Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in Faculty of Arts

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The ideal learning institution for anyone doesn’t have to be a fancy building, but instead a suitable environment where teaching and learning can be carried out every day. While it is completely impossible not to be faced with challenges, it is only right that those at the helm of affairs fix things as soon as they are necessary. However, this is not the case with the Executive Council of the Association of Faculty of Arts Students (AFAS).

Over the years, students of this faculty have always complained about the state of the faculty toilets. There is hardly a student in the faculty who does not have their fair share of how messy these toilets could be. You could be walking around the corridor and be arrested by the strong odour from these toilets. But as one would expect, some of the blame for the poor condition of the toilets have been shifted to the students.

While we agree that some students can be very careless in their usage of this public infrastructure, the emphasis of this piece is on the little effort of the Executive Council to arrest the situation as you would expect. It is not just enough that cleaners are provided the necessary equipment to take care of these toilets, there is also the need for constant monitoring and concerted effort that would solve this very avoidable odour that disturbs classes and even makes the toilets themselves unusable after some time.

True to this was a History class that was reported to have been cancelled earlier in the week due to the unruly odour that took over the atmosphere at the time the class was about to start. The imagination of leaving one’s destination to attend a class that the lecturer was readily available to hold but couldn’t, simply because of the stench from the poorly maintained faculty toilets is an irksome one.


This, to say the very least, is a very condemnable situation and not befitting of the faculty that prides itself as the premier in the University of Ibadan. Like the cancelled History class, there is a higher possibility that some other classes scheduled to be held that day might have also been cancelled earlier or rescheduled to a later date. That is how bad the situation was, and for the already struggling students, this could mean staying away from subsequent classes.

Now, the bigger question that would be on the lips of other students is how soon the situation would be arrested. At the very least, the students expect the executive council to jump on the situation and effectively fix the problem, so this raises the question of how conversant they are with students’ plight. In any case, this is a call and necessary actions are expected.

Seeing as this issue of the poor condition of the toilets is a recurring one, maintenance culture sits at the top of what must be prioritised. As is the case with Nigeria, the issue is not in the building of infrastructure, but rather, in how we maintain them. The implication of these public infrastructures not being maintained properly is that they break down, we suffer, and the cycle continues. By this token, the Executive Council needs to prioritise maintenance over the repairs that the toilets need after fixing them.

To do this, there could be a committee that would be in charge of the maintenance of these toilets. What these committees ensure is that the toilets are always in good condition. They decide the rules of usage and follow through accordingly. Doing this, would not only ensure proper monitoring of the toilet facilities but also ensure that they are kept clean always.

Another factor that has also motivated the poor state of the toilets over the years is the inaccessibility of some basic items that are expected in these toilets. For instance, in the male toilet, there are no buckets to go round in each of them. What happens in this situation is that once a student comes in, he only uses the toilet and rarely goes through the extra effort that it would require to get the place cleaned up in that situation. Put simply, this means purchasing these basic items that make the usage of the toilet seamless.

One other solution that is inevitable is that, since poor usage of toilets is one of the major concerns in this faculty, it is only right that beyond assuming that everyone would catch up with the danger of poor sanitation, we also invite experts in the field to speak with AFASites about the implications of not maintaining good hygiene. While this does not automatically solve the problem, it helps us to gradually raise a set of students who are armed with the dangers of maintaining the status quo. With time, there would be positive changes.

Finally, well-kept restrooms are essential to fostering an academic environment that is productive and efficient, and this is not the first time that this Press organisation would be calling the attention of the AFAS leadership to this issue, but usually, only very little effort goes into changing the situation. No student of the Faculty of Arts should have to worry about toilet conditions when the need to use them arises, but with this latest mess, the displeasure is now on another level. This situation demands immediate attention and a reformative approach and some of the solutions that can be adopted have been given above.

While it is primarily the duty of the cleaning staff to ensure that the restrooms are in good condition, a collaborative effort is required to improve the conditions of these facilities. If we continue to act like this is a minor situation that does not demand urgency, it is just a matter of time before we start seeing more of the repercussions of this challenge that we have allowed to linger.










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