Whenever 26-year-old Ibrahim Kasir felt the urge to excrete or urinate, the thought of the possible tendency of contracting diseases from using the public toilets in his school — Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS) — chased him away.

Before the 300 Level student stopped using the school’s toilets in May 2022, he had fallen sick quite a number of times. He claimed his illness was a result of using the grubby toilets. Kasir told FIJ that the last time he used the toilet at the Jubril Aminu male hall of residence, he almost vomited his intestine.

“I stopped using it because of the fear of sickness and disease, flies entering it have a high propensity to transfer a virus to someone,” he recalled.

In a 2021 report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting  (ICIR), Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto was one of the top schools in northwest Nigeria where open defecation thrived amid poor maintenance of students’ toilets.

Recently, Nigeria’s minister of state for environment Isiaq Saleko lamented that 23 per cent of the country’s population still defecate openly and 159 million people are without access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

READ ALSO: Over 30 Female UDUS Students ‘Become IDPs’ in their University Following Eviction from Hostel

AN ABODE OF FLIES, INSECTS…

Walking into Block A Hostel’s toilet, different types of flies like butterflies and grasshoppers rose from every corner of the toilet and kissed this reporter on the face when he visited on October 31.

The houseflies were seen feasting on the dry faeces both on the white tiles at the threshold of the toilet and on the latrine. The condition of the toilets was why many students like Kasir defecated openly.

Kasir’s story is not unique. Hundreds of students in the Sokoto tertiary institution engaged in the same practice whenever they were pressed. Speaking with FIJ, Ariyo Ariwo*, a student, said he had vowed never to have anything to do with any toilet on the school premises again.

“I can never use it because of my past experiences with it. It is always messed up with grubby particles and you’re vulnerable to diseases here. Worst of all, it can’t cover all of us because the number of students is more than the number of toilets,” Ariwo said.

Now Ariwo, who is 24 years old, would go to the back of the hostel with a nylon whenever he wants to excrete. When he is done, he throws the nylon into an open field.

Faeces at a dumping site behind a hostel in UDUS. Photo Credit: Dauda Musbau

READ ALSO: Usman Danfodiyo Uni Bans Pen Press From Journalism Over Report It Doesn’t Like

Ariwo admitted to exposing himself to contracting diseases with this kind of practice too. “But, I had to desert the toilet which should have been the go-to comfort station because it always remains filthy.”

He also said that he had been to the university clinic a couple of times in the last four months to seek medical attention.

Speaking with FIJ, Abdulrasaq Nafisat, a 400 Level Education English student, narrated how whenever she passed through the walkway and saw faeces at the edge of the fence that ran into the male hostels, she would never be able to eat at night.

“If I want to eat and I remember, I’ll feel like vomiting,” Nafisat said.

She lamented the prospect of health challenge issues that open defecation could cause, saying that “students might develop constipation or feel nauseated”.

Cows feasting at dumping site behind Male Hostel. Photo Credit: Dauda Musbau

For Mustapha Aisha, a final year student of Education Biology, seeing faeces littered around didn’t only seem irritating but also disturbing to her. “It creates a deep sense of discomfort every time it comes to my mind,” said Aishat.

EXPERT WEIGHS IN

Open defecation remains a significant problem in Nigeria, with 48 million people still practising it as of 2024. This happens mostly within the poorest quintile and in rural areas.

The chances that Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on universal access to sanitation before 20230 is slim. This is indicated in the UNICEF report which reveals that Nigeria needs 20 million toilets to eliminate open defecation.

Since 2016 when the Federal Ministry of Water Resources with support from UNICEF launched the National Open Defecation Free Roadmap, only Jigawa State has been declared open defecation free.

Kilaso Emmanuel, a sustainable development expert working at the intersection of education and environmental health, noted that creating an enabling environment and standard infrastructure is very crucial when it comes to curbing open defecation in Nigerian tertiary schools.

“When rain falls after people have defecated in an open space, the water is going to wash it and take it to the larger water bodies, leading to human waste contaminating water sources which can spread pathogens that cause diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, among others,” said the founder of Ogun-based Securecycle Environmental and Climate Change Initiative.

According to Kilaso, the Nigerian government and school authorities “need to up their games in the war against this menace”.

“You know what really leads to open defecation in this part of the world is basically attributed to the fact that many people do not take sanitation as a priority,” Kilaso explained.

Like Kilaso, public health experts have also noted that governments should invest in building more public toilets, continuously sensitise the public against open defecation and also consider policies that involve processing waste into energy.

READ ALSO: EFCC Arrests Campus Reporter, 46 UDUS Students in Morning Raid

UDUS MANAGEMENT REACTS

When approached with this report’s findings, Umar Aliyu, the dean of students’ affairs at UDUS, said that some students were responsible for the poor condition of the toilets.

“We often distribute antiseptic, detergent, brooms and moppers in adequate quantities that can take care of the cleaning every month but the students, instead of making the proper use of the toilets, they settle for messing it up,” said Aliyu, a professor from the school’s faculty of agriculture.

He stated that if any staff member is reported to the management for not doing their job, the management will either transfer or replace them with somebody else.

Umar also agreed that open defecation promotes a poor hygienic environment and poses a threat to the students and residents.

He predicted that the students would make the proper use of the toilets in a bid to stop open defecation on campus.

Editor’s Note: The images here are some pictures of grubby toilets that this reporter took. Viewer’s discretion is advised.
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