There are scenes the human senses should never be forced to negotiate, yet they exist, boldly & routinely, in our everyday world.
How people live, move, & even thrive in environments saturated with filth is one of the most unsettling contradictions of modern society.
The stench in some places defies language. “Nauseating” is far too gentle a word. The air itself feels contaminated, heavy with decay, while the sight assaults the eyes with layers of neglect stacked upon years of indifference.
Sometimes, merely walking past such spaces is enough to provoke involuntary vomiting. And still, life carries on within them. People walk, trade, laugh, eat, unfazed. That, in itself, is the shock.
Have you seen where some cart pushers lay their heads at night?
Have you visited waterfront communities where waste & water share the same boundary?
Have you passed through certain barracks or urban ghettos where refuse forms hills & hygiene is an afterthought?
And yet, the residents appear functional, sometimes even robust. It raises a haunting question: how does the human body survive what the human conscience should reject?
The answer lies in an uncomfortable truth: we become what we live in.
The human body is remarkably adaptive, sometimes to its own detriment.
Continuous exposure breeds tolerance. Tolerance matures into immunity. Over time, filth becomes familiar, & danger loses its urgency. Environment & body enter a silent, unhealthy symbiosis.
What revolts the outsider becomes invisible to the insider.
What alarms the visitor becomes “normal” to the resident.
This is why someone raised in clean, orderly surroundings may fall ill almost immediately when exposed to such environments, while long-term dwellers remain unaffected, & may even ridicule complaints as weakness.
Habituation disguises harm.
But environmental decay is only half the tragedy.
The deeper concern is personal hygiene & human responsibility, or the lack of it.
How does one use a toilet & forget to flush? Would such a person also forget to clean themselves, after passing waste?
How does one casually abandon used sanitary pads, tampons, or condoms as though public health were inconsequential?
How does one sit on any toilet seat, anywhere, without a moment’s caution?
How does intimacy become so careless that “any key” is permitted access to the most private of locks (Bermuda triangle), without thought for consequence?
Why are used undergarments (pants & bras/intimates) flung carelessly about, as though cleanliness were optional rather than essential?
These are not minor infractions. They are daily acts of negligence that compound into serious health crises, silent, gradual, & often irreversible.
We often repeat the saying that cleanliness is next to godliness. In truth, cleanliness precedes holiness. It is the foundation upon which dignity, health, & self-respect stand.
Many illnesses people battle today did not appear overnight. They were incubated, slowly & faithfully, by polluted environments, careless habits, & the absence of hygienic culture.
The body keeps score.
The environment leaves fingerprints.
Ignore either long enough, & the reckoning arrives, quietly at first, then all at once.
This is not merely about dirt.
It is about dignity.
It is about discipline.
It is about the standard we choose to live by, & pass on.
Because when filth becomes normal, decline follows silently.
I was privileged to follow the honourable commissioner for environment & water resources, Tokunbo Wahab & his hardworking team for about 2 hours around Obalende underbridge yesterday. With what I saw, I know for sure a change is gonna come! Kudos!
