To discourage open defecation, senior health professionals have called on the state and local governments to make public toilets usage free of charge for the populace. They noted that the required fees for the public toilets, particularly in rural areas and the unhygienic state discouraged residents and visitors from using them, further fuelling the rate of open defecation. The experts urged the government to build appropriate toilet models for each community and provide free-to-use public toilets with a focus on using waste for biogas and fertilisers. Findings by PUNCH Healthwise show that most public toilets charged N100 for urination and defecation, and some charged N200 for defecation. Over 48 million Nigerians still practise open defecation. As a result, Nigeria was ranked second amongst the nations with the highest number of people practising open defecation. Achieving an open defecation-free nation has been a major concern for the past 25 years with several failed deadlines to achieve the target. In 2016, the Federal Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund developed a national roadmap to “Making Nigeria Open Defecation free by 2025.” But in January, the government admitted its inability to meet the 2025 deadline and set 2030 as the new deadline. UNICEF further notes that for Nigeria to be ODF, it needed to build 3.9 million toilets annually. Furthermore, an investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting in January showed that some European Union-funded toilets in Ekiti communities were converted into eateries and barbing salons while some were abandoned. The report revealed that many of the residents saw public toilets as disgusting and unhygienic, causing them to abandon them and continue defecating in the bush. Providing expert insight into the matter, a professor of Community Medicine and Public Health at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Best Ordinioha, said that the idea that going to the toilet was a private issue and the payment to use public toilets were factors hindering the successful usage of public toilets in the country, leading to continuous open defecation. He said, “Public toilets have not worked because going to the toilet is a private issue. People want to discreetly do it, so they don’t want to go to public toilets. So you can’t build it in a community and expect people to go to use it if they don’t have a toilet, because there is a tendency for people to misuse it.” The don called for a reorientation on toilet use, urging the government to focus on using the waste from the toilets for biogas and soil conditioners, stating that this would eliminate the need for payment by users. Ordinioha said, “The whole idea of the toilet has to also change. In places like China, they build public toilets and encourage people to use them because they are interested in the faeces and urine that can be used for manure and as soil conditioners. “In Nigeria, people pay to use toilets, but in China, they are more interested in the faeces and the urine that will be deposited than in the little money people pay. That way, faeces can become valuable. Instead of being offensive and what people run away from, it can be a resource that can be converted to soil conditioner and then even as fertilizers.” The public health physician further emphasised the need to factor in the cultural needs of residents and build appropriate toilet models that would be useful for them. He also advised the return of sanitary inspectors, known as Wole Wole, now referred to as environmental health officers, who would ensure that every house had the appropriate number of toilets, thereby reducing the rate of open defecation. The community medicine specialist urged the government to provide incentives, such as coupons, vouchers or subsidy schemes to promote the use of public toilets to ensure the 2030 ODF target was met. Also, a public health physician, Professor Tanimola Akande, stated, “Lack of adequate water for use in toilets also encourages open defecation, Most public places like markers, shops, bus stops, etc. do not have functional toilets, and so people are forced to practise open defecation.” The don urged the government at all levels to provide adequate functional public toilets.