For years, students at LEA Pilot Science Primary School and LEA Primary School Phase Three in Gwagwalada, Abuja, faced the daily struggle of carrying their books in one hand and shame in the other. With the school’s toilets abandoned, children had no choice but to memorize lessons while also memorizing the paths to the bush, avoiding stares, disease, and embarrassment
Ten-year-old Rina Peter Uba, a pupil of LEA Primary School Phase Three in Grade 5, remembers the routine too well.
“Sometimes when I want to ease myself, boys will come and see me,” she says quietly. “I don’t like defecating in the bush… People get sick because there’s no water to wash hands.”
For Rina, the lack of toilets wasn’t just an embarrassment; it was a health lesson she never signed up for – a daily primer in germs, dirty hands, and stomach upsets.
Today, that lesson is changing.
Rina speaks like a small public-health teacher. She has watched classmates “pee and not wash hands”, seen food handled with dirty fingers, and linked the dots the way children do: toilets gone, water scarce, sickness common.
“It can make people ill,” she insists. “If there is water, we can wash our hands. I am happy now.”
Her words sit at the heart of this story: sanitation is health, and for children, health is the gateway to learning. “People get sick because there’s no water to wash hands… I’m happy now.” Rina says,
A Teacher Who Lived It Twice
Agnes Jato-Omobalogun, a classroom teacher, finished from the same school in 2001. Two decades later, she returned as a teacher and found the toilets exactly as she left them.
“As far back as I can remember, the toilet was already bad,” she says. “Students would urinate or defecate around the premises. As a teacher, if I couldn’t hold it, I had to leave the school to find somewhere safe. “It was a mess, a shame.”
The pain is sharpest when she remembers girls. “Just last week, a girl menstruated in class. There was nowhere to change,” Agnes recalls. “We took her behind a classroom and chased the boys away so we could clean her up. That is the indignity our children faced.” “We took a menstruating pupil behind a classroom to clean her up. There was nowhere else.” — Agnes
Rina’s classmate, Ajaiye Boluwatife, puts it simply: “We used to go to the bush to defecate. It was not good. We are happy now.”
What “now” looks like is a new chapter written by Create That Change Development Initiative (CCDI) with support from the Embassy of Switzerland. The NGO’s intervention delivered renovated toilets, a water connection and tank, and a refreshed library.
From “Haunted House” to Habitable
To former pupil and CCDI volunteer Oluwamunirayo Ameh, the change is deeply personal.
“When I schooled here, we believed spirits lived in the toilet,” she says. “It was that horrible. If you needed to use it, you ran into the bush or ran home, and many didn’t come back to class.”
Ahead of the project, CCDI ran a perception survey. What they saw confirmed Oluwamunirayo’s memory: the toilet was worse than before. The team took the report to donors; funding followed. “Now girls don’t have to run home during their periods. Children can stay in school. Teachers can use a clean toilet,” she says. “It has restored dignity.” “We all believed spirits lived in the toilets; they were that bad.” — Oluwamunirayo Ameh, CCDI Volunteer & Former Pupil
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At LEA Primary School, Phase Three, Gwagwalada, Headteacher Abdullahi Sani Jibril calls the intervention a lifeline.
“For more than 10 years, this school had no toilet,” he says. “Government did not respond. It is God that sent CCDI to us. They built 8 toilets, connected water, and even sponsored some less-privileged pupils’ fees, bags, and textbooks.”
He notes the PTA has also been scraping funds to add to the effort. “It’s one after the other,” he says. “But we will not abandon it.”
Rina’s story reflects the daily struggles of many girls in Nigeria. Without toilets, classrooms often become places of dread. Girls, especially once they begin menstruation, stay at home rather than face embarrassment. Many quietly drop out of school altogether.
According to UNICEF’s 2024 data, more than 10.5 million Nigerian children of primary school age remain out of school, the highest in Africa. Poor infrastructure is a major factor: the agency estimates that only 57% of schools in Nigeria have basic sanitation facilities.
By 2025, UNICEF’s updates painted a grimmer picture: less than half of Nigerian schools provide safe drinking water, while millions of children are exposed daily to infections, absenteeism, and long-term health complications.
Why This School? Listening to Children
Mrs Sharon Ayeni, Executive Director of CCDI, says access to a clean toilet is a basic right, not a luxury; the choice was guided by the children themselves.
“During our Start Smart September programme last year, we asked, ‘If we could do one thing, what would it be? They said toilets and a library,” she explains. “When we inspected, we found a facility that hadn’t been used in nearly 20 years; the children called it a ‘haunted house’. We knew something had to change.”
The team renovated the toilets, connected running water, and refurbished a library: new roof repairs and pillars where needed, a fresh floor, desks, shelves, and 300+ books.
READ ALSO: Flushing In Dignity: A School Transformed
“The children called it a haunted house. We knew something had to change.” Mrs Sharon Ayeni, Executive Director, CCDI
Dignity, here, is not abstract. It is a girl who doesn’t have to hide behind a classroom to manage her period. It is a teacher who doesn’t walk out of classrooms to relieve herself. It is Rina who doesn’t connect school with sickness anymore because a toilet now flushes, a tap now runs, and hand-washing is possible.
In the newly painted library, children thumb through clean pages instead of calculating the distance to the nearest bush. Dignity is learning without fear.
When children have sanitation, they have health. When they have health, they can learn.
And when they can learn, they can finally stop running not from the bush back to class but toward a future that’s clean, safe, and possible.
A Wider Crisis, A Call for Action
But Gwagwalada is just one story in a much bigger crisis. Across Nigeria, millions of children are still trapped in the same cycle of neglect. With only 57% of schools meeting basic sanitation standards and with over 10 million children out of school, the road ahead remains steep.
UNICEF warns that unless governments at all levels invest in safe toilets, clean water, and functional libraries, the dreams of millions of Nigerian children, especially girls, will remain fragile.
For now, LEA Pilot Science Primary School, LEA Primary School Phase Three, and Gwagalada Abuja’s future have taken a hopeful turn. pupil to spend more time in the new library, flipping through brightly coloured storybooks, their laughter no longer dimmed by shame.
The story is proof that when a society chooses to invest in children’s dignity, it invests in its own future.
As one teacher put it, “A toilet may look small, but to our girls, it is freedom.”
Esther Ososanya is an investigative journalist with Pinnacle Daily, reporting across health, business, environment, metro, Fct and crime. Known for her bold, empathetic storytelling, she uncovers hidden truths, challenges broken systems, and gives voice to overlooked Nigerians. Her work drives national conversations and demands accountability one powerful story at a time.
