Nigeria’s rainy season has already left its mark this year — Lagos and several other states have seen repeated flooding since June, and health authorities are watching closely. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 5,260 cholera cases and 67 deaths across 128 Local Government Areas in 33 states and the FCT as of the end of May, and physicians have continued to warn that contaminated floodwater raises the risk of cholera, typhoid and other waterborne illness through the peak flood months of July to September.
It’s against that backdrop that Reckitt’s Dettol Nigeria has opened entries for the “Dettol Original 12hrs Protection Challenge,” a nationwide storytelling competition running from July 13 to August 15. The brand is asking Nigerians to post a 60-second Instagram video featuring a bar of Dettol Original Soap alongside a personal story about the role hygiene has played in their lives. Twenty-five participants will be selected to win prizes; details are posted on the brand’s Instagram page.
The challenge sits under Dettol’s wider “12 Hour Protective Shield” campaign, built around claims that Dettol Original Antibacterial Bar Soap supports the skin’s natural germ defenses for 12 hours with regular use.
Boma Harrison, Marketing Director for Reckitt West Africa, framed the push as a response to daily exposure: Nigerians encounter germs commuting, working, and attending school, and the campaign is meant to make hygiene a routine part of the day rather than an occasional habit.
The public health case for the campaign’s timing is real, independent of the brand behind it. WHO and UNICEF’s 2025 Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings found that consistent handwashing with soap can reduce diarrheal disease by roughly 30% and acute respiratory infections by about 17% — a meaningful margin during a season when Lagos’s own health experts are actively warning residents to disinfect flood-affected surfaces and rethink food and water sources.
Whether a branded social media challenge moves the needle on actual handwashing behavior is a separate question from whether the underlying advice is sound. The advice is sound.
Nigeria’s flood season isn’t finished, and the basic hygiene habits Dettol is promoting — regardless of which bar of soap is in hand — are the same ones health authorities are asking for right now
