35 States, FCT, and 672 LGAs in Nigeria still practice Open Defecation

 By Emmanuela Solomon. Edited by Babatope Babalobi

Out of the 36 States in Nigeria, only Jigawa State is Open Defecation Free (ODF).

Open Defecation is the act of excreting faeces in open places, and ODF refers to locality where the the practice has been (officially certified and verified) eradicated and replaced with more hygiene forms of  excreta management.

According to figures posted by ‘Clean Nigeria, Use the Toilet campaign’, all the 27 Local Government Areas and 8614 communities in Jigawa have been verified by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as Open Defecation Free (ODF).

A further analysis of the figures show the following:

• 1 out 4 Nigerians  or about 46 million Nigerians presently defecate in open places.
• Only 102  out of the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country are Open Defecation Free (ODF), meaning Open Defecation is still in practice in 672 LGAs in Nigeria.

The top performing states by Open Defecation Free verified communities are:

• Jigawa State: 8614 communities in 27 Local Government Areas
• Katsina State: 6868 communities in 34 Local Government Areas
• Kano State: 3009communities in 44 Local Government Areas

Top performing states  by Open Defecation Free verified Local Governments are:

• Jigawa: 100%
• katsina:73.5%
• Benue: 39.1%
• Bauchi: 35%
• Cross Rivers: 33.3%
• Kano: 25%

Worst performing states  by Open Defecation Free verified Local Governments are:

• Nassarawa: 7.7%
• Borno: 7.4%
• Abia: 5.9%
•  Yobe :5.9%
• Rivers: 4.5%
• Imo: 3.7%
• Osun: 3.3%
• Akwa Ibom 3.2%.

Only 1 LGA has been verified as Open Defecation Free in Yobe, Rivers, Imo, Osun, and Akwa Ibom state.