Good day, Hive Family. How are we doing? Happy new month to us all, and I wish you the best of it.
Yesterday evening, I was lost in thought when childhood memories suddenly came rushing back. I smiled quietly to myself until my three-year-old daughter ran into my room and straight into the toilet. She was already inside before I heard, “Mummy, I want to pee.”
That moment stirred memories of my childhood when having a decent toilet was a luxury. Growing up in a Ghanaian community in the northern part of the country, I never saw a proper water closet (WC) toilet until I was about 13 or 14, after leaving home.
I still remember how thrilled I was the first time I used a proper toilet. It was during a holiday in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou.
My aunt had taken my brothers and me to attend a family function, and at the host’s house, I had my very first experience of using a decent toilet.
The feeling was priceless for my late younger brother and me. In fact, we visited the toilet so often that my aunt would scold us (Lol).
Looking back now, it amazes me how a basic necessity felt like a privilege. We were so used to what we called “free range”—open defecation—that we didn’t question it. To us, it was freedom, but in reality, it reflected society’s failure to provide us with a necessity.
Now, I imagine asking my three-year-old daughter to step outside and ease herself in an open field, and I wonder what her response or reaction would be. It reminds me of just how much things have changed and, sadly, how much they have also stayed the same.
Unfortunately, this reality persists today after more than two decades of my experience.
Open defecation remains a significant problem in Nigeria and other low-income African countries, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas.
According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), 18% of Nigerians still practice open defecation—far above the global average of 5%.
The report defines open defecation as the disposal of human faeces in fields, forests, bushes, water bodies, beaches, or other open spaces, or with solid waste.
This was exactly how we lived back then, using nearby fields at dawn or dusk, and sometimes resorting to black nylon bags during the day.
But open defecation goes beyond embarrassment or discomfort. Human waste pollutes water bodies, contaminates the environment, and spreads deadly diseases.
In Nigeria alone, over 100,000 children under the age of five die each year from diarrhoea, with 90% of these deaths directly linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation, including open defecation.
I remember how polluted the air was in my childhood neighbourhood, though at the time, I never realised the invisible havoc it was wreaking.
UNICEF's ambitious target of a Nigeria free from open defecation by 2025 appears to be a mirage, given the current progress.
More investments in sanitation infrastructure, public health campaigns, and behaviour change initiatives are urgently needed.
Access to safe sanitation should never feel like a luxury; it is a fundamental human right.
Have a blessed day.
All pictures were obtained from Google