‘Shit Business is Truly a Serious Business’

By ol’Victor Ojelabi

Being compelled to write this story, I was trying to find the link. Yes, the link. Because I would have to convince you that mobile toilet and automobiles could be compatible. “It is a sheer display of writing skill, he is just trying to earn his pay,” you may say. Well, maybe, maybe not. But before one jumps into any conclusion, it is important to consider that aside from writing reviews about general maintenance of automobiles and giving tips on those things needed to have a successful motoring life, it is quite important too to consider the comfort of the occupants too, especially on a long journey. I am neither a medical adviser nor a practitioner, but there are other external mobile accessories besides MP3 player and leather seats that add to the comfort and confidence of any traveller. And one of such is a mobile toilet.

In the 70’s or 80’s, I can’t remember precisely, the Queen of England went on a state visit to Australia, and the government had to build toilets (no, ladies’, the Queen can’t possibly sh.t) for the Queen alone at strategic places in case the thing just comes up suddenly; you know, you can’t just trust human gastro-intestinal stability.

Mobile toilet, just as the name signifies, is a kind of moveable toilet that could ease the fear of finding a place to defaecate especially on a long journey. It comes also handy in an event, schools, and social functions, to mention a few.

In the provision of this necessary comfort, a company here in Nigeria has been on the forefront of rendering such a service to majority of Nigerians since 1996. Although it started as an idea in 1992, the first plastic toilets were imported in 1999, before the dream of producing a plastic toilet became a reality in 2002.

According to the initiator of the idea, Mr. Isaac Durojaiye, a former security outfit head, the word mobile toilet came into being when asked to provide security for 10, 000 guests at an outdoor event. Conscious of the fact that mass defecation could pose a serious threat, hence the need for toilets, moveable toilets at that.

And since then, the company has never looked back in easing the menace human faecal waste in our society. In addition to this stride, DMT Mobile Toilet, the foremost mobile sanitation company has effected a 15 per cent reduction in the price of its products from the 1st of January 2009 in keeping with its corporate mission of maintaining and sustaining a cleaner and healthier environment through providing affordable top quality mobile toilet, which is novel and scarce to obtain from other corporate bodies whose prices do not obey law of gravity (You know, the ‘what goes up must come down’ thing.

Since all things came into existence through necessities, the company also established a bio-gas plant designed to process and convert sanitation wastes into cooking gas and gases that can be used to generate electricity, among other uses, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The plant which was developed out of necessity to take care of the wastes by the company and turn into something useful as against giving to the state government to just dump somewhere. And the project, which is also made possible with the technical assistance of its foreign partner, the Environmental Resource Management Foundation, will commence production this year thereby scoring another first in being the first private company to produce bio gas in Nigeria.

As part of its social responsibility, the company has initiated a special scheme called Basic Toilet For Schools Scheme (BTFS), among others, to sell to the public at an affordable price in getting the toilet to the nooks and crannies of the nation. For instance, at the University of Lagos, you can’t urinate on the road. It is prohibited. It is also ungentlemanly, unlady-like; and DMT toilets are strategically placed to help you do your thing in secret, gracefully.

Lagosians will especially benefit from this shit business as it would save them the embarrassment of being caught, embarrassed, arrested, even prosecuted by KAI, Kick Against Indiscipline, for urinating or sh.tting (yagbeing) on the road.

The company armed with the overall objective of proving to the world that Nigeria is doing its best in building a healthy nation, and to continue working assiduously towards achieving the goals enumerated by the United Nations in declaring 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.

The DMT Mobile Toilet, as the only mobile toilet manufacturers in West Africa and the second largest in Africa, is already contributing its own quota in this regard. Commanding the participation of people like Mr. Isaac Durojaiye, Otunba Gadafi, as the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi as Chairman, Fes Eze Eke, Legal Adviser, with a host of foreign partners, among others, this should be telling you that the company is really prepared to tackle Nigerian wastes, through shit business; a serious business indeed!