Reflections of phone screens cast a dim flash inside the room of eight in Jubril Aminu, one of the male hostels under the management of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS). Among other students, there is Habeeb Nasiru, a third-year student, bold, tall, fair and with a bearded face. He lay on his bed, shivering despite being covered with sweaters and a wrapper. That was sometime around November 2024.
He would later explain the reason behind his appearance on that fateful Wednesday evening.
The 27-year-old’s ailment kept him in his hostel despite having an exam on the following day. Later in the night, he managed his way to the class after he gained a little bit of strength.
Before Wednesday, Nasiru had previously been seized by illness, usually identified as malaria whenever he visited the UDUS clinic.
“The inflows of water and unsanitary environment in the hostels are major causes of this problem. Wastewater is not flowing the way it is supposed to be, see how nylon is littered everywhere and blocked gutters. All these call the attention of vectors, and carry disease to our body,” Nasiru explained.
“We are cooking, washing, doing everything in a dirty, unclean environment. Even if you enter our mini market, the foods we are eating are exposed to flies because they are not covered and these vectors are flying everywhere.”
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View of Dump Site at one of the UDUS Hostel. Photo Credit: Muheeb Mashood
Nasiru’s plight is a reflection of the travails students face in the UDUS community due to filthy environments compounded by hostile weather.
Nasiru is not alone; Adam Aliyu, a final-year student, is also one of the occupants of Jubril Aminu hostel who had earlier (in September) spent days inside his hostel due to deteriorating health conditions. His story resonated with the unhygienic condition around his hostel as the main cause of illness among the students.
When Aliyu visited the clinic the first time he was sick, he left with a sorry experience, heading back to his hostel without getting even a tablet of Paracetamol. He could not walk, so he had to catch a bike that took him back to his hostel that day.
“The first time I was sick this semester, I went to the clinic with a belief that I would get better. But I ended up returning to the hostel without getting any medication,” Aliyu said.
“I called my mother when I realised my condition was becoming worse and the exam was fast approaching. She sent the sum of N10,000 to me. I revisited the clinic the next day before I went to a pharmacy inside the school mini market to buy drugs worth N5,580 after a doctor’s prescription.”
He saw how students stormed the school clinic until there was no medication to be given to the patients during the 2023/24 academic session. The struggle of students with access to parallel healthcare was quite challenging, as the clinic workers usually directed students to get their prescriptions outside the hospital.
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Gutter Blocked by Sewages in UDUS Hostel. Photo Credit: Muheeb Mashood
The condition of the UDUS environment is a reflection of a larger problem in Nigeria. According to Clean Up Nigeria (CUN), an international non-governmental organisation, over 176.3 million out of approximately 250 million Nigerians were living in unclean environments in 2022, compared to 172 million in 2021. This was contained in their performance indicators from December 2021 to November 2022.
At a press conference in Abuja, the initiative’s founder, Prince Ene Baba Owoh Jr, stated that their organisation’s statistical data indicated that 32 out of the 36 states, including Sokoto and the FCT, were rated as unclean.
Concluding his speech, Owoh noted that despite the practice of open defecation being reduced from 34 per cent in 2021 to 28 per cent in 2022, Nigeria still tops the ranking of open defecation all over the world from 2018 to 2022.
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Uncovered Water Tank
Earlier trapped in torpor, Aliyu’s curiosity over the uncovered water container in their hostel became worrisome after he realised the consequences of the unhygienic water coming from the water tank and how it threatened his well-being.
Being exposed for a long time, the water inside the tank is usually contaminated by lizards, cockroaches and other reptiles that had died inside the container. The fear of contamination had compelled students concerned to source water from other hostels.
“Firstly, I was indifferent as to the water coming from the uncovered tank. But after some time, I started questioning myself about the consequences of the water I’m consuming on my health,” Aliyu explained.
“The way in which wind blows germs inside the tank due to its exposure has forced some students who cannot bear it to look for water at other blocks.”
Jalaludeen Musbau, another dweller of Jubril Aminu noted that the water tank in their block has been left uncovered for an extended period. This has created a fuss about the cleanliness and safety of the water, as Debris, leaves, and other contaminants often found their way into the tank, affecting the water quality.
The third-year student expressed his concerns, especially with the unpleasant odour and taste of the water, which suggests contamination. He added that some of his fellow hostel colleagues have reported similar health issues.
Sourcing for drinkable and usable water from another block became a regular practice for Musbau and many other students in his hostel. “The stress of getting water from another block is taking a toll on us,” Musbau added.
Uncovered Water Tank at UDUS Hostel. Photo Credit: Muheeb Mashood
The effect of lack of access to safe water is damning. A 2021 report by UNICEF showed that 73 per cent of diarrhoeal and enteric disease burden in Nigeria was caused by poor access to adequate water and sanitation hygiene (WASH), and was disproportionately borne by poorer children.
UNICEF’s report added that only 26.5 per cent of the population accessed improving drinking water sources and sanitation facilities, with the need for improved service in rural sanitation taking up 64.1 per cent.
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Breeding Malaria Through Plantations
To Abdullahi Ridwan, an averagely tall man in his mid-20s, his story extended beyond the unhygienic environment. It covered how village farmers around the university littered the school environment with plantations across the four corners of the school.
The final-year student (now a graduate) was gripped with shock due to the unchecked freedom enjoyed by the farmers planting crops around campus, near the lecture rooms and students’ halls of residence.
He blamed the school management for their silence on the issue, as they failed to put restrictions on areas where those farmers could set up their farmland.
“The university environment is botched with plantations. Can you imagine planting crops very close to our lecture halls and various hostels? And you know, these farmlands usually breed mosquitoes that spread malaria,” Ridwan said.
“Our male hostels really need attention. The gutters, the bathrooms and even our various hostels are kept untidy.”
He continued, “I have been sick twice during this semester. At first, I could not get anything from the drugs prescribed for me by the doctor. For the second time, I only got one and was directed to buy the remaining ones at a pharmacy outside the clinic.”
As a student, the unavailability of drugs inside the school clinic incurred a lot of unexpected expenses on him. This left him to cut his budget and struggle with the end result.
One of the UDUS Hostel Ringed by Plantations. Photo Credit: Muheeb Mashood
Similarly, Muhammadu Muhammadu, a penultimate student, living at one of the university’s private hostels, recounted how their villa was ringed by farmstead — when the villagers planted millets, beans and the like during the rainy season. “This has led to the incursion of mosquitoes into our hostel, which has subjected a lot of us to malaria,” Muhammadu noted.
Unlike other students who visited the school clinic whenever they were sick, he sought treatment directly in the mini market pharmacy due to the operational pattern in the university facility.
“It is not always easy. I do not usually have money anytime I fall sick. Sometimes I call home to get money for the drugs. And I do get them on my own many times,” Muhammadu explained.
“This is not always easy for me because the price of drugs also increases like every other thing in Nigeria.”
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Underfunding — a Death Blow to Health Sector in Nigeria
Speaking about the challenges encountered at the UDUS facility, Clinic Director Ibrahim Umar emphasised inadequate funding as the major challenge that compelled students to get medications outside the school.
He also noted that the clinic lacked enough workers to effectively carry out its healthcare services, thereby compounding the plights experienced by students.
“The clinic does not have enough money to sustain its operations. Even the light bulbs are not working, and fueling the generator is a huge challenge. Whenever we attempt to buy fuel, it drains all the money we had set aside for other things,” Umar said.
“Among all the service departments in the university, we have the least number of staff. There are just 65 of us in this clinic. Yet, everyone requires our services. So, how would you expect things to run smoothly?”
The challenges of financial difficulties are not peculiar to the UDUS clinic. Almost every public healthcare centre in Nigeria is suffering from poor funding.
The federal government only allocated 5 per cent of its budget to the health sector in 2021 — a drastic reduction compared to the 15 per cent pledged as part of the 2001 Abuja declaration. This has led to some problems plaguing the Nigerian healthcare industry such as outbound medical tourism, deteriorating medical infrastructure, low government budget allocation, and poor compensation and subsequent emigration of skilled healthcare workers.
A report by PremiumTimes uncovered how the oldest hospital in the country’s richest state (Lagos) was left in poor condition due to underfunding. This underlined that Nigerian governments were not giving the health sector the topmost priority it deserved.
With the fastest global-growing population of 5.5 per cent live births per woman and a population growth rate of 3.2 per cent annually, Nigeria’s population is expected to hit 400 million by 2050, becoming the third most populated country in the world. Yet, the healthcare infrastructure in the country is still underdeveloped and lacks modern medical facilities while medical professionals are in short supply, with only about 35,000 doctors instead of 237,000 needed, according to WHO.
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Nightmare at UDUTH Campus
Being one of the few reliable healthcare centres in Sokoto, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) has always been busy, with a long and sophisticated queue being a pushover for patients. The queue poses a major challenge for students living on campus, as immediate medical attention is inaccessible even in urgent circumstances.
When Mutalib Jubril visited the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) clinic at UDUTH to seek medical attention because of severe malaria. Little did he know that he would later leave the clinic with a mentally, physically and emotionally drained experience. It lasted 10 hours before it was his turn in the uncompromising queue.
To him, the climate conditions and unsanitary environment in and around the university are accountable for the spread of sickness among students.
“There was a time I went to the NHIS clinic at UDUTH around 8 am but I was not attended to until 5 pm. This is the reason many students often seek alternative options for healthcare,” Jubril revealed.
He mentioned how students frequently suffer from malaria, cholera, typhoid, and other infections due to stagnant water, poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation around the hostel areas.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the relationships between humans and the environment shape the quality of life, health disparities and a healthy life span. Furthermore, it was noted that preserving a healthier environment can prevent about 13 million deaths annually and avoid 13 per cent to 37 per cent of the world’s disease burdens, such as 40 per cent of deaths from malaria, 41 per cent of deaths from lower respiratory infections, and 94 per cent of deaths from diarrheal disease.
Moreover, environmental health-related risks are becoming a primary concern in Nigeria — diverse environmental problems: water pollution, erosion and flooding (due to inadequate drainage systems caused mostly by anthropogenic activities).
Thus, control of some disease vectors, infectious diseases, and poor hygiene and sanitation, among others, are some of the major challenges facing Nigeria due to the aforementioned problems.
Another gutter blocked by sewage in one of the UDUS hostels. Photo Credit: Muheeb Mashood
Musa Yusuf, another student from UDUTH campus, preferred treating himself at private clinics. However, this has been taking a toll on him, affecting his finances every time he spends heavily to treat himself. He was entangled with his fate due to the stringent queue that usually pushed students to the brink in the UDUTH clinic.
“I have heard of cases where students stay on queue for hours and still not being attended to. This is why I always avoid the same scenario,” Yusuf said.
“I’m always affected by typhoid due to the water I’m consuming. And the climate is also taking a toll on me. Sometimes, I question myself why I chose to come down here.”
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Insights from Environmental Expert
During an interview, Emmanuel Kilaso, the Executive Director of Securecycle, an Environmental and Climate Change Initiative, identified parasitical infections and waterborne diseases as some of the health challenges caused by unsanitary environments.
Kilaso acknowledged infrastructural decline as a menace that hampers effective sanitation in Nigeria due to the antiquated disposal and management system still in practice in the country. Hence, he doubted the possibility of Nigeria achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 before the year 2030. SDG 6 is Clean Water and Sanitation — one of the Global Goals for sustainable development professed by the United Nations.
He emphasised the need to address and revamp the policy, stating that every community ought to have a waste centre. A standby collection centre is supposed to be situated within every local government.
Furthermore, Kilaso stated that the establishment of an enabling society is one of the main functions of a government. Consequently, he highlighted funding support, good policies that must be strictly followed and adequate infrastructures as solutions to the threat of the unclean environment plaguing the country.
Recognising the role of education while addressing how university settings can curb poor sanitary conditions, he said, “Educational institutions are known for their innovative and problem-solving skills. They need to work with their students to start providing alternative ways to ensure an enabling and hygienic environment. And to be sensitising people about the challenges of unsanitary environments.”
UDUS Management Reacts
In an interview, Umar Aliyu, the Dean of Students’ Affairs, stressed how the school management prioritises students’ well-being in and around the hostels. He mentioned that the university employed both casual and permanent workers to maintain sanitation around the school.
“There are casual and permanent workers who are charged with cleaning of hostels, toilets, washing and other things. We give them all necessary materials to do their work. We give them on a monthly basis and we know what we are giving them is enough,” Aliyu stated.
“Had it meant you came yesterday, you would have seen them. It was yesterday that my deputy distributed them to the cleaners.”
When asked about the growing complaints of plantations close to the learning and boarding areas on campus, the dean said, “I am not aware of anybody planting crops around the hostels.”
The post In UDUS, Environmental Pollution Holds Students’ Health Hostage appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.