The horrible attitude towards environmental sanitation either exhibited inadvertently or deliberately by Nigerians is highly alarming as well as crass, fostering an offshoot of rapid increase in environmental health hazards, (like Lassa fever etc) with outlook of general uncleanness, impressed among fastidious visitors and civilized residents commonly found in dirtiness affected states in the country.
Despite the numerous campaigns, people have refused to make cleanliness a prime issue, even though they claim to be godly. Mosquitoes, rodents, roaches, reptiles, cobwebs are common features in many homes, with people taking their dirty habit to public arena. This has contributed in the spread of diseases in recent years. But still, people have not thought it wise to have a change of attitude towards the abuse of the environment. Perhaps, the rapid spread of Lassa fever in Nigeria since its outbreak in the country is partly attributable to the bad attitude of Nigerians towards personal and environmental cleanliness. Some of the attitudes Nigerians display that affect the environment are littering, indiscriminate defecation and haphazard dumping of rubbish.
To start with littering, let’s think about it for a second. The scrap papers, sweet wrappers, fruit skins, water sachets or other wastes that people fling on the road or into the nearby gutter, rather than disposing them properly in a bin, communicate no other message but lack of deep thinking and disrespect for the environment. The sachet water, for instance, which is meant to give Nigerians a safe drinking water on the street, is gradually turning the whole country into a dumping ground. Moreover, black polythene bags mostly used by traders also accounts for the filthiness of the environment.
People litter because they have different perspectives on the consequences of their action. For example, some think that organic food will decay and won’t harm the environment. This is a good example because it is true. But then, some people still throw things that won’t decay into the environment. Ignorance is also a factor as most people do not see littering as a serious environmental issue.
Litter can cause a lot of problems for the community. If a whole community were covered with litter, people would think differently of the community, because it would look like a huge dump site. When the wind blows, a lot of the litter can travel to other places like the beach. That can be very dangerous for a lot of the animals in the water, because they could think it would be food. They could choke on it, or even die. Animals sometimes get trapped and poisoned because of garbage in their habitats.
It is also very common for people to create a dumping ground right beside their home or residence. Many gutters in our cities and towns are blocked due to our poor sanitation habit. It is rather awkward to see people deliberately sweeping and dumping rubbish into nearby gutters. This is partly responsible for most of the flooding that we experience across the country during the rainy season. The difficulty of Nigerians in allowing modernity and education to change their attitude toward orderliness has made unclean environment a normal syndrome in our national life.
A clean environment is the responsibility of every Nigerian, as everyone is a direct beneficiary of its consequences. The development of the country is slowed down when people do not make it a point to observe good sanitation habits. A dirty environment brings the possibility of an outbreak of an epidemic, which in the long run the government has to spend huge amount of money to combat. Such funds could have been used for other beneficial ventures.
We need to change our attitude to environmental issues. The earth, for now, is our home. It is where we live, breathe, eat, raise our children, etc. Therefore, we cannot afford to destroy the environment because our whole essence depends on it. Consequently, when we imbibe positive attitudinal change towards the environment, we are sure of living free of any pollutants or hazards that we might introduce into our environment through human induced activities. Protecting the environment allows future generations of human beings to grow and live without having to deal with anything we have done to contaminate the environment in which we do live and they will live. Protecting the environment is, without doubt, the best way to protect ourselves against diseases and other harmful environmental hazards.
Traditionally, talks on environmental protection often centre on the role of government, legislation and law enforcement. However, environmental protection ought to be the duty of all the people and not simply that of government. Therefore, we all need to embrace positive attitude towards the environment. Parks should not be turned into market places, toilets, refuse dumps or places where animals graze. Failure to control animals or allowing their defecation or engaging in an unhygienic use of fountains, pools or water in the parks, gardens and open spaces would be counter- productive and as such must be discouraged.
With natural disasters occurring across the world, as a result of the abuse of the environment, this is the time for everyone to have a rethink about our attitude to the environment. As previously stated, it is whatever we give to the environment that it gives back to us.
Rasak Musbau
Musbau is of the Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja
