Kaduna village without schools, hospital

A village in Kaduna State lacks basic amenities such as hospitals and schools, and this has implications for the quality of life generally.

Unguwar Garba is a sparsely populated rural settlement located some distance from the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, and a few kilometres to Jere town in  Kaduna state.  The villagers trek to a steam to fetch drinking water due to lack of pipe-borne water, and face difficulties in accessing health care as a result of the absence of hospitals. Children trek for distances to neighbouring towns to attend schools, due to lack of schools and not a soul in the village has attended a higher institution of learning, owing to  poor motivation.
Abdullahi Garba, 55, lives with his wife and seven children in a  mud house with a thatched roof and straw fence. He said government has abandoned rural dwellers by  its inability to provide them with infrastructure for suitable development. “The government has refused to build a primary school in this town, in spite of all our complaints, and our children usually trek to another village, Unguwar Nuhu, to attend school. It is risky to allow the children to go to school in that village, because they have to cross the Abuja-Kaduna expressway which is busy during school hours.
“Other children trek for about 4 kilometers to Jere town to attend secondary school. They suffer especially during the rainy season.”
He said the community is facing an acute water problem, and people rely on  a nearby stream which is often contaminated with  waste from cattle. “We don’t have pipe-borne water in this village and we fetch water from the stream for drinking and other domestic purposes. The water is untreated, but because it is a moving stream, it is safe for us to use. We are pleading with the government to provide us with clean water.”
He said government at the local and state levels have to create and implement far-reaching economic and social policies, aimed at developing the rural communities, so as to alleviate poverty and improve social security. He said his community is ready to work  with policy makers in charting a way forward, but “we scarcely see government officials to forward our requests and grievances. I can tell you that I don’t remember any time a public official came to us to ask after  our well being. The only instance when we came in contact with them was  during the elections, at which time they make empty promises.”
He said the community always participates in every election though it has never produced an elected representative. “We are under Yelwa ward which is far away from this village. We trek there to vote in all elections with our women, all in anticipation for policies that will give a lift to our people. Yet, when power is obtained, the elected officials remain oblivious of  our demands.”
People in rural communities facing government neglect will be forced to withdraw their support to government by refusing to vote in any election if the situation does not change, he added, saying  “we cannot remain the way we are now, whereby we only hear of the existence of government when we listen to the radio. Apart from the first republic, successive governments haven’t made  any effort to improve the lives of rural dwellers.”
The Chief of Unguwar Garba, MaiUngwar Abdullahi said there were over 200 households in the village and each community member is keenly seeking the support of government. “We want our people to develop, but we don’t have schools to enrol our children. Our people are law abiding, and we shall continue to live with our neighbours in peace. We want the government to assist us.”
He said the community members recently bought wooden electric poles to transmit electric power to their houses, without the assistance of the government. “The government only brought the power cables to a place few meters away from the village, and we were left with the rest of the work.”

Mohammed Bara’u, 40, said most of the community members are subsistence farmers growing maize, Guinea corn and beans annually. “We also grow vegetables and sugarcane in the Fadama, because we have a stream here that flows throughout the year. The produce of the Fadama are usually sold, though these are small in quantity.”
Access to lucrative markets for farm produce seems to keep people, especially the youth, away from farms. Most farmers are usually at the mercy of middlemen who buy fresh vegetables at reduced price and transport them to other places. Also, majority of the small-resource poor farmers barely get incentives from the government to boost their production.
Bara’u said people still make use of traditional methods of farming due to lack of knowledge on mechanized farming techniques, which account for low produce and wastage. He said if government can organize the farmers into cooperative  groups and provide them with assistance in the form of loans, farming tools, fertilizers, insecticides as well as improved varieties, “our economy will improve, and we shall be able to provide most of the social amenities needed by the people. But we don’t see agricultural extension agents here, who would educate farmers about new techniques of both farming and preservation.”
He said the poor road networks in the area have greatly held back trade among the populace, because farm produce and other commodities cannot be transported to market easily.
Girl child education in Unguwar Garba is poor and women lack the basic community-based initiatives to advance their condition. Most women in the village are house wives, who often rely on their husbands and male parents and brothers, due to lack of education.  Women therefore have limited prospects, which also leads  to reduction in health, reduce family income, and put girls at the risk of trafficking and exploitation.
The state government generates  huge amounts  of money  that could be used in addressing the hardships of rural dwellers by establishing more social infrastructures. For instance, the total proposed recurrent expenditure was N74,441,824,583.00 while the proposed capital expenditure was N102,038,518,425.00 in the 2013 budget. The internally generated revenue was estimated at N29,087,728,838.00 and statutory allocation from federation account was N65,000,000,000.00.
Bara’u said patients, including women in labour, have to be transported to the only nearby hospital in Jere for medical attention, and patients suffer due to the long distance they have to endure to get to the hospital. He said most minor and major diseases are left untreated due to the absence of a clinic in the village. “The most disturbing is that if there is any medical emergency, it takes  a long time to get  a vehicle to convey the patient to the hospital, and when you get there it takes an equally long time for you to see medical personnel, in addition to the huge amount of money required to buy drugs. So, one of the basic things we want the government to do for us urgently, is to build a hospital in the village. This will reduce hardship in taking patients to other towns for medical care.”