past me and I realized her baby’s leg had caught up with some human waste.
I called her attention to it. With shock in her eyes, I whipped out my roll of tissue and a bottle of water, dumped it in her hands and left her to carry her own ‘cross”.
I had missed the appointment by 1 hour 30 minutes and the calls I had were apparently from my clients’ secretary. I was beside myself with anger. That was a man I had been waiting for two months to interview. I returned the calls but met an apology. Another date apparently.
I made a mental note on public toilets in Abuja metropolis, I could not remember any! I had to do a little research, my day was ruined already anyway, so I boarded a vehicle to Berger junction, I had to take a walk around. it was an apology. Every part of Berger that is off the main road was filled with human waste. Once again the stench greeted me. I only thanked God that I wasn’t pregnant.
I decided to try Area 1 junction. It them dawned on me that in the so called master plan of Abuja, there wasn’t any provision whatsoever of a public toilet. Public toilets can only be found in major markets like Wuse, Utako and Garki but the major junctions where people wait for minutes sometimes hours for vehicles do not have public toilet facilities.
The effort made by European Union (EU) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through its Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program that Nigeria can be Open Defecation free in 2025 may be a fruitless effort if the whole Nations Capital, Abuja, is the number one culprit.
If according to research, 1 gram of excreta has 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria and 1000 parasites I imagine what we take in daily as ‘fresh air”
In a recent Media Dialogue in Jos Plateau State of Nigeria, Mr Zaid Jurji, The UNICEF Chief of (WASH) had said “In order to effectively check open defecation in different parts the country, the Federal Government will need to invest about $8.3bn. and I ask, ‘How will Nigeria possibly invest that amount of money when it is not political issues’’?
Diarrhoea is the second killer of children as it amounts to 88% of cases in the world and I am sure God just chose to ignore our open defecation sins because of our children because as we speak, most children in both public and private schools in the country do not have adequate toilet facilities they use
Despite our shortcomings there are five Local Government that have been declared free from OD and Cross River State Tops the list with three which are Obanliku, Bekwarra, Yakur Local Government Areas (LGAs), while Bauchi seconds with two which are Dass and Warji LGAs. If your state is among these two states, clap for yourself but if not, be like me, cover your face in shame.
In the words of Omoniyi Ibietan, A Multi-Stakeholder Communications and Relationship Management Specialist, “In the Republic of South Africa there is a full-fledged federal ministerial Department of Water and Sanitation, now headed by former Premier of Gauteng Province, Ms. Mokonyane”. In the Republic of Rwanda, there is Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority. These are institutionalized commitments to addressing the issue of sanitation”.
“In Nigeria, we have regulatory authorities for standardization of products, telecom, electricity, food and drug administration, etc. So, let’s seize the occasion of WORLD TOILET DAY to demonstrate concrete commitment to issues of sanitation”.
“Current research shows that “About 23% of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to toilets while 31% with toilets use one’s that aren’t connected to a formal sanitation system. This means that more than half the people in sub-Saharan Africa live without proper sanitation that’s about 570 million people”
“One of the problems is that existing toilets aren’t a good fit for parts of sub-Saharan Africa because many areas lack water and there are often no proper plumbing or facilities to treat wastewater”
“The No.9 item of the 62-Point reason why Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) goes on strike speaks to the sanitation issue in Nigerian universities as follows: “76% of Nigerian universities use well as source of water, 45% use pit latrine, 67% of students use bush as toilet”. Ibietan added
As for me, Open Defecation is a task that must be accomplished, But How?
