The quest to re-live the era of sanitary inspectors in our communities would soon become a reality.
This is owing to the fact that the minister of Environment, Dr. John Odeh has found an urgent need for the presence of “policemen of the environment” necessary to bring alive the hitherto clean culture enjoyed in the colonial days.
The presence of a sanitary inspector in any neighbourhood then usually sent fear down the spine of inhabitants in such areas.
They were empowered by the White colonial masters to enter into the privacy of people, open their pots and stir it up to take samples to make sure that there were no mosquitoes larva breeding in such homes. This was what the colonial masters term preventive health measures.
These were periods when the generality of people had fewer diseases to contend with.
In contemporary Nigeria the issue of hygiene has been de-emphasises as subsequence indigenous governments succeeded those colonial masters.
Today herewith are outbreaks of epidemics like Cholera, Typhoid Fever, Malaria Lassa Fever, Measles and the likes. This has been attributed to post active measures adopted by the federal government.
Experts say that instead of continuing with the trend of preventive health system, the reverse is the case. The federal government now emphasis more of curative health system where sick people are encouraged to take more drugs instead of nipping sickness in the bud by keeping their environments clean.
The registrar of Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria, Mr. Augustine , explained why the country is currently experiencing environmental degradation and increased episodes of diseases. He confirmed that as against the prescribed World Health Organisation (WHO) ration of I sanitary health officer to about 8,000 people Nigeria is experiencing a grossly inadequate ration.
According to WHO Nigeria ought to have a robust number of 18,750 Environmental Health Officers to service the country’s over 150 million population. In the Federal Capital Territory the number is less than 20 health officers against its increasing population.
