Global sanitation advocate and founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), Prof Jack Sim, has warned that Nigeria risks missing its 2030 target of ending open defecation unless the government, civil society, communities and the private sector urgently unite behind a coordinated national sanitation drive.

Speaking in an interview with The Guardian during his visit to Nigeria for the International Civil Service Conference, Sim said the country’s sanitation momentum remains insufficient despite notable progress under the Clean Nigeria campaign and the successful hosting of the World Toilet Summit in Abuja in 2022.

Sim, a guest speaker at the conference organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in collaboration with the Public Education Work Initiative and Star Advantage Network, delivered a keynote address titled “Beyond Resources: Investing in People, Building Nigeria’s Future” yesterday.

The organisers said the session would focus on leadership, human capital development, innovation in governance and the role of public institutions in driving sustainable national development.

The Singaporean social entrepreneur praised Nigeria’s civil service architecture, describing it as the “bedrock” of national development and a critical institution for delivering reforms efficiently.

“If the civil service is efficient, innovative and able to serve the people at low cost and high efficiency, the country will grow very fast,” he said.

“It looks like, at this moment, the 2030 target of zero open defecation is not likely to happen,” Sim said, pointing to reports suggesting the timeline could stretch to 2046 if current efforts are not accelerated.

He stressed that “the government, civil society, local communities and the states have to come together more collectively rather than separately.”

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, still battles one of the world’s highest rates of open defecation. Only 171 local government areas have been certified open-defecation-free out of 774 local government areas, many of which continue to lack access to safe sanitation infrastructure, especially in rural communities.

Sim, widely credited for transforming global conversations around sanitation from a taboo subject into a development priority, said the solution for Nigeria lies not only in public spending, but also in leadership, behavioural change and market-driven innovation.

“All problems can be solved once there is leadership,” he stated.

Drawing comparisons with India and China, Sim said transformational sanitation reforms become achievable when driven from the highest political level.

“In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed sanitation nationally and eventually 110 million toilets were built for over 600 million people,” he said. “In China, it took about 20 years to clean up public toilets, beginning with tourism facilities. Today, most public toilets in major cities are clean.”

According to him, Nigeria can still reverse current projections if political will becomes stronger and sanitation is elevated into a national movement.

Beyond government intervention, Sim advocated a market-based sanitation model that makes toilet ownership socially aspirational rather than merely a public health obligation.

“Having a toilet is dignity. It is status,” he said. “It is not only about hygiene or pollution control.”

He cited Cambodia as a successful example where sanitation coverage improved despite limited government subsidies.

“The government had no money to subsidise toilet construction, so communities were motivated differently. People began to see toilet ownership as a sign of higher social status, and peer pressure drove adoption,” he explained.

Sim argued that low-income households often prioritise what they perceive as valuable, comparing sanitation behaviour to the rapid spread of mobile phone ownership across poor communities.

“Before cell phones came, people said they had no money. But once they wanted phones, they found ways to buy them. Sanitation can become the same if people truly desire it,” he added.

The sanitation campaigner also challenged the media, academia and politicians to play more strategic roles in driving behavioural change.

“When you moralise a problem, it is not emotionally motivating. But if you dramatise it in a way that connects with people’s aspirations, things will change,” he said.

He urged journalists to frame sanitation stories in ways that attract public attention, academics to strengthen evidence-based advocacy, and political leaders to champion sanitation as an electoral and governance issue.

“We must help politicians who champion toilets become popular and win elections,” he said. “And if they promise something, they must deliver.”

Sim maintained that sustainable sanitation reform requires aligning economic evidence, public policy, community participation and social motivation under a strong national leadership structure.

“Culture, finance and law must come together,” he stressed. “Nigeria needs influential leaders who will continuously bring everybody along.”

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading sanitation advocates, Sim founded the World Toilet Organisation in 2001 to break the silence around sanitation issues globally.

The organisation later played a key role in the United Nations’ adoption of World Toilet Day, observed annually on November 19.