Your Bad Habits

[Richard Akindele]

Having lived in several nations across the globe, I'm amazed at the stagnation in Nigeria with respect to hygiene.

It is not uncommon to hear plans coming from the government of a desire to send a man to the moon, or bring the nation into the high tech age. However, there are basic needs that are conspicuously not being met.

Spending the nations money on high tech is laughable, when citizens lack basics such as food, good toilets, stable electiricity, clean drinking tap water, undersurface drainage system, etc.

Nigerian leaders have done a great injustice to it's citizens. The standard of living in Nigeria is below what obtains in even a poor nation. Nigerians are still paupers with all the nation's wealth.

Nigerians generally defeacate in deep pits, or even on the open surface, a perfect breeding ground for flies. These filthy flies find their way into our food, which when injested causes anything from stomach discomfort to full blown diseases.

What is even more disgusting about defeacating in pits is that public utility vehicles have to come by from time to time to extract the crap, stinking up the whole neighborhood.

There are even men whose job is to haul this stuff from homes and dump them into public rivers. These are rivers from which some people drink directly!

Due to our poor drainage system, waste water often travels above ground. Again, another good breeding ground for flies as well as mosquitoes. Mosquitoes being parasites, bite people day and night, with the female anopheles transfering plasmodium into people, leading to malaria.

Another case in point, a person answers the call of nature, fails to wash his hands since water is scarce. Since Nigerians have a habit of shaking hands as a form of greeting, that person shakes your hands. If the person has Polio, that disease may have been transferred to your palm. Should you put your hands in your mouth, or eat a meal without washing your hands first, the polio virus may be injested with your food.

Once again, we see here how a lack of good water supply for washing hands after defeating, can lead to the transmission of deadly diseases.

Wake up Nigeria. Most of the problems we are experiencing can be attributed to just a few bad habits that we have. Change these habits, and watch most of the problems disappear.

The nation needs a good undersurface drainage system to prevent mosquitoes and flies from breeding.

We need good toilets, with a sink in every toilet for washing hands. This will cut down drastically on the spread of diseases such as Polio.

Well planned cities have a web of underground pipes all across the city through which waste moves. The waste is then incinerated down to harmless ashes.

I've barely scratched the surface regarding the bad habits Nigerians need to get rid of. I personnaly believe in solving a problem by eliminating the root cause. For example, if I were capable of effecting a change in Nigeria, I would address the issue of waste water flowing on our streets, rather than consider importing more malaria drugs from foreign nations.

By merely changing our habits, most of our health issues can be eradicated.

Rome was not built in a day. So constructing an undersurface drainage system would take decades. But better late than never.