The formative research was conducted to have a comprehensive understanding on the sanitation and hygiene situation and practices in Kirfi Local Government Area (KLA), Bauchi State Nigeria. It was designed to generate evidences and inform the hygiene and sanitation intervention design process. 
As you rightly opined, prior to the study, the household members had not benefitted from any behavior change intervention to enable them understand the importance the toilets serve in their households.  Again, one could say that some of the sanitation practices happen because from a young age the household members have not been oriented to understand that it is natural to visit the toilets and they should not be ashamed. It was in an attempt to design and implement a behavior change intervention to enhance people's understanding of the importance of ownership and use of toilet that the formative study was designed and conducted. Some household members find it ideal to go to the bush or the forest not necessarily to avoid the tasks that come with taking care of the toilet (washing and maintaining their cleanliness) but mainly due to high level of ignorance of the adverse effects of open defecation and the importance of using toilet as well as other factors as stated under barriers against ownership and use  toilets.

From the study, the perceived motivational factors for and barriers against ownership and use of Toilets in the communities are highlighted as follows:

Motivational Factors:
Status/Respect: People in the communities claimed they use toilet to avoid the shame of being seen defecating in the public because in most of the communities, people cherish ownership of and use of toilets.
Decency/Dignity: People in the communities regard use of toilet as decent and dignifying compared to squatting to defecate in the public.
Pride: Community people regard ownership of toilet as a thing of pride in the community. Another factor is that their visitors might want to use the toilet before observing sallat (prayers) and it will be a thing of pride for the members of the household to show the
visitors their toilet.
Comfort/Ease: According to the people, ownership of and use of toilet makes it easy for them to ease themselves anytime they are pressed.
Privacy: The people claimed use of toilet provides privacy, and save them the risk of being exposed to the public while defecating in open space or in the bush. They claimed this is more important for married women.
Safety/Security: Community people claimed having toilet in the house and use of toilet to defecate enhances their safety and protect them against the risk of going into the bush to defecate or going out at night when pressed.
Fear of Disease: Community people claimed they use toilet to prevent spread of disease, especially Cholera and Diarrhoea that could be spread by open defecation
Faith/Purity: It was claimed that use of toilet enhances the practice of their faith (Islamic faith) which upholds cleanliness.
Affiliation/Norm: People claimed they own and use the toilet affiliate with majority of the people in the community that have and use toilet and uphold the norm in the community
 
Barriers: 
Non-Availability of Toilet: Majority of the people claimed non-availability of toilet as barrier against their wish to use the toilet. As
much as they cherish their privacy and dignity, they could not afford to own one. The nature of the soil in most communities is loose and requires construction of durable toilet which is expensive and which is above the affordability level of many people in the community.
Closeness of the house to the bush: This serves as a barrier against the will to own toilet. In some communities it was mentioned that people that live close to the bush are not encouraged to construct latrine because they could easily go into the bush and practice open defecation.
Economic/Financial: In most communities, the level of income is low and thus their level of affordability. This is compounded by the high cost of latrine construction which is also caused by the nature of the soil which makes latrine construction expensive. The nature of the soil is loose and a durable latrine must be lined with block and cement with concrete/cement slab. This is expensive and many
households could not afford it.
Physical/Climatic: Due to the low level of affordability to construct durable toilets, people resort to building simple latrines which collapse or are washed away during the raining season. This affects use of toilet by affected households who may not have the resources to construct another toilet immediately. Frequent collapse of toilets also discourages people from constructing latrine which also has
adverse effect on use of latrine.
Physical/Soil nature: The nature of the soil in most of the communities is sandy and soft. This makes digging of pit difficult and makes
latrine construction expensive, thus serving as a constraint against ownership and use of latrine.
Cultural/traditional belief: It was stated that Fulani constitutes about 60 per cent of the population and they do not like latrine being close to their buildings. They also do not like their in-laws seeing them entering the toilet. Again they do not like sharing toilets with their children and daughter in-laws
Fear of Disease: Some people are discouraged from using the latrine because of their perception that the heat
coming from the pit toilet could be harmful health-wise.
Fear of Latrine filling up: Some people would not like to put children’s faeces in the toilet for the fear of the toilet filling up quickly.
Shame of being seen entering the toilet: Claim that open defecation is the best because no one will know where you are going and what you are going to do there. But in the case of latrine or toilet, most people in the house will know that you are using the toilet and they will be counting the number of times you go into the toilet and you will be ashamed. 

Post Implementation of Behaviour Change Intervention 
Feedback from the WASH Unit of the Local government reveals improvement in sanitation situation. 
*59 communities were triggered 
*More than 6,000 of the total 7,943 households now have toilets (though many of the toilets are unimproved, there is hope for scaling up the ladder)
*56 of the 59 communities now have WASH Committees (WASHCOM) established
*Most of the people are now using toilets

A comprehensive summary of the findings of the study is attached.

Dear Ademola,
 
Thank you so much for your interest in SuSanA and choosing it as a platform for knowledge sharing. I would want to shed more light on your statement: “… that households have toilets, they may not be using them for various reasons.” This is especially true if the household members have not had behavior change to understand the importance the toilets serve in their households. Some of the sanitation practices happen because from a young age the household members have not been oriented to understand that it is nature to visit the toilets and they should not be ashamed. Would it be correct to also say some household members find it ideal to go to the bush or the forest to avoid the tasks that come with taking care of the toilet e.g. washing and maintaining their cleanliness?
Visit to the toilets are often considered private and sacred. Any realization that someone could be monitoring movement is often frowned upon. I therefore understand the housewives not wanting the people seeing them visit the toilet.
Can the formative study on Sanitation and Hygiene Practices that you have done with WaterAid be availed? It will be a very insightful
document to review.
 
Regards
Charlotte

Dear Ademole.

It is not fine if OD is done in spaces, the Communities i/c are not aware.
When OD is done, all human sludges need to be collected and dealt with in safe and secured manner, especially in this present time of pandemic threat.

It is in order if the sludges are removed and co composted with cow dung and veg wastes Etc. When thse accumulations are used in farms upon safe compliance by tests Etc.
As suggested earlier, opt for a version of OD ie COD, meaning Controlled Oen Defecation practices in communities.

Facilitation guidance are done by youth in communities, guided by school teachers Etc.
This mechanism has worked in rural and semi urban pockets.

When sludges are cleaned up in both alternating sites while the other is in service, works out fine.  Facilities are made for men, women and small children. Regular civic and security support  are planned and given.

Well wishes.

Recent Formative study on Sanitation and Hygiene Practices conducted by my team for WaterAid Nigeria in one of the Local Governments in the North-eastern part of Nigeria confirms the need to consider your suggestion that assessing individuals rather than households is likely to reveal the real situation of OD practices. Households may have toilets while some members might not be using them for different reasons.

For instance, from the study, some housewives prefer to go into the bush because they do not want people to know the time they want to defecate. Some mentioned they do not want people to take note of the number of times they defecate so they prefer to go out of the house and do it in the bush. It was also revealed that those who have bushes close to their houses prefer practicing OD in the bush rather than use the toilet.