The President of the Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO), Faith Negbe Osazuwa-Ojo, has raised alarm over a severe infrastructure crisis in Nigeria’s educational sector, disclosing that only 15 per cent of schools across the nation maintain dedicated budgetary allocations for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities.
​Speaking at the 33rd LAPO Annual Development Forum held on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at the national capital in Abuja, Osazuwa-Ojo warned that the widespread absence of functional amenities places the health, dignity, and educational outcomes of millions of Nigerian schoolchildren at serious risk.
She noted that failing sanitation systems severely disrupt classroom attendance and accelerate the spread of preventable waterborne diseases.
​The crisis poses an acute challenge for female students, who are frequently forced to miss classes or drop out entirely due to a lack of clean, gender-segregated toilet facilities required to manage menstrual hygiene safely and privately.
Additionally, students living with physical disabilities face further exclusion from basic education due to inaccessible infrastructure.
​To address these systemic shortcomings, LAPO urged federal, state, and local governments to establish permanent, line-item budgetary allocations specifically dedicated to routine WASH maintenance in public basic and secondary institutions.
Osazuwa-Ojo emphasized that sustained public funding, alongside coordinated oversight between education, health, and water resources ministries, is essential to guarantee that school sanitation projects remain operational over time.
​Supporting the advocate’s position, LAPO Founder Dr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe called on governmental authorities at all levels to take direct ownership of school environmental standards.
He emphasized that while non-governmental organizations and development partners continue to intervene, systemic improvements in public health and educational equity cannot be sustained without decisive, structured intervention from the state.
