Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe speaks on the effort his men are making to stamp out the fire and the smoke
Feelers from people around the Olusosun Dump area indicate that men of the fire fighting service came in to battle the fire about four times, and stopped. Would that mean that you have given up on situation and left the people to their plight?
We have not stopped going to the place since the incident occurred penultimate Wednesday. We have actually been there day and night. If we have not been there, you would still have been seeing the thick black smoke.
But The Nation was there penultimate Tuesday and your men were nowhere in sight.
I am telling you with all sincerity that we have not left the place since it caught fire last Wednesday. Peradventure you visited when we went to refill our tanks. The smoke you sighted could be there for the next two weeks before it finally disappears finally. If you looked closely, you would have noticed that the fire has been reduced to rubbles. And when you are fighting such fire, the water and chemical does not really penetrate, even as the fire is coming from underneath. So what we are about doing, of which the Honourable Commissioner for Environment, the PS and other stakeholders visited the site, is to cap the waste there. That is like filling and covering up the surface; that will totally stop the fumes.
Are you saying that even people working there wouldn’t know when you moved in and out? The Nation spoke to quite a number of people.
Those you spoke to are outside the dumpsite and might not have noticed our presence because we are right inside the dump. I assure you that the government attaches priority to the situation there, and that explains why the governor, the Honourable Commissioner (Environment) and other stakeholders physically visited the site. And we hope to overcome the fire and the smoke and put the incident behind us as quickly as possible. The truth is that if we had left the place, it would have gone out of hand. As we speak, the smoke has cleared out a great deal and is much better than what we had a few days back or when the fire just started. So like I said, our men never left the site.
Is the government providing face masks for people to protect themselves?
The people working on the site are all wearing face mask.
Are you assuring the people that in another two weeks?
I am not assuring that but we are on top of it. The government is not folding its arms at all. For the commissioner to have gone right into the deep of the smoke shows that the government is very serious about dealing with the situation.
Sacked and unpaid workers of closed Nigeria textile firms are no better than the depressed sector. Like the industry, they say they feel ‘dead and buried, TAIWO ALIMI found some of them in Kaduna and Kano, the former ‘economic nerve centre of the north’ and chronicles their pains and struggles to survive and revive the once bubbling industry.
THE periodical convergences of former workers of closed textile companies under the auspices of the Coalition of Closed Unpaid Textile Workers Association, (CCUTWA) Kaduna, and The Association of Retired Textile Workers Welfare (TARTWW), are not for the lily-livered.
They are assemblage of tearful widows, broken men and steely eyed youths.
They often gather in front of Kaduna Textile Limited (KTL). The same place they found and lost their happiness. “Other times, we congregate at Arewa Textiles Plc (ATP), United Nigerian Textile Plc (UNTP), Nortex Nigerian Ltd (NNL), Finetex Nigerian Ltd (FNL), Supertex Ltd, Unitex Nig Ltd (UNL) or other textile mills that we have worked,” leader of the coalition, Comrade Wordam Simdik, explained.
On this particular cold February morning, the ramshackle factory of KTL, or what remains of it, hosted them. With the giant skeleton of KTL engulfing them, unpleasant memories flooded their minds.
KTL is the first modern textile factory in Nigeria, founded and financed by the 19 Northern states in 1957. It provided work for thousands of people directly and indirectly until 2002 when it shut down. The workers were sent packing without their benefits.
It was a blow below the belt for them and many did not survive the onslaught. For those that are alive, 16 years after, they say they feel ‘dead and buried.’
Simdik was employed by KTL on October 13, 1979. He worked as a mechanic for 23 years, up to December 15, 2002 when the foremost modern textile industry in West Africa, shut its doors. “All my benefits; from my gratuity to pension and other welfare packages, were not paid and it was the same for my colleagues. A lot of workers died as a result of this problem.”
He continued: “Since the closure, we have been crying to the management, and the Northern Governors Forum but none has come to our aid. We have suffered alongside our family members, greatly, because of this injustice. I also lost my son on July 2, 2006 when he was stabbed by some of his friends because I could not afford to send him to school. My boy was about 19 at the time and he died in the hospital as I could not pay for proper treatment.”
Mama Asabe Audu Jaba bears her grief on her wrinkled face. She has been crying for 15 years, since her husband and bread winner lost his job due to the closure of KTL. Sadly, she is still in tears.
Narrating her ordeal, the 65-year old widow, looking 10 years older, said her family has suffered a lot since KTL sacked her late husband, Mallam Audu. And because she does not have formal education, she expressed herself in Hausa while Simdik served as the translator.
According to her, “My husband was a strong, hard working man. He joined KTL in 1958, a year after it opened for business. He was one of the first set of workers there and worked for 44 years until KTL closed in 2002. He died in 2009 unable to get a kobo of his entitlements. All the years my husband put into KTL, he could not build his own house as we live in a rented apartment. Indirectly, I used to work in the textile sector too as a traditional weaver. From it, I make some money, but I am too old to work now.”
Mallam Jaba died a sad man unable to take care of his family when alive and, even in death.
Mama Jaba was not done. When she found her voice again, she added with tremor in it. “I have eleven children and lost two of them after my husband died. They got sick and because I did not have money to take them to hospital, they died at home. We are finding it difficult to eat and I cannot send my children to school too.”
In essence, Mallam Jaba was one of 8,000 KTL workers that lost out in 2002. Twenty-two thousand direct workers had been shown the way out in the late 90s during the massive downsizing in the company.
Regretfully, billions of naira in emolument money is still hanging on the neck of KTL management.
Simdik put the combined unpaid emoluments at N12.9 billion. “KTL, Nortex, ATP and many others have not paid any kobo in gratuity since they closed down. They owe us a combined N12.9 billion based on the number of years that workers put in. Some workers spent more than 40 years in these companies.”
He added that 1500 workers and family members have also died.
Another widow, Esther Audu, shed her own tears during her narration, an emotion that was not in short supply, given that more than a quarter of the congregation, are widows.
“My husband was retired at KTL in 2002 after 25 years of service. We have six children and when he was alive we were able to cope with sending them to school but since his demise I have been through hell with the children. I can’t afford to send them to school and there is no one to help me. We have been living from hand to mouth. I go into the bush to fetch firewood and sell every day for us to have a meal on the table. I do not want my children constituting nuisance in the society. We need my husband’s entitlement.”
Like Simdik, Mallam Umaru Bello is alive to tell his own story. He served for 12 years at Unitex Nig Ltd. “Unitex has not paid me anything. We have been talking to the management and organising rallies so that people would see what we are going through, but nobody is listening to us. I have four children and they have resorted to hawking so they can go to school. I make some money in small- time photography too, but if they don’t hawk, what I make is not sufficient to feed and send them to school. I don’t know what the future holds for them.”
Musa Bello, 60, has similar fear for his offspring. “I was retired prematurely in 2004 by ATP. I have not received a kobo from the company. I beg friends and family members to feed my family. I used to take care of all needs of my family, now it is my wife that is helping me to stay on my feet. I feel worthless as a man. I don’t even know what my children are doing because I cannot stop them from fending for themselves. Can I?” He asked looking hard at the reporter expecting a reply. None came.
ATP shut down 14 years ago
For others like Bello, who are alive to tell their anecdotes, Simdik disclosed that they are like zombies. “Some of our colleagues have survived the years of neglect but cannot solve the problems of their families. “Their wives, sons and daughters have now become social nuisance. We cannot afford to send our children to school or for proper medication when they fall sick. Our children have resorted to odd jobs to make ends meet. God knows other things they do that their parents don’t even know about. Life is difficult,” he submitted.
Senior research fellow, Nigeria Institute for Social Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, Agaba Adah agreed with Simdik. He said, “Social malaise is the order of the day when there is massive job loss. These textile companies were sources of income to many fathers, mothers and youths right from the 60s to the 90s. As soon as the cheques stop coming, resilient youths will look for other things to do. Most of the time, they get into shady ventures. They are vulnerable to fundamental sects or groups who can take advantage of weakness to harm others. The rise in Boko Haram activities in northern Nigeria around the late 90s, when massive industrial slump was experienced, is a big pointer to this fact.”
Comrade Ismail Bello, Deputy General Secretary, Nigeria Textile Workers Union (NTWU), agreed with Adah’s view. “We know the struggles of our people. They have to provide for their families, and send their children to school. The harsh reality of daily survival: housing, feeding and clothing is there. But no matter how the Union tries to improve the overall well-being of our people, it is like a tsunami, a torrent that is beyond the power of the Union. Yet, if we don’t find solution, we are inviting social disorder and malaise, chaos, crime and anarchy.”
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, direct employment generation in the textile sector declined from over 140,000 jobs in 1996 to 25,000 in 2008 and further dropped to about 17,000 in 2010.
In like manner, NISER, in a yet to be released study, found that out of the over 200 Nigerian textile firms in the 80s, 128 firms survived till the early 90s. By 2008, more than half of them had disappeared and by 2015, only 33 were functional. Presently, less than 25 modern textile firms are in operation.
Realistically, it is worse today as only few companies produce optimally.
Naturally, the rapid downsizing and closure in the textile industry cannot be ignored as connected to the dearth of more companies in the north’s commercial nerve cities of Kaduna and Kano, leaving youths in the region vulnerable to the bloody antics of Boko Haram and other sadistic insurgence.
Where we were
To comprehend the current tragedy these textile workers are facing it is imperative to know where they used to be. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Nigerian textile industry was the second largest in Africa after Egypt in the late 80s and going into the 90s.
Bello, who is in charge of education and research at NTWU, claimed that in the 80s, direct employment in the industry was well over 500, 000. “If you look at the multiplier effects, in terms of supplier and other people engaged in textile, well over three million Nigerians were living off the Nigeria textile industry, directly and indirectly.”
The NISER study titled: ‘Competitiveness of the Nigerian Textile Industry’ supported Bello’s argument. It reads in part, “In the 1980s textile was the biggest manufacturing industry in Nigeria and the third largest in the whole of Africa, after Egypt and South Africa. It was the largest employer of labour and accounted for 25% of the manufacturing employment between 1980 and 1991.”
Furthermore, its contribution to the GDP in the 80s was second to the food, beverages and tobacco sector and according to the Nigeria apex bank, CBN, its contribution to manufacturing output averaged 21.8% in 2008.
In employment, Prof Adesoji Adesanya, head of the NISER team, said that, “If you put together the expanded opportunities for cotton growers, ginneries, spinning, weavers, colouring and patterning of clothing, the figure may be even more than three million.
“This is not forgetting that there are smaller traditional textile firms where more people are involved in hand weaving, and dyeing. It also cuts across the six geo-political regions of the country, which include: Aso-Oke/Adire (Yoruba), Akwete (Igbo), Anger/Ashiasha (Tiv), Uba/Ipele (Ibira-Okene). If you look at these indices, you can put the number of workforces in excess of three million.”
NISER Research fellow, Wahab Adelowo, informed that textile experienced huge boom in the 80s and early 90s. “KTL was the first modern textile mill, not just in Nigeria, but in West Africa. By the 80s public and private groups joined the industry, notably Arewa Textile PLC, Nortex Nigeria Limited, Finetex Limited, and United Nigeria Textile PLC, all located in Kaduna. By the 1980s, Nigeria had over 200 functional factories traversing the Northern parts of the country, Eastern and Western parts. With Nigeria’s gigantic population, textile was big and up till the 80s, Nigeria generated $2 billion dollars annually from textiles. And, between 1985 and 1991, the industry grew by an average of 65 percent annually. The textile subsector was responsible for 25 percent of the entire manufacturing sector in Nigeria.”
Bello equally pointed out the gains. “Textile Mills were all over the place. In those days, you have the youth gainfully engaged in many states of the federation because of the buoyant textile industry. From Kano, Kaduna, Funtua, Asaba, Jos, Aba, Lagos, Ibadan, to Gusau. These are places that textile industries were doing well and the people also experienced prosperity. Indirectly, you see millions of Nigerians earning living from textile and their families benefiting too. From cotton farming to spinning, to the weaving mill, to printing mill, to the supply to the market, there were people working and doing business and smiling home.”
Adah looked closer at the social effects. He pronounced that an average family fared better in those places in the 80s. “With over 200 textile firms spread across the six geo-political areas of the country, they brought prosperity to the areas and attracted more companies. Families fared better, confectionery companies and schools sprang up to cater for people’s needs. Generally, life was worth living. People had money to spend and the multiplier effect was enormous. Family values were high because children were well provided for and they attended good schools.”
How we got here
To address the current textile industry problem, the NISER team identified a combination of factors responsible for the downward trend. Chief among them are government policy and implementation, poor infrastructure, obsolete technology, and importation liberalisation.
Others are faking and counterfeiting, smuggling and sharp practices among government agencies and operators.
According to the analysis of Abur Clement, another NISER research fellow, “Nigeria textile began to face recession in the early 90s when the country’s infrastructure was also facing enormous crisis. There was problem of electricity, the machinery was aging and foreign exchange was escalating. At a time you opened up the market, the local industry was experiencing problems so you can imagine the immediate impact of that. Production went down and foreign textile makers saw a huge market to be fed. By the end of the 80s and the early 90s employment was already shrinking. But it was still fairly stable. By 1997 when the Sani Abacha military government signed on to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) liberalisation policy, it means that we have to compete with others. Before then textile import was largely protected. But things took a turn for the worse by 1997 when textile import was liberalised and since then it was down the hill.”
Bello added that smuggling, faking and counterfeiting are the hydra-headed devils destroying the soul of the industry, today.
“Faking and counterfeiting have become a huge problem. We know it takes a lot of effort to come up with designs and for some faceless people to steal the design, take them toAsia and bring back same design, cheaper, though inferior and dump them in the local market is tantamount to killing the local firms. Even if you want to compete with them it is not easy because they beat our customs and just dump the goods on us.”
He said Nigerian businessmen are also culprits.
“It is not only foreigners, especially the Chinese doing it. It is also about Nigerian collaborators. Around Kano areas a lot of smuggling is going on”
In other words, Chinese smugglers couldn’t have done a good job without Nigerians leading the way.
The scenario is thus that 90 per cent of fabrics with ‘Made in Nigeria’ logo are printed somewhere in Asia. And more than 150 million Nigerians put their monies into the hand of Chinese investors and in extension, China economy.
NISER’s Abideen Alamu explained further. “Let me put it like this. Once a design of ankara or brocade gets to the Nigerian market, in less than a week, an inferior and cheaper design comes in from Asia, through our porous borders to flood the markets from Ibadan to Lagos and the far north. While our factories are complaining of poor sales, the Chinese companies and Nigerian collaborators are smiling to banks.”
The core of the matter is that China is, today, benefiting more from trade liberalisation and other trade MOUs signed with Nigeria.
China’s earning from textile import to Nigeria is growing astronomically while Nigeria’s export to China is going down.
The number of Chinese textile industries has also grown significantly, while Nigerian textile firms have slumped into oblivion.
The figures are, in truth, scandalous.
NBS figured that China’s export value for textile to Nigeria is approximately $210 billion annually. “Nigeria has a demand of about N300 billion worth of textiles per annum. We produce N40 million worth of these, while China, Turkey and European countries are helping us with the rest.”
Another report showed that textile and clothing industry is the largest manufacturing industry in China with about 24,000 companies and 10 million employees. Out of this figure, two-and-a-half million workers service the Nigerian market.
Meanwhile, the local industry employs less than 17,000 nationwide.
In spite of these sentiments, Prof. Adesanya believes Nigeria’s textile is not doing enough to compete globally. “It is a free world and for us to compete we have to up our game too. The Asian Tigers are big in R&D (Research and Development). They are already researching beyond cotton to make cloth. The government and textile firms should spend money in these areas so as to come out with innovative technique that would make their product unique and better. That would make us compete at home and other West African countries.
Still, Bello is of the opinion that the government must do more to protect the industry. “We talk about intervention funds that are no more than stabilization fund. They are not growth fund. We need to grow. So what do we need to grow? We need electricity, gas, and deal with smugglers.”
Another area of importance is patronage, he says. “There has been all kind of policy pronouncements but we are more concerned about policy implementation. The government have all sorts of uniform agencies; Army, Police, Custom, Immigration, and other paramilitary agencies, NYSC, nurses, and even the schools to mention but a few.
“So, why should textile industry have problems? The truth is that these agencies don’t print their uniforms here. At a point many elite schools even print and sew their uniforms abroad. It is that bad. The Nigeria Army go abroad to sew uniform when we have tailors all over the country who can do it even better. We have garment factories that can produce these uniforms and tailors that can sew them. If truly the government see through its own policy to patronise local content and be in the lead, others will follow.”
Sadly, we are not in this problem because there are no policies; the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan which was put in place by the Goodluck Jonathan administration is there. Realistically, the problem is implementation.
Bello added, “Industry is strategic to job creation. You cannot solve the problem of youth unemployment without having industries. It is the bedrock of economic reliance and development.”
Closed down
While tinkering with the economic solution, he urged the Buhari administration to address problems of unpaid textile workers quickly. “It is a lot of problems for the Union. We have KTL that closed down for over 10 years. We have Arewa that closed down 10 years ago. The Finetex problem was resolved two years ago through the Union intervention and the help of the chairman Ahlaji Dantata. He personally had to dip hands into his own resources to offset the benefit of workers worth N250million.
“We had gone to court on the case of KTL several times and it is yet to be resolved. It is a sore point for the Union. There was even a case of a company; KTP in Kano, we had to sell the company property through a court order to ensure that our members get their benefits. We are fighting over the closure of Gaskiya Textile in Kano. We have the case and they have been mandated to pay their workers but there have been all kinds of efforts to sell the company’s properties and pay off the workers. These are struggle of not one year but many years and resources and we are not relenting. We are engaging lawyers to go to court and fight for us.
“When workers lose their jobs and are not able to transit and do something worthwhile for themselves, life can be extremely difficult. We know how much Nigerian workers have suffered under the liberal economic agenda. We need a mass of resistance from our people to see through the failures of some of these policies. We are where we are because of poor economic policies of our leaders.”
Aside the Union efforts, The Nation on Sunday investigation reveals that the affected workers have done practically everything to get their money. They have gone cap in hands to beg managers and owners, they have threatened, petitioned government, organised protests and press conferences and issued press statements, and the latest is to organise prayers.
“We started this method last year and we are continuing this year. We will continue to call on Almighty God to touch the hearts of these people or take them out, so that people that would help us would come in.”
This reporter encountered them in one of their prayer sessions, which turned out to be a weeping session. These are tears over departed lovers and family members, and of unfulfilled dreams and hopeless hope.
Following the deaths and controversies over the clashes between herders and farmers, Olayinka Oyegbile, Deputy Editor, who recently travelled across some states in the north, writes about his findings.
MALLAM Fada (not his real name) was a herder for over two and half decades; in fact, he was born into it. He started herding cattle with his father at the tender age of five. At that age, his job was only to lead the cattle to the nearby stream by their make-shift settlement somewhere along the Jos- Bauchi border.
That was years ago. Now in his mid thirties and looking quite older than his age, he has forsaken cattle herding and picked up a new job as a cab driver. His father died a few years ago and he decided to look for another means of survival since he discovered that cattle herding was becoming too precarious and more tasking, especially with the scarcity of pasture to graze his cows on.
Travelling from Jos through Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna, the reporter was confronted with the reality of the scarcity of pasture that Mallam Fada told him about. The vast array of lands that used to be green and lush have become grey and dry. The grasses were no longer green or lush; they looked malnourished and in need of water as the earth was patched, hot and scorched. The desert has expanded and is still expanding, thus taking over more land. Drought is real and poverty is part of life as even those who are farmers have become pauperised and desperate in search of survival.
Empty ponds, dry lands
The search for pasture to nurture the herds of cattle has become fierce and desperate because the lambu (ponds), which were common in the past, have dried up due to lack of rains. Heavy rains in the past made lambu possible as it was dammed by farmers who dug deep pits and artificial ponds to make water available for their flocks. The laka (mud) gathered from such diggings were used also to build huts and food barns. All these have become things of the past because of the lack of enough rains.
The dry ponds have led to migration of both herders and cattle in search of greener pastures wherever they are available, thus provoking clashes between farmers and herders. Perhaps the most devastating and gruelling clash was the one that happened in Benue on New Year’s Day. At the end of it, over seventy people were killed and this has spiralled into greater crisis and loss of confidence in the security forces.
For the first time, governors of the same party were at daggers drawn. Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State whose State Assembly had passed an Anti-Open Grazing Law was criticised by his Plateau State counterpart, Samuel Lalong, for enacting such a law. Lalong had on a visit to Aso Villa told reporters that he warned his Benue counterpart against passing such a law.
The Plateau State governor in faulting his Benue counterpart had told reporters, “To be honest with you, I advised him. I told the governor of Benue State when he was initiating the law, I said ‘look, why don’t you tread softly, just be careful, take other steps before you start implementation.’
“But you see, states are different; his own concepts are different and for us on the Plateau, it is different. I said I would not do the law before implementation. I have not developed the ranching areas so I cannot go and say I put a law, to stop who? If I stop the people, what is the alternative? So, I said ‘do consultations, allow the people to understand and buy into the concepts.”
This did not go down well with Ortom who fired back at Lalong and asked him to face the administration of his state and leave his state alone. It was like telling him Benue is not a province of Plateau State. Many remember that Benue was carved out of the old Benue-Plateau State in 1976 by the military government of the late General Murtala Muhammed.
At first, Ortom through his Special Adviser on Media and ICT, Tahav Argezua, told Lalong that he was not at liberty to take his advice. According to him, the attack was premeditated and not provoked by the new law, adding that the herdsmen had been attacking states long before the law was promulgated.
Argezua pointed at the attacks that had been mounted against the Agatu, Kwande and many other places before the law. He asked, “Was it because of the law that Agatu was attacked by the herdsmen? What about Plateau, Adamawa, Ebonyi and Nasarawa states, as well as other places that have been clearly attacked?”
He did not stop there; he added that it was a grand plan to take over the proverbial food basket of the nation. According to him, “These people (the herders) said that they were in the Benue valley before the Tiv and Idoma people and they promised to come and chase the people away. The issue at stake is the green grass.”
Argezua insinuated further that the herders were emboldened to carry out such massive killings because President Muhammadu Buhari is of the Fulani stock.
Governor Ortom is not leaving the talking to his aides. Early this month, when the National Economic Council Technical Committee on Herdsmen/Farmers’ Crises Resolution led by the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, visited him, he told off his Plateau counterpart asking him to mind his own business.
According to him, his deputy, Benson Abounu, had told him about the discussion between him and Lalong, in which the Plateau Governor restated his warning to Ortom not to go ahead with the anti-open grazing law.
Ortom said his Plateau counterpart told his deputy that he had to apologise for his earlier statement because of pressure on him, adding “Please tell him to stop interfering with the affairs of my state; let him mind his business in Plateau and I will mind my own business here. I am the governor here (Benue); how can he say that he warned me? Who is he to warn me? He can only advise me.”
With governors and other prominent leaders at each others’ throats, what is the way out?
According to Ibrahim Datijo, an agriculture officer at the ministry of agriculture in Bauchi, clashes between farmers and herders are not new. According to him, it was an old thing but it had never been this fierce and deadly. “Before now, cows do stray into farms and farmers and herders do have disagreements from time to time. However, it is usually resolved by Mai Anguwa (head of the community). They worked together and helped each other. What has happened now is mainly due to suspicion and hatred for one another. One ethnic group feeling that the other is taking undue advantage.”
He added that in the past, farmers and herders were like Siamese twins. When it is time for harvest farmers do their harvesting and call in herders to bring their cattle to clear the remnants. In the process of consuming the remnants the cattle excrete and farmers in turn use this as manure while cultivating their lands. However, with the current mutual distrust and suspicions, this has stopped, hence the clashes.
Also in the past, farmers’ barns or sheaves which are usually at the centre of the farm awaiting evacuation or planting season, were never touched by the cattle. In case there was a rebellious one, which was rare, the herder knew how to call such one off with a simple whistle or cat call, which made many believe the cattle and their herders speak the same language!
The Ganduje solution
Early this month, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, proffered what he thought would be a final solution to the crisis. Speaking in Garum Malam Local Government Area, during a vaccination exercise for livestock in the state, he gave an open cheque to all herders across the country to move to his state, claiming that the state had “vast grazing land” to accommodate them all. He condemned killings during clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
He said, “Fulani herdsmen of Kano origin do not move out of Kano to other states because we have enough grazing land, ranches and traditional stock route. They don’t have any reason to move out of the state. We take care of them and we accord them the respect and dignity they deserve.
“I am inviting herdsmen from all parts of Nigeria to relocate to Kano because we have enough facilities to accommodate them. “We have grazing land in Rogo, Gaya, Kura, Tudun Wada, Ungogo and other places, where facilities have been provided to accommodate the herdsmen and their cattle.”
He said the state was already working with the federal government and foreign agencies to convert the Falgore Game Reserve into a modern grazing land.
However, an official of the state ministry of agriculture who does not want his name in print because he was not authorised to speak told the reporter, “The governor’s offer is a political solution. Where does he want to keep them (the cattle and herders) if they dare take up the offer? Does he think Kano can contain all of them? This is the kind of off-the-cuff solutions which solve no problems. Has he built ranches or colonies to accommodate the cattle?”
A teacher of geography at the Bayero University Kano agrees with him. According to him, the governor was only trying to be “politically correct”. He asks: “Does he (Ganduje) think intractable problems are solved by diktat or a mere wave of the hand? Has any background study or studies been conducted?” He dismissed the governor as playing cheeky politics with a serious and delicate issue.
According to him, it is such insincerity of political leaders that complicate and compound issues that simple and sincere steps should have resolved. The university don faulted the so-called Miyetti Allah group parading itself in the media by issuing statements, saying that may not be the true representatives of the other herdsmen who are eking out a living tending their cattle across the northern desert in search of greener pastures in the middle belt of the country. Those parading the media, he said, are publicity seekers who want to be courted by those in power.
No sacred ground
The destruction and killings by the rampaging herdsmen know no boundaries or sacred places. Early this month, the multi-million naira research and training farms of the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, was invaded by cattle. Following the massive destruction, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, summoned a security meeting.
At the meeting, the vice chancellor read the riot acts to the herdsmen and lamented the loss, saying it was a setback for knowledge and education.
He said, “We have a multi-million naira programme that is currently at stake now because they (herders) have gone to the extent of uprooting tubers of cassava for their cattle to feed on. We cannot conduct any research or training on the farm again because each time we get to a point where their cattle can feed on it … they go back there and destroy it. ”
The vice chancellor said his predecessor had given the herders a three-month extension, which had long expired. In Plateau State, the herders also invaded the state’s citadel of learning, Plateau State University, Bokkos. Prof. Docknan Decent Sheni, the vice chancellor, bemoaned that the university premises had been taken over by desperate herdsmen who carry out aggressive grazing on its premises.
According to him, “There are security challenges in the university because the institution has not been completely fenced. We have seen several strange persons within the university who constitute threat to lives and properties.
“Our greatest challenge is that lectures will be going on and cattle will be roaming around, up to the administrative block and this is not pleasant to the system.”
He added that two persons have been killed by the herders. “We cannot allow that to continue because we don’t know the motive behind that. We have seen how people have been butchered in different parts of the country by herdsmen and we don’t want that to happen to any of us.”
Many police officers and officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been killed across the country. This is apart from about 70 people who were massacred in Benue State on New Year Day.
These killings have made the Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, to declare the herdsmen as killers and not victims. The governor had raised the alarm that there were plans to attack the state. Less than twenty-four hours after the alarm, some villages were attacked with scores of people killed.
The role of climate change
Why did Mallam Fada abandon his cattle tending and why the incessant clashes and killings across the country? Climatologists believe this is due to climate change. The drying ponds, streams and rivers are a result of climate change and that there is a need to buckle up for the change. It has been predicted that the effect of climate change will be more severe in developing nations by 2035 and beyond. This could only be averted if drastic and quick efforts are made to reduce the rate at which man intrudes into atmospheric composition.
A professor of Geography at the University of Ilorin, Lanre Ajibade, said, “Climate change efforts (global warming) should not generate war among us if we better understand ourselves in the area of culture, society, politics, economics, values, norms and religion.”
The don who is also the Dean of Student Affairs counselled: “We should learn how to bear one another in good faith and create friendly environments. I envisaged certain undertone motives behind the herders/farmers killing in the country. There was no such killing 10 years ago whereas climate change effects were fully manifested then. The only way out is to come out for dialogue.”
However, climate change or not, the destruction by herdsmen is enormous. The Ghanaian poet Kwesi Brew, in his popular poem, The Sea eats our land, laments how helpless his village was from the pillage of sea waves, while in Nigeria now the desert eats our lands in the north, and cattle eat our crops in the middle belt thus leading to crises and deaths!
How do we turn the tide against the two grim reapers?
THERE is no doubt that the issue of herders/farmers clashes across the country has generated so much bad blood and controversy that writing or commenting on it has become dicey. There is hardly anything you say that would not be pigeon-holed.
If you say the herders are at fault, you are going to be labelled a hater of a particular ethnic group and if you talk in favour of the farmers you are also called a hater of the other ethnic group.
This was the dilemma faced by this reporter while trying to talk to ‘experts’ on what the clashes portend for the country. For instance, almost all university teachers approached by the reporter declined to speak on the matter. They either claimed ignorance or asked to be excused because the “matter is sensitive”. A few agreed to speak and asked for their names and affiliations to be left out. Why? The reporter asked.
“It is a very delicate matter. No matter what you say, passions are going to be inflamed, so I don’t want to talk and be a marked man,” one said.
Another refused to talk even on a strictly professional issue as climate change. The reporter had asked for his opinion, saying if he was not ready to comment on the clash, he could at least offer an insight into how climate change had led to the migration of herdsmen from the north to the middle belt and the southern part of the country in search of pasture.
However, another ‘expert’ declined to speak with the reporter, asking to be paid by the reporter because, according to him, “you want to use my opinion to sell your newspaper. So, I deserve to be paid to offer my opinion.” Noting that the reporter was looking at him unbelievably, he retorted, “Don’t you know abroad newspapers pay experts for offering their opinions?”
The reporter replied that he was hearing this for the first time in his professional life and that he has also travelled a bit and had never met any colleague who said his newspaper paid any ‘expert’ to offer any opinion on matter of public concern.
In the concluding part of this feature, which began last Sunday, Justina Asishana writes on how the Education Board in Niger State seems to have gone to sleep, leaving pupils and teachers frustrated as they grapple with grim learning and teaching conditions.
Education board in slumber
The Niger State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB) seemed to have been comatose until recently. Despite the huge allocations from the federal and state governments, the state of basic education in the state has remained worrisome. The board has retrogressed from failing to complete projects to complete abandonment of projects.
Efforts to get the funds accessed by SUBEB from 2013 till date proved abortive, and so were efforts to speak with the chairman of the Board. However, documents obtained from the Planning, Research and Statistics Department reveals that 271 projects were undertaken in 2013 at the cost of N1, 495,400,000. But not all the projects were completed. In 2014, 175 projects at the cost of N1, 316,200,000 were undertaken under the UBE intervention for construction and renovation of schools and toilets.
Also, 13,129 double-seater classroom furniture were documented to have been supplied at the sum of N239, 200,000 under the 2013 UBE Intervention while 10,710 double-seater classroom furniture was supplied at the sum of N321, 000 under the 2014 UBE intervention.
Some of the contractors, investigations revealed, tried to cut corners in the supply of some of these furniture. Most of them reportedly supplied directly to the schools and simply delivered whatever they liked and hoodwinked some of the head teachers into signing their delivery notes. But some head teachers, like Haruna Hassan of Angwan Anyan Model Nursery and Primary School in Suleja, insisted on signing only after full delivery.
According to Hassan, one of the contractors who were supposed to supply 60 seats ended up supplying 39 seats. “I was not around the school premises but when I was told that the contractor had brought the chairs, I rushed there but when I counted them, it was 39 instead of 60. He was agitating that I should sign the documents to confirm he brought the complete set and I told him that until he brings the others, I will not sign the document. And since then, he has not brought the remaining. “
Some schools had to share the inadequate furniture given to them by SUBEB equally among the classes to ensure that they try to meet the furniture deficit but it has failed to address the problem. More than half of the population of pupils in primary schools across Niger State still sits on the floor. All the head teachers met during this reporter’s visit across the state all made appeal for chairs to be made available for them.
In some of the schools visited, pupils spread mats on the floor to sit for lessons.
However, the Commissioner of Education, Hajiya Fatima Magudu explained that if there are no furniture in any SUBEB completed project, it may be because the contractors of the project are yet to complete the construction of the furniture.
But some of the projects had been completed for over a year and yet the furniture has not been sent to the schools. Investigations show that not less than 10 contractors defaulted in the execution of their contracts. Yet the state has not done anything to bring them to account. Whether this is an indication of mischief on the part of the contractors or a case of collusion between the contractors and government officials is what is left to be seen.
Contractors no-where to be found
Trying to locate some of the contractors in Minna proved very difficult as SUBEB was unwilling to release their addresses. Search for them through the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website was also difficult, as some were not listed there. The reporter tried to locate Dan Modibbo and Sons Nigeria Limited, the contractor that renovated a block of two classrooms in CPS Wawa in Borgu local government area, whose registered office address was said to be at No 122 Zarumai Road in Minna, but the company was not found at the address.
A contractor who constructed a block of two classrooms for N4.03 million at Santali Primary School in Lavun Local Government Area of the state said the contract sum was exclusive of the supply of furniture to the classrooms. He also stated that the contracts for the construction or renovation of classrooms were given separately from that of the supply of school furniture by the board, adding that “except in very few cases, the board separated the award of contract for construction or renovation of building from the supply of school furniture.”
He was quick to add that most of the contractors have not been fully paid for the contract despite having delivered on the terms of their contracts, and the buildings already in use.
In his own case, the contractor said he was still being owed N3.15 million despite the completion and issuance of certificate of completion by the board since 2014.
A document obtained from the Niger state Universal Basic Education Board confirmed that contracts for construction of the classrooms and the supply of furniture are given differently and may not be given to the same contractor.
Frustrated Teachers
Many teachers are dismayed over the inability of government to address the infrastructural decay in the primary schools over the years. A retired teacher who lives in Minna, Mallam Mohammed Umar, said the state of decay will only get worse unless drastic steps are taken towards addressing it. Umar, who was a former teacher at Rafin Sanyin Primary School, Suleja, was shocked when told the state of the school now. “I thought by now it should have been done. When I was there, I retired in 2015; the school was in dire need of renovation. The children were sitting on the floor, we had no diaries or registers, and we had to just manage what we had. So telling me the school still needs total renovation amazes me.”
The Chairman of the Kontagora chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Dan Azumin Kabiru declared that the infrastructures of schools across the state are so bad that they are no longer manageable. “Government is not doing anything to help improve the standard of education through the infrastructures we have. What would the government show to the people to prove that it has much concern for education or regards for the infrastructural situation in the schools.”
Kabiru said the recent effort by government at renovating one or two structures in a school would do nothing to improve the state of infrastructural decay, pointing out that despite all the talks of improved structures and huge money allocated to the education sector, there is nothing to show for it.
Kabiru advised the state government to urgently address the infrastructure decay in schools across the state to avoid total collapse of education. He said renovating one out of a hundred schools is not a solution to the problem.
He stressed the need for additional classrooms but added that the old ones that are dilapidated should first be put in good condition. “Government wants the students to be highly educated but they are not giving us the needed infrastructure and facilities. The schools are in bad condition and nothing is been done. If they do the right thing, they will get the right result. ”
Another teacher in Suleja, Comrade Musa Nasiru echoed his colleagues. He said all the schools in Suleja are in need total rehabilitation, as a large number of the classrooms are decrepit and without furniture. He disclosed that the teachers’ union in Suleja was already looking beyond the government and had started approaching well-to-do individuals and the old boys associations to see how they can assist in putting the classrooms in good learning condition.
A former teacher who is now Chairman of the Niger State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Bako Kasim Alfa confirmed that the current decay in school infrastructure started years ago and due to government inability to quickly intervene, it ended up becoming worse by the years. He therefore said it will take years for any intervention to make noticeable impact.
He said: “The decay we are experiencing did not just happen today, it was inherited from past governments. Since inception, there has never been any kind of intervention in some of the schools. Intervention for the education sector was zero.”
Government Approach
The Niger State Government claimed that when it assumed power in 2015, it met primary school infrastructure across the state in total decay, as they had been neglected by previous governments. The State Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fatima Magudu, who acknowledged widespread dilapidation of primary school facilities in the state, claimed that SUBEB was doing its best to rehabilitate the schools and ensure the rehabilitation is spread across the state.
The state Commissioner of Education, Hajiya Fatima Magudu said the decrepit state of primary education in the state was due to lack of funds. She said even though the state had spent over N9 billion in the last five years without commensurate improvement in standard, previous administrations were to blame. She said what the current administration met on ground did not justify the money claimed to have been spent.
The commissioner refused to respond to question on why the current administration did not probe previous expenditure on the sector. Her only response was that the current administration was doing its best to improve the system but lack of funds has been a hindrance. She said in her two years in office as commissioner, the Ministry has only accessed about 80 per cent of education budget.
“Right now, we have accessed the 2015 UBEC intervention fund but we have not accessed 2016 and 2017 UBEC fund to which the state government would counter fund. You should know that education is a capital project that is capital intensive. It cannot be completed at once; especially looking at the way we met some of the schools. It would be a gradual process for this government. That is why the government has adopted the whole school renovation approach to identify and work on schools that need intervention,” she said.
She admitted that the ministry’s technical personnel reported that some contractors defaulted by executing shoddy jobs while some failed to complete the contract execution, but dismissed any suggestion of official connivance.
This is however hard to believe, especially because erring contractors were not sanctioned, but only given “letters of warning” telling them their contracts may be terminated if they refused to fully execute.
This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. Concluded.
Despite a whopping N9billion sunk into rescuing the visible decay in primary school infrastructure in Niger State, Justina Asishana reports that facilities remain in deplorable conditions, with pupils receiving lessons on bare floors and under trees.
ROOFLESS classrooms, broken floors, over-crowded classes and lack of furniture are some of the common features of primary schools across Niger State. As a result, pupils are forced to take lessons, sitting on bare floor and at the mercy of the elements.
At Kwangwara UBE Primary School in Kontagora, Niger State, it was a pitiable sight. In Class 2A, which offers a slightly different sight, the ceiling and roof have been cut into half, obviously by rainstorm. The Nation’s finding revealed that the situation has been like that for at least three years. When the reporter visited the school, the sun rays fell directly on the pupils sitting on the bare floor.
This school is one of the 3, 034 primary schools in the state; but unfortunately more than half the number bear similar features. Not less than 2000 of these schools have dilapidated classrooms without furniture, forcing nearly 500,000 pupils to take lessons sitting on bare floor. This is more than 80 per cent of the entire primary school population in the state put at about 635,747.
The level of infrastructural dilapidation in primary schools in Niger state can be said to be shocking, in view of the quantum of funds that has purportedly been expended on upgrading schools in the state.
Huge Education Budgets
Out of a total sum of N17 billion allocated to the education sector between 2012 and 2016, not less than N9 billion is said to have been spent on infrastructure development in primary schools in the state.
A breakdown of the budget for primary education in the five years under review shows that in 2012, N1.7 billion was budgeted; N1.4 billion in 2013, N1.4billion in 2014, N1.13 billion in 2015 and N90 million in 2016.
Meanwhile, an additional sum of N8.8 billion was budgeted for the construction and provision of public schools between 2013 to 2016 while N3.93 billion was budgeted for the rehabilitation and repairs of public schools during the period under review.
However, there is no evidence on ground to show that these funds were spent on any of these capital projects. A good number of schools visited in some local government areas in the state do not appear to have benefited from these funds as they had nothing to show as evidence. Not only are the schools dilapidated, pupils are forced to take lessons in classrooms without roofs and on bare floors. And whenever it rains, there are no lessons, as pupils have to hobble together to avoid being drenched.
The tale of decaying infrastructure remains the same from Niger South through Niger North to Niger East.
Lack of furniture, falling roofs and ceilings
In Kontagora, Niger North Senatorial District, 30 out of the 53 primary schools in the local government council are in dire need of urgent rehabilitation. Eleven of the schools have classroom buildings but no desks and chairs while 37 lack adequate seats and desks. Three of the schools have no building at all and pupils have to sit under the sun each day to take their classes.
In Zango Primary School, a school with a pupil population of 1,320, lessons are held under strenuous conditions. Although there is a block of classrooms constructed by SUBEB, the school still lack adequate furniture and some pupils have to stand or sit on bare floor during lesson periods. Even the available furniture was not supplied by the government; they were supplied by the Parents Teachers’ Association of the school.
The school was one of those starved of government attention for years until 2017, when the state government did some renovation and provided it with some furniture. But still, the intervention was too little to have positive impact on the condition of teaching and learning in the school.
In Kwangwara UBE Primary School, Primary One pupils sit in the sand inside the few classrooms available, as the floors are not cemented. The roofs of some of the classrooms had long been blown away by violent rainstorm. The school has only 405 pupils, but it has to practice shifting to ensure all pupils can be accommodated during lesson.
Standing inside the school compound is a SUBEB classroom project which has been left unfinished for some years, and is already showing signs of dilapidation.
The Head-teacher, Adamu Abubakar said complaints made to the Local Education Authority (LEA) have gone unanswered, adding that every year and every term, supervisors from SUBEB and the local government are sent to the school to ascertain what they needed but things remain the same.
A Primary One teacher, Owolabi Lola, who teaches in a class where the only sitting option for the pupils was the bare sandy floor, narrated her unpleasant teaching experience. “It is difficult to teach the children without desks and chairs; even with their writing materials, it is difficult for them to learn fast. In Primary one in Kwangwara UBE Primary school, we are facing a lot of difficulties; as you can see, there is no cemented floor, and the blackboard is nothing to write home about. Even the windows are not good anymore.”
At the UBE Primary Schools in Dankashimo, Baturewma and Ugulu in Kontagora LGA, this reporter came away with sordid images. They were all without any classroom building, and pupils hold classes under trees. However Nagwamatse Primary School is ‘lucky’; it has 21 classrooms built through the government intervention. But that’s where the good fortune ends. The classrooms are without furniture, not even for the teachers. As in several other schools visited, the pupils have to sit on the floor to receive lessons.
The Head teacher said: “The buildings were built without provision for furniture, which is the problem we are encountering now. Before, when they build or renovate a class, the furniture will follow; but this time, it is not like that. Even a new class will be built without furniture.”
The Education Secretary of Kontagora Local Education Authority, Bala Bello confirmed that there are actually some schools in the local government area without buildings and some without chairs and desks. He explained that the LEA has not received anything as far as school maintenance is concerned even as he lamented the state of decay in primary school infrastructures. “The decay in infrastructures is very bad. More than 30 of the schools need urgent attention and intervention in so many ways. Some need increase in structures; there are some schools with more than 250 pupils in a class, and it is unfortunate that you did not meet the children in class; you will weep for them.”
On SUBEB intervention, the Education Secretary confirmed that most of the new buildings being constructed were not given furniture. He however pointed out that the local education authority does not have any control over the contractors, stressing that this is what has resulted in execution of shoddy jobs.
The same situation obtains in Borgu Local Government Area. In one of the schools visited, Tamanai UBE Primary School, some blocks of classrooms without roofs and ceilings were noticeable. Many of the classes had no chairs, and where they had chairs, they were largely broken down.
Yangba Primary School is one of the 30 schools in the local government area where classes are held in the open due to lack of suitable classrooms. According to Suleiman Yabagi, a teacher in the school, pupils cannot sit in the classrooms because the roofs have been blown away and pupils have to sit under trees to take their lessons.
This reporter gathered that 600 pieces of furniture were distributed by the current administration in the state in December 2017 to address the infrastructure decay. But in a local government with about 130 public primary schools, the intervention was like a drop in the ocean.
No longer ‘Child-friendly school’
In Niger South, the situation is equally pathetic. A school once designated by UNICEF 14 years ago as Child Friendly School, Takawanga Primary School in Mokwa Local Government Area, is now a danger to school children. The school has a pupil population of 536 but only one block of three classrooms is in use.
According to the Headmistress, Hajiya Fatima Mohammed Safu, each of the three classrooms is divided into two so that all the pupils can be accommodated. “Please don’t ask me how they will learn in that situation because I too don’t know. If we don’t do it like that, our other option would be that they learn outside; and I am not ready to subject them to that.”
It was learnt that there has been no form of intervention in the school in a long time. Janaidu Mustapha, a Primary Six pupil confirmed that they are made to sit on the floor to learn, and that he, like many of his fellow pupils, has never sat on a chair and desk since he started school there. Hajiya Safu said all complaints to the appropriate bodies have yielded no response or result.
Although, the scope of this investigation was to visit only primary schools in the local government, however, curiosity due to comments from community leaders took the reporter to Government Secondary School, Bokani. GSS Bokani is a mixed school but only the girls stay in the hostels while the boys return to their homes daily. The hostel does not look like a normal boarding facility-no fence, poor sanitation and not conducive for human habitation.
The Labour Prefect of the school, Felicia Ezekiel took the reporter round the ‘hostel’ where there are about five dormitories with only double spring beds without mattresses. Felicia said mats are used in place of mattresses and no storage facility, electricity or fan. “We use torchlights to read if the need arises at night,” she said.
The bathrooms were infested with rodents making most of the students to bathe outside and when they want to defecate, they carry out the business in nylon and throw it outside the building. But anyone without nylon would have to visit the bush. As for security, there is no perimeter fencing, no gate and no security personnel to watch over the girls. Also there are no dining rooms, the girls are served their food in their food cookers in the cubicle called kitchen and they take it to their hostel to eat.
”We do not have water, no mattresses and our hostels are not conducive and liveable and we need more teachers in the school. We also do not have light, we use touch in the night and most times the battery died before we can finish reading for the night. Torchlights are our main source of light in this school,” one of the students narrated.”
One of the school officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said there has never been any government intervention in spite of series of complaint from the school authorities. The source added that officials from the Secondary School Board had visited the school several times to assess the situation but nothing was done.
In Bida Local Government, the situation seemed a bit better as renovation works were on-going when the reporter visited. Many of the primary schools in the town were under renovation while in some, new classroom buildings had been completed. Schools were on holidays and there was no way to find out whether furniture was also provided for the schools.
However, some schools in the town are also in need of urgent renovation and additional classroom buildings. One of them is the Bagudu Waziri Primary School which had classrooms with falling roofs and dilapidated structures. Most of the classes also had no furniture.
Another school worth mentioning is Bagudu Shettima Primary School where the renovation of a block of two classrooms is not adequate to address the decaying infrastructure in the school. Broken chairs are being used by the pupils.
Niger East – where urban schools are gives preference over rural schools
In Niger East, there seem to be partiality in addressing the decay in dilapidated structures of primary schools. This senatorial district boasts of two major cities in the state, Minna and Suleja. Most of the schools in the urban towns have been renovated and some turned to model schools. But the case is different in the rural areas, where pupils still sit on the floor in classrooms without furniture, and sometimes in the open air under trees.
In Chanchaga Local Government Area, which is where the state capital, Minna, is located, many of the primary schools show glaring evidence of dilapidation. The reporter visited Barkin Sale Primary School, where two classroom buildings were renovated in 2015. However, the classrooms, which were in use, had no chairs or desks for the pupils, as they sit on the floor while the other building was still under lock and keys.
The head teacher’s office was an eyesore, with a little chair and table. Efforts to get information and details about the school proved abortive. When the reporter got to the school, the head teacher expressed joy that someone had finally come to see first-hand, the disturbing state of the school. “It is people like you we need. Thank you for coming. Things are in very bad shape. You need to see it for yourself. ”
Limawa Primary School, which is also in Minna, was recently renovated by SUBEB to the standard of a model school. Although some of the children still sit on the floor, a teacher in the school said they recently received some classroom furniture, which would be used when the pupils resume for second term.
Nikangbe Primary School is one of the schools located on the outskirt of Minna. The school had no chairs in any of the classrooms despite having 14 classrooms. A peep into some of the classes revealed that the classes each contained no less than 60 pupils.
One of the teachers who called herself, Aunty Sofia said the issue of dilapidated structures and lack of classroom furniture is a general problem facing many of the schools, adding that the head teacher of the school had written to SUBEB and the Local Education Authority but nothing had been done. “We know supervisors are sent here regularly. Each time supervisors come here and ask us what we need, they come and assess what is needed but yet nothing is done,” she said.
Matha Shikeri, a Primary five pupil in the school said she had spent five years in the school but only sat on a chair when she was in primary 3. “I have been in this school for five years and I only sat on a chair when I was in primary 3. I have not seen government bringing chairs for us. I am in Primary 5 now,” she said in a tone full of lamentation.
New Tunga Primary School, Kwalkota Primary School, Chachanga Primary school are some of the schools that have renovated classrooms but few furniture.
In the rural areas of Paikoro, 80 schools are in need of major repairs while 143 are in need of classroom furniture. In about one hundred primary schools, pupils still take lessons in the open air due to lack of classrooms. This is one local government that have felt the least impact of government intervention in schools.
The schools in very bad shape are in the rural areas of Kafinkoro Central, Farin-Doki, Baida, Kwakuti amongst others. In the opinion of the Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu,” all the schools need overhauling and urgent attention.”
This was where this reporter learnt that not all new school buildings in the local government were built by SUBEB. Some were built through community effort, like in the case of U.K Bello Memorial Nursery and Primary school, which was started by the community and completed by a politician in the area. However, the classrooms had no furniture when the reporter visited.
The Head teacher, Adullahi Tanko confirmed that some of the buildings in the school were not done by the state government. He said it was the PTA of the school that started the project.
The dilapidated four blocks of classrooms in the school are so bad that carpenters were said to have rejected any offer of repairing the blown-off roofs.
In Zubairu Primary School, there were evidences of SUBEB intervention but the school lacked classroom furniture and pupils have to sit on bare floors.
The reporter learnt that parents in Paikoro had long decided to take the destinies of their children in their hands after prolonged government inaction in schools in the area. In other to ensure their wards learn under conducive conditions, the PTA in the schools taxed parents to contribute funds for renovation of classrooms and provision of furniture
To further confirm this development, when the reporter visited Tangopi Primary School, she met the PTA holding a meeting where they were discussing how to repair one of the classes which roof had been blown off. It was learnt that the PTA expended N500,000 on recent repairs in the school. The PTA Chairman, Ibrahim Audi, said they always meet to discuss on how to take care of the dilapidated structures. ‘We usually raise money and renovate anyone that needs urgent attention. The structures are in good shape now and we are happy with it.”
The Paikoro Education Secretary, Musa Hamidu disclosed that a list of schools that needed intervention had been compiled and sent to SUBEB, but the response has not been adequate. “Our powers are limited. We cannot do anything more than compiling and sending the lists. We don’t have the financial wherewithal to do anything even if we want to,” he said, bitterly.”
In Suleja, 22 out of the 83 primary schools in the local government area are in need of major repairs while 50 require classroom furniture. The environment in many of the schools is also unhygienic. For instance at the Suleiman Barau Primary School, an open drainage that had not been cleared for months runs in front of a classroom building oozing bad odour.
At Ibrahim Dodo primary school, a classroom was infested by bats, and one had to cover the nose before entering because of the smell. In another school, out of 32 classes, only 8 were functional with little or no chairs. Most of the doors of the building had been removed and the buildings were gradually collapsing.
This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.
Dorcas Egede, in the concluding part of her investigative report ‘DEAD ON ARRIVAL: Inside Abuja communities where twins are killed at birth,’ continues her narrative of the bizarre infanticide still going on in communities around Abuja. But many within the communities deny that the killings are happening. They would not even admit that they’ve ever been involved in the practice. Yet the evidence is glaring.
Synopsis of Part 1
LAST week, The Nation published the first part of this feature, Dead on Arrival, which revealed the shocking practice in which locals in some communities around the nation’s capital, Abuja, still kill twin children at birth. Not only that, multiple birth children, including triplets and quadruplets suffer the same fate; same for infants who lose their mothers at birth – they are considered evil. Children born with disabilities, physical or psychological, such as cleft lips, deformed hands or leg, Down syndrome and albinos are also not spared.
Our reporter also visited some of the communities, hoping to zero down on communities involved in the evil practice, but ‘mum’ turned out to be the word, as they all virtually denied involvement in the practice. This edition is a continuation of her itinerary into the communities.
Death culture not binding on strangers
Over the years and owing to migration, people from other ethnic backgrounds have been coexisting with the Bassa people, leading to bigger and more complex communities. Expectedly, their cultures are not binding on these strangers. Olusola Stevens, the missionary from Osun State, who has been rescuing and grooming the infants in his Vine Heritage Home in Kiyi (a suburb of Abuja) said, “There are people living among them from other tribes who are raising children they consider abominable. Two of the missionaries working under me have given birth to twins here before, and do you know the strange thing? The villagers were coming to see the children and asking how they were surviving.
•A young girl onher way to fetch water in Kiyi river
“There was a set of twins in Gwagwalada Area Council, Josiah and Joshua, and another in Kaida, James and John; they have relocated to Kogi State now. When these twins were born in Kaida, the villagers asked, “Do you know twins don’t survive in this community?” How would you want to keep your twins there? In fact, the parents became afraid and had to bring the children to stay with me for a while. But I encouraged them to pray. I told them that as long as they do not physically snatch the children from them or attack them, they should be rest assured that they would never be able to touch them spiritually. So, they stayed with me for about five months and returned. They were there until the children were about two or three years before they left.
The mercantile informant
In the course of her long search for culpable communities, this reporter eventually met a source with ‘a special interest.’ His interest, he said, is influenced by the fact that he has two sets of twins and can’t bear the thought of them being killed. He has also suffered setbacks, particularly financial, in the course of registering an NGO like Stevens’. He boasted of having the information this reporter required, but would only reveal it at a price – a huge sum.
“Any family that kills twins would build two shrines in their compound to say ‘Bye-bye, we don’t want you again in our family’ to twins children. There are evidences.” But that’s as much as he went before insisting on cash for information deal.
When asked why he was bent on receiving cash for information and why the whole thing is shrouded in secrecy, he said, “It’s not that we are hiding it, we are just trying to prevent a lot of issues; we are trying to protect our nation too from bad image in the eyes of the outside world.”
His other reason somewhat betrayed his covetous mindset: “When you write this story you will win millions. I know where this story can take you to, because you’re getting it raw.”
Gomani, Kwali Area Council
Gomani is a neigbouring village to Dogonruwa. Both communities drink from the same river, in which they also do their laundry, bathe, fish and all sorts. In Gomani, this reporter met some elders of the community seated by the gate to the traditional ruler’s palace. The elders told the reporter and her team that they could not see their leader as he was in a meeting, but assured her that they could answer all her questions.
It was almost as if they had received word from Dogonruwa, as their responses were exactly the same. “We don’t reject twins,” they chorused. And, “we would be too happy to have them, even if we have 10 at once.”
Kaida, Gwari Area Council
At Kaida, this reporter, posing as someone with a mission of sharing relief materials to the local women, met a local missionary, whose name cannot be revealed in order not to jeopardise his safety. He said the killings have stopped in Kaida, but still happening in neighbouring communities.
“About the twins here, no problem. But this people after Gurara river, are the ones who are still involved in the practice. They don’t like twins; when they have them, they sacrifice them to their gods.” He revealed however that the practice is no longer as rampant as it used to be. “Some people who have not accepted Christ still do it. But those young ones who have accepted Christ, when they know that a woman has given birth to twins, they quickly tell pastor in Kuje (referring to Stevens), who will quickly come and carry the children.” He said.
Kiyi Across, Kuje Area Council
This is a very small settlement by the bank of a river in Kiyi. It is called Kiyi Across because it is just beyond the river. To reach the row of not more than 15 mud houses, the reporter had to go through a bush path after wading through the river on foot. The first house was sighted right after this reporter emerged from the bush. This is where Habiba’s father lives. Habiba, it would be recalled, was the 21-year-old who survived the killings in her native Kiyi. She was the first child rescued by Stevens and groomed in his the Vine Heritage Home. Her narrative and that of her mother, who left her father as a result of the practice (Part 1) threw a lot of light on the despicable practice and helped situate this reporter’s mission.
With her help, the team was able to cross the river, even though they had been told it’s impossible to reach the community until around the end of January.
Something that has the semblance of a fence (a vertical slab, made from mud) demarcates the house from the nearly encroaching bush. Embossed on the wall of the house is the shrine erected for the twins. This shrine looks more like two kangaroo pouches placed side-by-side. It is positioned between a door and window, both made from rusted aluminum roofing sheet.
•A house in Kiyi
Inside the shrine, which was covered with white clothes, now brown and tattered with age, were white chicken feathers, 5 naira notes and some other unrecognisable items.
Several hours with Habiba’s father however revealed nothing. He flatly denied having ever sacrificed twins, let alone three sets. While he agreed to have lost two sets of twins at infancy, he revealed that one set died of illnesses and that the other was still born.
According to him, they never at any time sacrificed twins. “We don’t sacrifice twins. I had about two sets of twins; the first set came out alive and one later died. The second set of twins both came out dead and we buried them.”
How come twins don’t survive among them? This reporter asked. His reply was, “I don’t know why it is so, but God spares some and they live.”
While he denied killing three sets of twins, he however admitted to having a shrine upon which he sacrifices to the twins yearly. He said this was a practice handed down to his generation by their forefathers. “We sacrifice two goats or fowls once a year, depending on our ability. We eat the meat and the blood is for the gods. That’s how our fathers did in those days and we have simply continued.”
No government presence, high maternal mortality rate
One thing is common in all the villages visited. As close as the government seems to them, evidence of civilisation still appear rare and far between. There are no schools, no health centres, no roads, no electricity and no pipe borne water. They drink from rivers herdsmen and their cattle wade through and drink from. They also bathe; wash their kitchen utensils and clothes in it. With this level of hygiene, it may not be really difficult to ascertain the source of Habiba’s father’s river blindness.
Is it any surprise too that maternal mortality rate here is prevalently high? In the absence of clinics, deliveries are taken by traditional birth attendants or some untrained ‘nurses’ whose only training stemmed from watching their late parents or some relative practice ‘medicine’. Speaking on the maternal mortality rate, Stevens said, “In a matter of one week, we can have up to three nursing mothers die in different communities and the children come here, some a day or two old. This morning for instance, I took a set of twins to the hospital for immunisation, although the twin brother didn’t survive, the twin sister did. They were preterm babies, so at some time, the girl was on an injection of N8,500 per week. These are the challenges.”
No unified data
Sadly however, a visit to the Gender Department of the Social Development secretariat revealed that not much is being done by the department in interfacing with the rescue home in Kuje.
In a chat with Mrs. Agnes Hart Uta, Director, Gender, Social Development Secretariat, she said there are currently 40 children in the rescue home. This showed a wide disparity in the numbers given by the home and the secretariat. Stevens gave the number of children in the home as 125. The secretariat also had no idea that the first child rescued by the home had now reunited with her family. Again, while Stevens gave the number of communities involved in the killings as about 62, the directorate put the number at up to 40.
This development is a clear indication that the directorate charged with the responsibility of handling matters relating to child welfare in the FCT does not have up to date information about the killings and has not been doing so much in interfacing with the child rescuer.
•The reporter and her tour guide wading through the Kiyi river
Work in progress
The killing of infants in communities around the FCT is not a fairy tale. Also true is the fact that it is not as widely practiced as it used to be some 20 years back. The practice has also completely stopped in about seven communities and they now keep every kind child born, multiple births or deformed. But there are communities still steeped in the culture and yet to start accepting those children considered abominable. Rather than kill them however, they take them to the rescue home.
This of course is a result of efforts of missionaries and the rescue home, as well as government intervention activities. As you enter Kuje area council for instance, there is a bill board erected by the Federal Capital Territory Administrator (FCTA). written in English, Hausa and Basa is, “Twins are from God. Protect them.”
Commenting on the progress of the interventions, Stevens noted, “To be fair to the people, there have been so many areas of intervention from the FCT Administration; they investigated and found it to be true, then they set up committees to work with the communities affected. And they did well by visiting and engaging the communities. But the good news today, which I always want everybody to talk about, is that some communities have completely stopped while some who are no longer killing still have it at the back of their mind that the children are evil, hence they can’t keep them.
•Saved: Babies at the Vine Heritage home
Of about 62 communities that were into the killing, some under Kuje, Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji; six to seven communities, Kiyi, Tumgbudu, Kutara, Nasarawa, Zuyi have stopped completely. There are some I haven’t documented, who told me they have stopped. But I don’t tell about them until I have verified. When I went the other time, some of the villages told me about other villages where they have stopped, but it is difficult to access some of the communities during the rainy, season. When dry season sets in, I’ll be moving round again to check out these other communities.
“We are looking forward to a day when the practice will be a thing of the past. I commend those who are bringing the children here. For them to have given the children to us is a good thing. It means people are now challenging the culture; government is talking to them about it, awareness is increasing and the people are getting exposed.”
Area Councils shortchanging the communities –FCTA
Curious to know what the government is doing to stop the killing, or reduce it to the barest minimum, this reporter visited the Information and Communication Department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration. Below is an excerpt of a chat with its Acting Director, Mrs. Stella Ojeme.
THE public would like to know what the government is doing to stop the killing of infants going on in certain communities around the FCT.
When it got to the attention of the administration that certain communities in some area councils were engaging in this, the former minister set up a panel that went to investigate and when it was discovered that it was actually going on, we were directed to go round these area councils and do some sensitisation that children are a gift from God, and that even if they’re twins, they are supposed to be seen as double blessing. So, we went round all the area councils, even as far as Abaji. We went to the palaces of the chiefs, called all the villagers and spoke to them; and they responded that even though it was an age long practice, with the enlightenment we had given to them, they’ve come to understand that it is wrong to dispose of their twin children.
Apart from the fact that it is against the law of God, we also told them that it is against the laws of the land. And they promised to stop. Occasionally, we do follow-up visits to see if there were changes. Some communities have stopped the practice, to be honest; but some are still stuck to their tradition. We are planning to go again and do a follow-up. We are waiting for approval. You know when we go for such sensitisations, we have to go with security agencies. If we go on our own without approval, and anything happens, we will have ourselves to blame.
How frequent are the sensitisation programmes, bearing in mind the need to regularly interface with these communities?
“We have had two sensitisation programmes this year. This one we are preparing for is the third. Once we get the approval, we will assemble the team and go. This photo-book is a record of our work in the communities. Anytime we want to go for follow-up, we show them pictures of our earlier visit and remind them of what we told them. We keep all these and use it to remind them that “you made us a promise that you will stop killing your twins, we heard that you have started again.”
If we hear that infants are being killed in parts of the FCT, it is only appropriate for us to know which communities have stopped these killings.
To protect the traditional rulers, I will not give you the names of the communities that are still doing this. You know we told them that it’s against the laws of the land. But these are communities that have stopped: Gomani, Tekpese, Gurdi, Wurambi, Shetuko, Kiyi, apart from major town like Kwali, Kuje, Yaba.
One of the commonest reasons for maternal mortality is lack of proper care during pregnancy or a result of complications during child birth. My visit to these communities revealed that only very few of them have primary health centres. What is the government doing about this?
I’m happy you asked this question, because it’s always been an issue between the FCTA and the Area Councils. You know why? The Area Councils have the jurisdiction of these communities. Now, there are allocations that are given by the federal government to the Area Councils. Every single month when allocations are released, every area council chairman comes here and collect their council’s share to the last kobo. The honourable minister has never withheld one single kobo of their allocation. It is with this allocation they are supposed to take care of their Area Councils and these communities. We are just to be stepping in when they fail or when there is a shortfall, but what they are now doing is to shelf all of these responsibilities to the administration.
In situations where we find that the allocation given is not sufficient, the administration steps in through the department of health and human resources. They go there and assist them with personnel, drugs, and sometimes, buildings. If you go there, most of all the buildings are FCT buildings. What do the area councils do?
Is it possible that the allocations are not sufficient, considering the vastness of these area councils?
If they say the allocations are no sufficient, I’m aware that the national assembly has given some of our revenue bases to them to be collecting. Right now there’s an approval given to the area councils to collect tenement rates. This is what we used to collect, it was the revenue of the FCT; but when they were complaining, the national assembly looked at the constitutionality of everything and said, “any building that is on your land, collect tenement rate.’ …tenement rate is tax on every building standing on their soil. And it is to be charged either on monthly or yearly basis. So, if they have given this approval and they have started collecting in addition to the allocations, what are they doing with it? But it still doesn’t stop the administration, whenever we hear health complaints of so and so, the health department steps in. It’s the same thing with education. Go to the local government chairmen and ask them what they do with their allocations on a monthly basis.
During my investigations, I realised that the matter is shrouded in so much secrecy; some even say the government has warned people from talking about it because it is putting the FCT in bad light.
How will the same government that came to tell you to stop doing it also tell you not to talk about it? We told them that it is against the laws of the land and if they don’t stop doing it, we will allow the law to step in. We told them that anybody who commits murder would also be killed. So, they are shrouding it in secrecy only because they are afraid of the law.
Does the administration interface with the Kuje missionary rescuing infants from being killed?
I’m aware of what he does. He is helping us. We see his good work on TV. We have a secretariat that is called Social Development Secretariat. They are the ones who interface with the man since it has to do with children. We are supposed to do the work of intervention, step in when there is a shortfall, but now they are making it look like it’s our responsibility.
Six years after the killing of infants in certain communities around the FCT, Abuja first grabbed national attention, the ripples are yet to settle. In this first part of her report, Dorcas Egede who spent weeks investigating, states that the unusual practice is still going on.
CHILDREN, they say, are blessings and bundles of joy; and when they come in twos (twins), the general consideration in the local (Nigerian) parlance is that the blessing and joy have come double-double (in doubles). Ever since the missionary lady, Mary Slessor convinced the people of Calabar in present day Cross River State to stop the primitive killing of twins in the early 19th century, it has become a thing of the past and literally unheard of that anyone would as much as consider twin children evil, let alone think of killing them.
It is against this backdrop that the news of the killing of twin children and other infants, as has recently emerged from some communities around Abuja, the very heart of the nation, can be considered rather shocking.
The stories, as The Nation’s investigations revealed, are as varied as they are stunning. Take for instance the case of Faith (not real name). When Faith became pregnant shortly after her marriage to her heartthrob, her joy knew no bounds. Soon, it was delivery time and she had twins. Great news, you would say? But to her chagrin, her husband told her they couldn’t keep the babies, as it was a taboo in their family to have twins.
For fear of a backlash from her husband, Faith decided to do her husband’s bidding, and one of the twins was killed, using local herbs. However, as fate would have it, the surviving twin died mysteriously, and without any warning.
In another case, Mama Habiba was said to have lost three sets of twins to this culture. She was married to a Bassa Kuomo man, with whom she had three sets of twins, and other children. The three sets of twins died as a result of this practice.
According to a source who knows Mama Habiba personally, she left her husband twelve years ago for fear of having no child to look after her when she is old and grey, as her husband would have sacrificed them all to his bloodthirsty gods. The source said the first and second sets of twins they had were boys, but her husband sacrificed them all.
In the case of Amina, a young married woman, she was quick to learn that she was pregnant with twins; pronto, she and her husband relocated from their Gurara base in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT to Niger State, so her two babies, Jemila and Jemilu could live. “I left Gurara because of my pregnancy. I went to the hospital and they found out that my pregnancy is twins. So, my husband and I took a decision to leave the place because of their culture of killing twins.” She said.
But would husband and wife go back to their ancestral home now that the twins survived infancy or when they come of age?
“No,” she said, “because they may still kill them, probably by secretly poisoning them.”
While this practice is widespread among traditional worshipers around the FCT, The Nation’s investigations revealed that it is mostly practised among people of the Gbajingala clan of the Bassa Kuomo tribe. The Bassa people are originally from Kogi State, but are found in almost every part of the north, including Nasarawa, Benue and the FCT.
Communities still steeped in this culture, our investigations revealed, include the Gbajingala clan of Bassa Kuomo, Kulo, Gawu, Sabo, Guabe and Chibiri communities in Kuje Area Council. Others are Gomani, Tekpese, Gurugi, Fuka, Lapa and Dogonruwa communities in Kwali Area Council, as well as Kaida and Kutara in Buari Area Council.
Endangered infants
Aside twins, multiple birth infants such as triplets, quadruplets and quintuplets are also endangered. The same fate awaits infants whose mothers die during or shortly after their birth, as they are considered to be possessing dark powers that killed their mothers and must therefore die. Infants who are born with certain physical disabilities like Down syndrome, cleft lips, deformed hands and legs, are considered unacceptable – same for albinos.
In the same vein, a mother can only be assured that her child would live after he or she has passed the teething stage. This is because any child that grows an upper tooth first is considered unnecessary evil and should be done away with.
Speaking to The Nation about the infanticide, missionary and endangered infant-rescuer, Pastor Olusola Stevens, noted that “many people seem to be concentrating on the twins’ story,” whereas it goes beyond that.
“We have other children whose lives need to be saved simply because they lost their mother at birth. Some others are rejected because they are albinos; and some because they have some form of deformity.”
Mode of killing
The killings, this reporter learnt, are carried out in the most gruesome ways. Reports have it that poisoning with herbs is one very common way of eliminating the unwanted babies. Other methods include, using a calabash to cover the face of the infant until he suffocates. In other instances, they are left unattended and allowed to die from hunger. The latter method is used to exterminate babies whose mothers died during childbirth or right after they were born. Some sources even revealed that such babies are sometimes buried alive with their mothers.
Another method, which isn’t so popular anymore, since the killings are no longer done in the open (like in the past), is where a masquerade visits such baby’s home, whisks him away, cuts him with a machete and throws the remains into a flowing river.
In the case of multiple births, however, some communities don’t kill both babies. What they do is keep one of the babies and get rid of the other/others. Stevens revealed: “One Gbagi man confessed to me that his father was a twin but he could not tell what happened to his twin brother till date. The dad told him that something will happen to one, while the other will survive.”
He quoted the man as saying, “I never bothered to know until I read your story; and now I’m wondering if that was the practice in my place.”
Missionary interventions
What is comforting is that well-meaning people are rising up against the evil. Osun State-born Olusola Stevens, who’s been quoted variously above is one of them. He runs a rescue home in Kiyi, a village in the Kuje Area Council of the FCT. Before venturing into child rescue missions some 22 years ago, Stevens and his wife, Dr Chinwe had served as missionaries with the Christian Missionary Foundation (CMF).
He said: “Before the home started, my wife and I had been volunteer missionaries to a body called, Christian Missionary Foundation. We served successfully as missionaries under that foundation for about 27 years. It was in the course of our work and preaching into the interiors of the FCT, especially wherever we found that there were no churches, where the people were still worshipping idols or where they were all still Muslims or traditionalists and got people to repent, that God opened our eyes to this other side.”
The first child the couple rescued was in Kiyi community located in Kuje Area Council. The child had been brought to them by her mother who feared that her husband, who had allegedly sacrificed three sets of twins, was going to sacrifice their baby girl for a bountiful harvest. “She wasn’t a twin. She was brought here based on another practice, which has completely stopped now. Back then, at the beginning of the planting season, a child is supposed to be sacrificed to their fertility god for bountiful harvest. They won’t kill the child; they just take him to the shrine and off goes the child. When they get to the shrine and the child gives up, then they know that the sacrifice has been accepted.” Stevens explained.
Since rescuing that first child in 1996, the Stevens have rescued no less than 120 children from communities around the FCT. Stevens is of the opinion that the efforts of missionaries who leave their home states to come to the interiors of the FCT to preach the gospel, have contributed in no small way to reducing the killings. He noted that since the killings are rooted in their traditions, it is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can change things. “One thing about belief is that if you don’t have something else to counter it, it will work against you. But if people have a change of belief, either from animism or traditionalism to Christianity or Islam, there is a tendency that taboos and beliefs which you hitherto believed would harm you would also change, because now you’re on another level.”
One Kuje-based preacher, Pastor Chijioke, who condemned the killings, which he said he had heard happened in parts of Kuje, Kwali and Abaji Area Council, told this reporter that, “The only thing that can stop the killings is what the man in Kiyi (Stevens) is doing, and the efforts of missionaries who keep bringing the gospel to the locals. The power of the gospel can change the situation.”
The rescue home
Stevens founded the Vine Heritage Home in 2004. The first home was in Gwagwalada. With the combined evangelism efforts of his family and other missionaries, it became clear to the locals that it is evil to kill babies they didn’t create. As a result, the number of rescued children grew. Soon there was need for expansion, hence the home in Kiyi in Kuje Area Council.
At the moment, Stevens said, “We have 125 children. We have 12 sets of twins; two of them are very identical. We have other twins who are not identical, John and Joyce, Favour and Favourite (they are girls), Martin and Matilda. We also have a triplet and an albino.”
Their age distributions also cut across infants, toddlers, teenagers and young adults.
Continuing, Stevens said: “I prefer to call this place a rescue home or a fostering home instead of an orphanage. You know orphanage is basically about orphans, children without fathers and mothers. Under government regulation, you have motherless babies’ homes, orphanages, fostering homes. Our children are not orphans. They have parents, and from time to time, they come to visit them. However, I don’t tell them those are their parents, so as not to confuse them. My wife and I are the only parents they know.”
Apart from the rescued children, Stevens said there is a second category of children in the home – children of converts, some of whom have been trained to become pastors, who still live in the interiors. Their children need to go to school and this second category is a way of encouraging them and letting them know that they can still have a better life now that they have left animism for Christianity.
He explained that the home is run on the goodwill of many Nigerians and some international organisations. They, however, didn’t start enjoying the goodwill until they started getting media attention around 2012.
Rescued from the jaws of death
After two weeks of fruitless search for a real human who had managed to be alive in spite of the infanticide culture, this reporter was only too excited to meet Habiba (not real name).
Habiba, 21, is one of the lucky survivors of the killing that was prevalent in her Kiyi community. But for the timely intervention of her mother who took her to the rescue home in Kiyi, she most certainly would have been a victim. Dark skinned and petite, Habiba cuts the figure of a subdued rather than shy lady in her faded tee-shirt and black skirt. The tee-shirt did a poor job of covering her already bulging stomach. She was the first child rescued by Stevens and brought up in the Vine Heritage Home, the home run by Stevens in Kiyi. Today, she has been reunited with her family. Interestingly, she took that decision so she could go take care of her father who now suffers from river blindness, having been deserted by his wife.
When she spoke, it became instantly clear that Habiba has also enjoyed good education. She spoke in fairly fluent English and responded intelligently to every question posed to her. “My name is Habiba Haruna,” she began. “I was brought up in Vine Heritage Home. The woman that brought me up told me that my dad was killing children. She told me there were either four or five children before me, but now I’m the first surviving child of my parents. I have two other siblings. I learnt that up to three sets of twins died. If you go to our house now, you will see the altar built for the twins. When twins die (are killed), they build the altar as their home. They usually sacrifice on the altar.”
Looking at her baby bump, this reporter out of curiosity asked; “What if you have twins now that you are pregnant?”
Habiba, who had yet to attend an ante-natal clinic session, looked up with a gaze that showed a clear intent to keep her baby or babies and said, “One day I was just playing with my dad and told him that my first child will be twins. He asked, “In which house?”
“I told him this house. I told him that I will dash him one. He told me he doesn’t want because the ones he had died. I said to him, “Are you not the one that killed them?” He asked me to get out that I’ve started with my mouth. They were now afraid that I want twins. I asked why they are afraid and if twins are not children? He said some twins are not good, that they are wicked, that they are not good people.”
To further underline how deep her father is into the fetish practice, Habiba told the story of how he has refused to eat yam, even when everybody has started eating yam (after the harvest). “I asked, Baba, everybody is eating yam, why don’t you want me to bring yam (yam harvested from his farm)? He said I should not touch it, that they want to do Sadaka (sacrifice) with the yam first. They will cook the yam, put palm oil without pepper, then give it to the twins first and say, ‘See what I brought from the farm.’ It is after that that they will now share it to the children to eat. When I told them I wasn’t going to eat from it, they told me I have to eat as the most senior.
“They said they perform the sacrifice so that the twins will not be taking their things. I asked how that’s possible even when the twins have died, they said they are still around and whatever you bring from the market, whether it is N5 or N10, you must put it in the shrine.”
Asked if she could show this reporter other houses, where twins had been born and sacrificed and they had such shrine, Habiba said, “It’s like only my father gave birth to twins in the village, because I haven’t seen that shrine in any other house apart from ours.”
Habiba shed further light on her community, when she said, “In my community there’s no church and no mosque; they are traditional worshippers. They believe that they came from the ground and when they die they will go back to the ground.”
Did she have any idea why her parents were separated? “My mother left my father because her children were dying. She got married to another man from Bassa, and she has a child with him.”
Asked if her father’s belief and actions were influenced by poverty and illiteracy, she said, “My father was well-to-do. He had farmlands and everything. He used to come and visit us at the home when we were in Gwagwalada, and he would bring yam and other things for us.”
On the culture of killing in her community, Habiba said, “From what I heard other children say, in some communities, the masquerade (potese) will come into the house and chase away the mother, he will then cut the babies into pieces and pour them in the river. In other instances, he will cover them with calabash to suffocate, or poison them with herbs.”
Would Habiba go back to school after she’s had her baby? Her response revealed a broken lady who believed that by getting herself pregnant, she had lost out on the opportunity to make anything out of life. “I’m crying for myself because I have already scattered my destiny with this pregnancy.” She said flatly.
As at the time of speaking, she had yet to register in any hospital. This reporter thus offered to take her for a scan, where it was discovered that she was already seven months gone, although she had earlier claimed it was six months.
•Identical twins at the Vine Heritage home
More than meets the eye
Our sources believe that there are supernatural powers behind this culture of killing and that it goes beyond just killing twins. Stevens recounted a rather spooky story: “We have a case of a nursing mother, a Christian, who tried to replicate what we are doing on her own. She took the child of a woman who died. In their own case, they don’t kill the child; he or she is abandoned and left to die of hunger. This woman decided to pick and nurture the child alongside hers, but a day came when, according to her, a form appeared to her, accusing her that ‘that child is my child; it’s an evil child that killed me. So, why are you nursing him? You will also die and follow me, since that child is supposed to be punished and you’re nursing him.’ Strangely, the woman died. She suddenly became ill and died. In fact, it was after the woman narrated the story to her husband that he left the community.”
Stevens continued, “Twice we have had cases of spirits attacking us while praying for some of the rescued children. A lady missionary working with me was the first to have that experience; on the second occasion, it was my sister that had a similar experience. That is the spiritual aspect of what we are doing. Many people tend to forget that it’s a spiritual work and it must be approached that way. I’m not just a humanitarian person, I’m first and foremost a missionary trying to save lives according to the instruction I received from God. And God is divine; so I won’t just do the work from the physical aspect alone. While I provide the physical care, I also trust God to strengthen me to cover them spiritually. I cannot tell you all our experiences in the spiritual realm. There are times that a child you just rescued would just go for hours, and we’d have to start praying for the child to be revived.
“One of them told us how she was playing and an elderly woman walked up to her, pushed a ball into her mouth and disappeared. The next thing was that the child fainted. For hours, we had to gather the other children to start calling the name of the child and praying in the name of Jesus. She eventually came back to life. She is still alive today, she’s in SS1.”
Gagged to secrecy
The greatest obstacle this reporter faced in the course of investigating this story was secrecy. Too many people didn’t seem to know anything about the culture, even those supposedly born and bred in Abuja municipality. Some who were born and raised in these communities where this death culture still holds sway, claimed not to know anything about it.
Those who claimed knowledge of it seemed to have been gagged. One missionary who would not want to be mentioned told this reporter of some communities where the killings still go on. But the information came with a warning: “It’s happening in Kwali Area Council. Go to Tugbudu and Tekpese. But, the people won’t talk to you about it. They have been warned by the government not to say anything about the issue again. In fact, recently, one of us was almost sued by the government because of the matter.”
True to her warnings, visits to these communities yielded no result whatsoever. Even purported visits in the guise of an NGO, a researcher for an international organisation, a philanthropist, and even a student carrying out a research for a term paper or thesis didn’t yield any result.
This wasn’t altogether a surprise. Aside the warning by the lady missionary, even Stevens, who had more or less become a resource person for this mission, didn’t reveal much. Aside speaking about his work, he wouldn’t even give names of communities still in the practice; neither would he reveal the identities of those who brought their children to him for nurturing. His reason for not telling was that he didn’t want lose the trust of the communities. He had gained their trust over the years and wouldn’t want to lose it. If the communities perceived that he was giving information about them to the media, it may endanger the lives of other infants he may need to rescue. He would not even allow this reporter take pictures of the children – not even with a promise to blur their faces.
Since it was necessary to have some photos to at least show that there were indeed children in the home, rescued from the affected communities, this reporter had to devise other means. Fortunately, she was able to get two other people, who, together with her tour guide, went on a visit to the home with supplies for the children. It was only on this occasion that the visitors were allowed to take photos.
On several occasions, promises by Stevens to bring parents of some of the rescued children in audience with this reporter also fell through. There was always one reason why the parents couldn’t be present. Soon it became clear that Stevens, for reasons best known to him, was sieving the information he was releasing to the reporter.
I left my husband so I could have surviving children
–Habiba’s mum
Why did you leave your husband?
I left him because he was hiding something from me. If I could be pregnant for him and nurse the baby for nine months in my womb, then I should know anything relating to the baby. Some of my children that survived, it was because of the pastor that helped me, if not all my children would have been killed. I never fought with him; I left him because of the death of my children.
How did the children die?
Bassa people don’t like twins, so whenever I had twins, they would conspire and kill them. They believe that twins are abominations, who have come to defile the land. That belief is still there up till now. The twins have their day to die: one dies the first day and the second one dies the next day. My husband killed my first set of twins. The second set died of natural cause; one in my stomach, and the other immediately I delivered. The third set died a month after delivery. Their father buried them all in one place. He built a shrine for them and they throw money there every day.
If you have twins today, will you allow them to be sacrificed?
I love twins; I will like to have them again but won’t want them to die. Even if I can’t keep them, I will take them to pastor (Stevens). You have to be in agreement with the tradition for it to work. My husband agreed to the twins dying, that’s why they died. I will never agree to such.
Community leaders deny any involvement
AS if playing out an unwritten script of secrecy, virtually all the communities visited denied involvement in any kind of infant killing. This reporter in her search visited very remote villages adjudged to be still primitive, as far as Pandagi in Abaji, Takpese and several other communities, but like they say, ‘mum was the word.’
Pandagi, Abaji Area Council
After about a week of searching, the first piece of information led this reporter to Pandagi in Abaji Area Council. Pandagi, unlike many other communities, looks more like a town, with modern houses. It is a close-knit community, where they knew one another. The commercial motorcycle rider that conveyed this reporter and her tour guide took them right to the residence of the missionary they were looking for.
There, the local missionary who had only been transferred to the area about a year ago but thought he had lived there long enough nearly truncated this mission.
“About the killing of twins; as a missionary when I came, I started checking this place for strange things; I didn’t come across anything like that. I have been here for a year, I have tried to cover other villages around here, I’m putting my ears to the ground, searching for things to help my work. I have not seen anything like killing of twins happening. Among the Ganagana people, there are twins, we have so many tribes here, the Ganagan, the Igbira, Agatu, Gbagi, Bassa, I don’t hear of anything like that and I’m not aware of any such culture, even if there is, it is not something that people are doing openly, it’s hidden,” said he.
Tepkese, Kwali Area Council
Tekepse is a typically rural community. The journey from Kwali to the community took about an hour car ride. The journey seemed more like one through a desert, as the roads were laden with more sand than is available on a sea shore. The houses in Tekpese are mostly mud houses, which are few and far between.
In Tekpese, the reporter and her team met a group of welcoming men, young and old. It was a sunny afternoon and they had taken shelter under a huge umbrella-like tree. The team presented itself as a group of researchers interested in the cultures and traditions of rural settlement like theirs.
About 8 pairs of eyes watched the team curiously. After explaining their mission, the reporter and her team were told to wait for their leader, the Aguma of Tekpese, Chief Yakubu, who was away on his farm. He arrived in no time, and then began another round of introduction.
Tekpese is a community largely inhabited by people of the Bassa Kuomo tribe. They claim to have a fairly large population which is enough to propel political aspirants to travel the distant and desert roads to reach out to them during election campaigns. They are predominantly farmers. The only sign of government presence in the community is a primary school and a dysfunctional Primary Health Centre.
The only person who understood English among the men the reporter met was Daudu. He helped with interpretation. They claimed to have no taboos or things they consider abominations. They are fully aware of the infanticide practiced by some communities, but they don’t practice such. “I would be happy to have twins” was the Aguma’s reaction.
Daudu, however, told the team that some time in the past, some government officials had come investigating the killing of babies but went away without finding any evidence of such. Though Takpese people claimed not to have ever been involved in the killing of twins, albinos and deformed babies anytime in their history, the information department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) listed them as one of the communities that were once culpable.
Dogonruwa, Kwali Area Council
The journey to Dogonruwa took about 50 minutes on bike, as the roads leading up to the community after Dafa were completely unmotorable. This is a typically rural community with mud houses scattered all over. They seem to grow a lot of grains as silo-like mud sheds for storing grains appear to be more than the houses; this reporter almost confused them for houses.
Here, this reporter and her team posed as students working on a term paper. The questions raised about the culture, traditions and abominations of the Bassa people were direct. But in response to the question on abominations, the response was, “We don’t want stealing, killing, witchcraft.”
Aren’t they among those communities that consider twins evil? Their answer was, “We don’t kill twins here. Even if we have 10 children at once, we will receive them with so much happiness.”
•Aguma of Tepkese, Chief Yakubu, left and other community elders
Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) built across the country are meant to take care of patients and refer complicated ailments to secondary and tertiary medical centres. In this report Olugbenga Adanikin in Abuja travelled across the north and found that the facilities have become homes for lizards, wall-geckos, other dangerous reptiles and humans.
KURAYE is a rural community that is few kilometres off Katsina city. It is located in Charanchi local government near the state capital. It is home to a large population of rural dwellers, mostly farmers and artisans. After spending over 45 minutes on a hired motorcycle, scouting the village to locate the PHC, lo and Behold! The only PHC in the community was an eyesore. The project was a constituency intervention built in 2010 but has never been put to use!
The PHC, investigations reveal, has always been under lock, and local groundnut farmers had taken over the compound and turned it into an assembling point for their farm harvest as they tiredly separate the groundnuts from the plant roots.
House of lizards and geckos
“This is a hospital built for lizards because there are no activities here. We address it like that because lizards, rodents have made it their abode,” Umar Bello, an adult in his early 30s said to this reporter upon request on operations of the facility. “Hosipitu kadangaru,” he added in Hausa language.
From all indications, the hospital appeared inactive as it was under lock during the visit. There were no signs of power, neither was the water facility operational. It was already covered by weeds and lacked perimeter fencing.
In front of the facility was a traditional hand-powered borehole surrounded by children.
The three staff don’t come. There is few casual staff so they don’t come as well because it is not mandatory for them to visit the PHC, said Mallam Bashiru Al-sa’adu, another resident, adding that, The state government supplies them with drugs but it always gets missing somehow.
Millions of contracts to a fictitious company
It is a worse scenario in Turaji and Tsageru, two neighbouring communities in Rimi local government area of the state.
In 2013, under President Goodluck Jonathan, a lawmaker representing both communities in the constituency, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) awarded a contract for the construction of a PHC in Turaji at the cost of N21, 987 893,95. Incidentally the construction firm, Greensols Energy Revolution Nigeria Limited, with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration number 805958, commenced work but did not complete the project till date. Residents attributed the non-completion to change of government but investigation revealed otherwise.
A visit to the contractor’s corporate address at House 13, Road 15, Efab Estate, Jabi, Abuja, revealed that the corporate address was merely a warehouse for a different organization involved in entertainments and corporate services. A lady simply identified as Miss Chidinma said she had been managing the business for over five years on the same property. Asked if she knew the major shareholder, Mr. Anuwe Charles Olaosebikan, she said, “That name you called, I really don’t know anyone or company bearing that.”
From further investigations at the CAC, it was gathered that the firm was registered to execute jobs on renewable energy and had no relationship with construction of PHC projects.
“To carry on the trade of business as a renewable electrical company, consultants, erection and installation, sales of solar products, wind- turbine and electrical appliances and services of any kind connected for the practice of renewable energy projects,” the company objective read.
Even though, the uncompleted project was not sited at the right location, both communities, Turaji and Tsagero had been subjected to seeking medical help at the Rimi General Hospital about three kilometres away from the Tsagero districts. The General Hospital is situated along Lambo Rimi through Kano road. It was gathered that in extreme conditions, patients are taken to Katsina General Hospital, which is about 21 kilometres away from Tsagero and Turanji. A source, who doesn’t want his name in print explained that the Rimi General Hospital has few doctors unlike the Katsina Hospital, where there are many experts.
At the site of the abandoned hospital, a group of youths who were obviously disgruntled told our reporter, “We don’t know anything about it. The contractor just came and started building. We were not carried along but later we heard it is a PHC.” They lamented over the abandoned project saying it should have been sited at Turaji but taken to the border point between the two communities to avoid conflicts. Though, Tsageru community residents wanted the project constructed in their settlement but Abdullahi Umar, a resident, said Tsageru had an existing facility that was built by and later completed after years of neglect. However, it has never been equipped.
Located adjacent to the unequipped PHC in Tsageru lies a completed and fenced health centre but of no value to the people due to its emptiness. It had neither furniture nor medical equipment. It was already covered with weeds like other similar projects while pests and other insects had taken refuge in the doors, gradually eating deep into it such that it could hardly serve its main purpose. A school teacher living close to the facility who pleaded anonymity, told our reporter that a former lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Mohammed Dalhatu completed the project but did not equip it.
The local guard securing the abandoned PHC, Mr. Ayuba Majidi, who expressed concern over the gradual degeneration of the facility said the 2013 project was facilitated by former Senator Ibrahim Idah but remained uncompleted until interventions by successive governments. Majidi has been guarding the facility for over six years with irregular stipends of N5, 000.
Efforts to reach the lawmaker to enquire on reason for the delay were unsuccessful.
To Abdul-Bashir Sa’adu, a farmer who grows groundnut, millet, sorghum and guinea-corn in one of the rural communities in Cheranchi, Katsina the NPHCDA could do more to ensure the PHCs are built to standard and functional as expected. He appealed to the government to consider their needs and rescue them from the pathetic situation. To him, the future is not certain as most of their wives lack access to ante-natal care while children suffer from tuberculosis.
“We want the government to engage health practitioners that will be committed to delivering health service to our people; those that won’t exploit the people and sell off the drugs supplied.”
The rot is across board
Obviously, these are the realities in major PHCs in the remote part of the country, especially in the north. The PHC projects are either not executed or built below standard, thus contributing adversely to healthcare delivery in the country. For instance, in Kadasaka community, Gada local government of Sokoto State, the PHC project was no different from others. Already covered by bushes and suffered neglect, it was a complete rot and proof of government’s ineffectiveness in ensuring successful project standardization and delivery.
The project has been abandoned since 2009. The roof is almost completely blown away while the ceilings are falling off by the day. It showed that it was perhaps earlier roofed but got damaged due to either poor execution or harsh weather. It was really a complete waste of asset and resources. While inspecting the abandoned project, one could see the large cracked walls, damaged hospital beds, cabinets as well as frames dented due to severe weather impacts. Aside, there were also new delivery beds, still wrapped-up but wasting away, completely covered with dusts among other donated hospital equipment, all yearning for usage.
The experience of residents in Kadasaka community is pathetic. Hope of these underprivileged rural settlements seemed dashed as there are no signs of contractors returning to the project. Donated items by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) including refrigerators, super industrial fans among others are wasting away in a leaking store already damaged by rainfall.
A health official, Nuru Abdullahi, said they had to manage other facilities and still take delivery of pregnant women in the small room directly at the frontage of the abandoned project. The dispensary is so small that it could hardly take a handful of people at a time. Pregnant women from the 14 villages just like in Kalenjeni town, often make use of an extremely small room in the dispensary, sizeable enough to be a kitchen store for child delivery. The dispensary was constructed by the Sokoto State government and serves about 14 other rural communities.
Incidentally, the uncompleted PHC would have smoothly served over 600 people conveniently. In a chat with a health attendant in the dispensary, he narrated how they had to scout for water for delivery and medical use, saying in most cases they had to use donkeys to convey water from the nearest borehole which according to him, is miles away from the clinic.
We need equipment and more staff. We don’t have water at all. The borehole is no longer functioning. We used a donkey to transport water from a far place to the centre.
Actually, this was a constituency project sponsored by Senator Abubakar Umar Gada, who represented the constituency in 2009. These are the challenges aside from other common problems such as inadequate staff, insecurity, poor access to potable water and lack of medical doctors. During the investigation, a visit to all the PHCs in selected states revealed inadequate health officers in the facilities. The least in the number of workforce is between two and five.
Unfortunately, the summation of these circumstances has threatened the nation’s health sector. The few functional ones have been overstretched. For instance, in Garko local government of Kano State, Dal ward, a single PHC in Dal town serves about 42 villages because of its proximity to other neighbouring councils. These include areas such as Garko town, Sumaila and Tudunwada. This PHC centre attends to approximately 40 patients daily and within nine months (January – August) took delivery of 92 pregnant women as at August 25 this year. According to statistics made available by Gambo Edidal, the health official in-charge, 27 births were recorded in January, 13 in February, eight in March, seven in April, four in May, 10 in June, 10 in July and 13 in August. Also, in Kalenjeni town, there are 14 villages only subjected to use four health dispensaries and not PHC centre. The only PHC that could have met health needs of the people remained under construction, thus abandoned. Unfortunately the officials were reluctant to disclose number of casualties.
Grim statistics of infant mortality
Statistics of maternal deaths and infant mortality in the country is saddening. According to UNICEF, the Northwest is second highest in maternal mortality, recording 1,026 women from 100, 000 live births followed by the Northeast, having 1,549 deaths from 100,000 live births.
“Every 10 minutes, one woman dies on account of pregnancy or childbirth in Nigeria, giving a total of 53,000 per year. This means about 800 women die in every 100,000 live births,” it stated.
In the latest report jointly released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and World Bank this year, the nation recorded 58,000 deaths arising from complications during delivery in 2015.
In Sokoto State, health care delivery is considered to be on priority list of the government. The government successfully partnered with relevant local and international organisations to deliver effective health care to its people. There were innovations specially tailored to reduce maternal mortality and other measures to encourage pregnant women attend anti-natal care (ANC). First timers in the state would certainly presume a high standard of health care delivery because you are welcomed with bill boards of health programmes and partnerships with health bodies such as WHO, Department for international Development (DFID), and National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) to mention but a few.
However, it appears the services are one sided mainly in the urban areas. A visit to remote parts of the state gave a contrary impression as constituency projects were largely abandoned or never executed.
In locations such as Kalenjeni town, in Tangaza local government, among others were constituency projects that were uncompleted. In Dange Shuni town, Dange local government of the state, a constituency project worth N19 million awarded in 2009 could not be located, as it never existed.
Moreover, the only PHC according to health officials and volunteers was built in 2005 by the Sokoto State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SSPHCDA) as MDGs project. This position was also supported by Abubakar Mohammed, a volunteer PHC worker, who graduated from Sultan Abdulraheem College of Health Technology, Gwarabawa, Sokoto State.
Mohammed described how patients had to struggle to access health care in the community even at the General Hospital due to the distance. The community had reportedly lost high number of residents to untimely deaths. “From 2015 till date, about 20-30 people have lost their lives due to lack of ambulance. It is a very serious problem,” he said, adding that, “we will be very happy if they can provide it for us.” According to the workers, each time there is an emergency, they strive to rush victims to the hospital but often lose them due to the closing period of the hospital. It allegedly closes at about 2pm daily and any emergency is not attended to.
Abandoned Ambulance in PHC, Garko LGA, Dal Town serving forty two villages
There is no other PHC aside from this one built in 2005 but rehabilitations have taken place since 2009 and 2014. Others are dispensaries. From Danbo to Damaki, there are no federal PHCs.” According to him, “the closest General Hospital is in Amanawa. They close at 2:00 pm, even if we refer patients there, they will not attend to them once it’s 2:00 pm.
The health workers asked for procurement of ambulance to convey patients to the Sokoto State Specialist Hospital, in the town, especially during emergencies. This is about 30-minute drive from Dange town.
In Kalenjeni, Shehu Umar, a commercial motorcyclist serves as the health attendant in the oldest drug dispensary in the community among other three dispensaries serving over 10 communities in the area. “Our pregnant women deliver here or we move them to Tangaza town in extreme situations. Since the project has not been completed, we want the government to expand and equip the dispensaries,” Umar pleaded.
Deaths and deaths everywhere despite PHCs
The deplorable state of the PHCs has resulted into a number of deaths that are largely unreported. But investigations revealed that intervention projects by development partners, especially those by USAID saved not less than 6,313 women and newborns from 2010 to 2015. But the traditional ruler, Majagi Yahaya claimed there has never been casualties. But in order to salvage the situation, the lawmaker representing the constituency, Isah Bashir Kalenjeni facilitated, in 2012, the construction of Type II PHC project. It was awarded at N33 million and expected to serve all the communities far away from the General Hospital.
However, five years down the lane, the project is still uncompleted. The project contractor, Umairatu Nigeria Consults Limited only built the hospital up to the lintel level and left.
During a visit to the contractor’s registered office in 106B, Old Airport Quarters, Minna, Niger State, the major shareholder Muhammed Abdullahi Muye, was inaccessible to explain reasons the project became moribund.
The registered corporate address is now occupied by the Niger State Supply Company Limited. Residents in the quarter claimed ignorance of the Umairatu Consults stressing that the only organization recognized with the above address belongs to the State government. The firm has no company secretary registered in the CAC document and there was no indication of a change of company address.
The security personnel, who directed the reporter to other senior staff in the organization, to ascertain authenticity of the company claimed ignorance of the firm. Other residents could also not locate the firm.
After much effort, the reporter could not locate the contractor’s address.
“I am not sure there is any company bearing that name. In fact, this is my first time Walahi of hearing that neme,” a worker in the state supply company added.
Even though core area of this firm’s activities include the business of poultry, animal husbandry, fish farming and agricultural farming in its entire ramification including food production and distribution, it also embark on haulage and transportation business and by extension, “business of general contractor on any building and construction including buying and selling of building and construction material.”
It appears to lack the right experience in project construction relating to health care delivery.
The project management consultant at B&B Partnership, Flat 8, NSITF estate, Abuja, could not also be reached. The project was also supervised by Nasraj Integrated Services Limited, Abuja.
Tired of poor performance and limited capacity of the dispensaries, Kalenjeni traditional ruler, Majagi Yahaya appealed to relevant individuals while tasking the federal government to rescue the community from the situation. Even though, he denied there were cases of child or maternal mortality since inception of the community, it was gathered that three drug dispensaries in the community were not fully functional while the General Hospital is far away from the people.
In Kalenjeni there are four dispensaries and the most functional is the newly rehabilitated one built in the town. But they are all small. Our women have their antenatal in these dispensaries and give birth in the recently repaired facility but we want bigger PHCs that will cater for our people.
When this reporter visited the NASS official website to get the lawmaker’s contact (he was a legislator from 2007-2015), it was discovered that Bashir Kalenjeni had omitted his mobile contact as well as his email. So he could not be reached.
The situation was not different in PHC, Gada town, Gada Local Government. Gada is a stone’s throw to Niger Republic. The PHC project was a N19.6 million scheme but left uncompleted. According to Ashimu Musa, Kydawa-Kalaba community leader, accessing good health care had been a serious challenge. But the residents were fortunate that a small dispensary built in 1991 by Taminu Galadima, a former chairman of the local government and a serving member of the State House of Assembly is still functional. It is a distance of 20 meters opposite the abandoned project.
Bashir Umar, one of the residents, who is a pastoralist, described the project completion as vital to the locals. Beside the forgotten facility was another abandoned water project. Umar said pregnant women do more of home delivery.
When Musa Serikin Adar, the House of Representatives member from the constituency was contacted, he said he was not in the office. All efforts to contact him outside the NASS building were unsuccessful. He was not also responding to messages sent thereafter.
In Sumaila local government, Kano State, the situation is not different. The project was built but unused due to poor execution. When the reporter visited the facility, a health official, who sought anonymity, was busy attending to a pregnant woman, and other women who brought their children for healthcare sat under a tree within the compound the facility was built on.
Upon request, the official opened the facility which appeared large enough to address the health needs of the people. However, the PVC ceiling had fallen off. The entire facility was covered with dust and remains from termite infestation on the woods. The toilet facility was no exception as well as hospital beds.
However, the N18.9 million (2007) PHC project in Dal town, Garko local government of the state relatively met needs of the rural dwellers. It only opens for 12 hours due to security reason and within this period, it is expected to serve villagers from over 42 settlements. Though it is short of staff, especially medical doctors but the dental optician often come to the rescue when need be. “We do get drugs through the Drugs Revolving Fund (DRF), from the state central medical store but we need nurses and midwives.
“Because our PHC is close to the boundary of Garko, Sumaila, Tudunwada, all the people around use the clinic,” says Mallam Gambo Edidal, Director of the PHC. Other challenges identified by him are the leaking roof, damaged door, need for ambulance and general renovation.
Kaduna State has about 5,854 villages and 390 districts. In Zaria local government, two PHC projects in Zaria Dutsen (N18.98 million) and Zaria Damari (N18.90 million) could not be located. All efforts to locate them were fruitless. Available information also showed that there was no place called Zamari under the local government. Representative of the traditional ruler, Zaria Dutsen Abba, who is addressed as the Chief of Staff, Abdulmumin Abubakar was glad to join the reporter in the search for the projects awarded in 2007 to Mantleview Interbiz Limited at the sum of N18.98 million and Toddlers Nigeria Limited respectively.
Abubakar denied knowledge of such PHC constituency project built in 2007 in his community except for another built by a different contractor in 2009. He further said he had never heard of Zaria Damari. He went as far as consulting other elders in the community to inquire but no one had knowledge of such constituency projects.
But just opposite the Chief’s house is a PHC built by the state government and was under reconstruction as at the time of visit. It was said to be serving about 15 villages and used to provide immunization to the wards.
Having searched in vain for the location of the project, the Deputy Director, Zaria Local Government Health Authority, Aliyu Ibrahim Abdul was contacted to assist with both projects locations. According to him, there is only one PHC constituency project in the area, which is the one in Kugu aside from the Leprosy Specialist Hospital. However, he was quick to say there was no place called Damari in the local government.
Though he noted that some of the facilities are often rehabilitated and may not necessarily have the same structure as at the period it was built.
“Different NGOs do come to repair the PHCs. Even the chair you are sitting upon is not provided by the state or federal government but different NGOs. So that facility you mentioned is the one built by the federal government. The second one is located in Kugu, Kaura ward and Dutsen Zamari is not in Zaria local government.”
However, with CAC registered number 484405, Mantleview Interbiz. Limited, which only has two directors, has no company secretary. It was not also licensed for project construction, especially relating to health facility but to “carry on the business of trading, sales, marketing, distribution of general goods be they manufactured or not, commission agents, manufacturer’s representatives, importers, exporters, general suppliers, general contractors, general merchants, to buy, sell, manufacture and deal in all articles, substances, products, systems and appliances.”
Effort to locate the registered corporate address at 16A Uyo Street, Area 2, Garki II was unsuccessful. The address did not exist. The search was also extended to Oyo Street, perhaps the Uyo was a typographic error for Oyo, but only 17 and 19 exist and not 16A. Ex-Senator, Dalhatu Seriki Tafida was not also reachable for reaction.
Implications of absence of PHCs in rural communities
At the moment, Nigeria bears witness to some of the worst healthcare data in the world and often found close to the bottom of virtually every development index. In February 2017, the WHO ranked the Nigerian health system in 187th place out of 190 countries evaluated. Although, the recent report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says life expectancy has increased to 53 years but remain lower than many poorer African countries.
Malaria kills more Nigerians than any other disease, and yet barely one-twentieth of its population has access to insecticide-treated nets proven to be effective in preventing malaria. Added to this is the appalling statistics where one in every 30 Nigerian women die from childbirth every year compared with one in every 30,000 in Sweden. Nigeria currently accounts for a quarter of the total number of deaths of children under five. This implies that from 5.3 million children born in the country annually, one million of these children die before the fifth year birthday. For Nigeria to witness better Health System Ranking there is need for government to spend more than the present five percent of its public expenditure on health.
However, the meagre amount made available to the sector does not make an appreciable impact as most of the funds are either diverted or mismanaged by corrupt politicians and highly connected top government officials. In worse scenarios, the approved budget is not totally released to the ministry for implementation. For instance, in 2014, about six percent representing N262 billion was allocated for health but 82 percent of the money went for recurrent expenditure. In 2015, the sector got N237 billion.
As for 2016, stakeholders in the sector had expected about N900 billion for the sector but it got only N221.7 billion from N6.08 trillion total budget. This was far below the WHO recommendation that government should spend N6, 908 per head on health care for their citizens. The global body recommended at least 13 percent of the annual budget to the health sector.
In 2017, stakeholders appealed for six percent allocation to the sector but eventually, the sector got the budgetary allocation of N304,190, 961, 403 representing only 4.17 percent. In other words, a meagre sum of N1, 688 is being spent on each of the about 180 million Nigerians for the year. A number of African countries such as Rwanda, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia even Burkina Faso reportedly set aside double-digit allocations to their health sectors. Incidentally, Nigeria in 2001 signed an Abuja Declaration where it was agreed by African Union (AU) member countries that 15 percent of their annual budgets should be dedicated to the health sector but 16 years after, it’s still a mirage.
The NPHCDA is saddled with the vision of providing PHCs services to all Nigerians.
It mobilizes resources locally and internationally to develop primary health care nationwide. So, since healthcare is a necessity and basic health care service is a right, government and elected public officials channel resources here to provide health care service to their electorate especially at the grassroots.
To a large extent, the nation’s primary health care system has so far become one of the most attractive government agencies where corrupt public officials ply their trade. Even though it has the mandate to monitor and provide annual reports on PHC implementation across the country, it is obvious that this has not been the case as the majority of the PHCs projects remained uncompleted.
In the northwestern part of the nation, contracts for the construction of primary health centres have not translated to any direct impact on the healthcare index of the region and the country. It is believed that healthcare corruption is the reason why the nation’s health system is in the present gloomy state.
“The implication is so enormous because primary healthcare is the closest to the people in the community. The farther they are to the PHCs, the more distant they are to the health care services,” an experienced mid-wife in Kagarko local government, Mrs. Pricilla Avong, with a 21-year experience said.
This investigation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting
Women and apathy to delivering in PHCs
Religious and cultural practices in the region, which make families choose to do home delivery instead of going to a primary health centre, has also worsened the problem in the North, especially in rural areas where an increasing number of pregnant women continue to die or lose their child during or after home delivery is a common practice except in extreme conditions, where they had to visit nearest PHC.
“They don’t like going out to seek help regardless of anything. That is why; maternal mortality in the north is higher than the south even if there is PHCs they will not visit,” said a female medical attendant.
“In a comprehensive health care centre, you may find about 50 women coming to ANCs, on daily basis but in three weeks, you may have only one delivery,” a health official in Kalenjeni said.
Narrating her experience, she said, “When I was pregnant with my first son, Hammed, (not real name), I was there for anti-natal care. During one of the visits, someone was asking of her pregnant friend and the next person responded that she had given birth and that she was lucky to have given birth at home without subjecting herself to public ridicule.
“It is better to come to the hospital because you can’t predict anything. Regardless of the number of previous successful deliveries, you can’t predict if the delivery will be of high risk or otherwise.”
A senior health professional, who doesn’t want her name revealed, during an interaction with our correspondent said stakeholders in the health sector had to introduce community midwifery when the trend persisted and maternal mortality kept soaring.
“The community midwifery is only in the north where community midwives are rooted in the communities. They don’t have to come out to town or must not necessarily work in the PHCs.
Each local government will send women volunteers for training. They will purchase delivery kits for them, so the community midwifery are always in their midst. Whenever there are complications in deliveries, she will be invited to attend to the situation. They were taught to recognize emergencies and respond.
Incidentally, the women and traditional rulers in the communities deny prevalence of maternal mortality in the PHCs. Even though they keep demanding for more PHCs and provision of medical equipment, the perceived attitude to delivering in the PHCs remained low.
Outcomes of refusal to deliver at PHCs
“Prolonged obstructed labour often causes problems. If you are at the PHCs during labour and the cervix is already dilated and they noticed the fault is from the passage and the baby cannot be delivered, you should know the solution is caesarean session but they will still be praying hoping on God.”
Narrating her experiences in a hospital in Sokoto State, she said, “There was a time I went to a specialist hospital. One of the patients had cord prowlers. The umbilical cord was out before the baby but the baby was already dead because of spasm. So we were using air fresheners to reduce the smell. I never knew a worst case will emerge.
“When they brought this patient, she was 14 years old; the ward was almost empty because we had to go out because of the smell. The lady had been in labour one week and they have tried to do home delivery but it was unsuccessful. Head of the baby was out with the hand but the remaining part of the body was still in the womb so it was a challenge delivering because the baby was not well positioned.
“She had laboured for long and the baby was subjected to so much distress as much as her mother. The baby was already dead and oozing unpleasant smells. When doctor came, he attempted to pull out the baby with force, all to save the mother’s live and at that point, the hand broke.”
According to her, if a Mallam tells you his wife has been labouring for three days, from experience, then she must have spent a week at home trying to deliver.
The smell was undiluted. Dettol, Gik, air freshener and several items were used to suppress the odious smell. I didn’t know if the mother survived or not. But hardly will she survive because she would have been infected.
She said a destructive surgery should have been carried out on the baby without necessarily cutting her mother but she was taken to the theatre for surgery. Based on the position, the body system will have been infected.
She said early marriage had nothing to do with maternal mortality but access to PHCs and usage of PHCs.
Government to sanction errant contractors
Director of Media and Public Relations, Ministry of Health, Mrs Boade Akinola could not be reached for comments as to efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health towards ensuring successful project implementations of PHCs. Text message sent to her mobile phone was not replied as at the time of filing this report.
Dr. Faisal Shuaib is the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). He was one of the notable Nigerians who played remarkable roles to assist the nation during the Ebola outbreak. Incidentally, he became the new ED of the agency after he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari January this year.
When this reporter met the DG for an interview, he admitted the flaws in the sector and disclosed that the situation led to the recent decision by President Buhari to commence rehabilitation of all the abandoned PHCs in the country. “Have you met anyone who is satisfied with the state of PHC in Nigeria? Obviously not, right? Clearly there has been some progress in the last few decades in terms of where we are coming from but we are far short from where we need to be in terms of delivering quality primary health care services.” He said adding that, “If you go to a lot of PHC centres, its either they don’t have right infrastructure, human resources, drugs, commodities, power, water and ambulances that will ensure there is prompt referral of cases. This is the realities in a lot of health facilities in a lot of PHCs in the country.”
On the years of multiple abandoned PHC projects scattered round the north and by extension, other nations, he said, “You are absolutely right.”
He emphasized ongoing plans to list names of contractors who have failed their contractual terms on PHC project implementations in various locations across the country. According to him, names of the contractors would be submitted to the National Assembly for proper sanctions and where necessary, additional finances could be raised for the contractors to ensure completion of the various projects. “Why can’t we start up by saying in each of the 9,556 wards that we have in Nigeria, almost 10, 000 wards, why don’t we have functional PHC centres so that no matter where you live within a ward, it is possible for you to trek short distance and you will have access to a functional PHC.
“The Minister is clear on that and as an implementing agency, NPHCDA has taken it upon itself to ensure its realization. But what the minister did first was to start with one health facility per senatorial district to be renovated. That comes to about 109 plus one where we have a case of lassa fever few years ago. So that makes it 110. We are focusing on renovating, equipping, putting the right human resources, drugs and equipment in these 110 health facilities.”
Dr. Shuaib told this correspondent of plans to launch a new initiative called Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) programme. He described it as a community health programme to identify influential women who will be trained and thereafter help preach antenatal to the women and render little medical supports.
He unfolded plans to monitor in partnership with State PHCs performance and efforts of the PHCs to encouraging women to attend antennal.
“We are working with the State PHC agencies to develop indicators to track how states are doing on awareness creation about the need to attend antenatal and child care.
“We are also launching what we called CHIPS programme. It is a community health programme to identify influential women in communities that have basic elementary and sometime secondary education. We will be training them for six months on how they can provide quality information, influence women in their communities to go for antenatal care, to take their children for immunization and to do first aid if someone is injured in their community.”
From north to west and all across the country charcoal production and selling is the order of the day. Many logs are felled in droves for the production of charcoal in commercial quantity but none is planted in replacement. SINA FADARE who visited some of the villages report that danger is looming as forests are becoming empty and vegetation are getting thinner.
SEEDU Mohammed graduated from Ahmadu Bello University a few years ago. After roaming the streets for some years and repeated visits to Lagos for a job opportunity proved abortive, he was introduced to production of charcoal business in his village at Ilesha Baruba, Kwara State. With the little amount of money he was able to gather from relations, he reluctantly went into charcoal production. Today Mohammed’s story has changed; he was able to get married, secure a good accommodation and employ about 10 people in the chain of his charcoal business.
Today, he searches all the nooks and crannies of the villages in his surrounding and even goes as far as Niger State to procure charcoal directly from the producers and resell it to those who will use it for domestic purpose or take it to Lagos for exportation to Europe and other countries.
According to him, there is no turning back as the business is taking care of his bills, pays his workers and takes care of his younger siblings. “I cannot go back to Lagos again for any job, if I call my customer now that charcoal is available, within 48 hours trailers will arrive this village and I will dispatch it to Lagos or anywhere in the country, I will only receive alert on my phone,” he boasted.
To Ibrahim Sakariyahu, production of charcoal recently became his source of livelihood when he saw that within a year all his colleagues were no longer following their father’s cow to the bush yet they are buying new motor cycles from the proceeds of charcoal production, he too gave it a trial and ever since then there is no looking back.
Sakariyahu, who spoke to The Nation in his village, Eji Dogari in Mooro Local Government area of Kwara State, said he has to combine farming with coal production because as soon as he produced the charcoal, there is a readymade market on the spot.
According to him, a sizable buried tree which eventually turns to charcoal will fetch him about 13 bags of charcoal which he is going to sell between N1,000 to N1,200 per bag adding that the availability of the tree always depend on the number of a bag of charcoal that can be produced at a particular time.
However, it was gathered that all those that are producing and exporting charcoal failed to plant another tree a situation that has created the depletion of the forest. Virtually all the villages visited are faced with this similar crisis.
Crux of the matter
In droves, logs are cut virtually in all the forests visited but there was no concrete plan for replacement The harmonious relationships between the people and the plants whereby the people of a particular culture use plants to cure many inherent diseases and for other natural benefits have been defeated. Presently, the relationships have turned to destruction of many forests and endangering of many species of trees. Thus many forests have been turned to mere woodlands.
The Nation investigation revealed that in the process of production of charcoal in commercial quantity, a lot of varieties of trees are fast disappearing from the forests. In Kwara, Niger, Oyo and Benue states some of the trees used for charcoal production includes Aayan tree (Distemonanthus Benthamianus), Igba tree (Pakia biglobosa) and Iroko tree (Milicea Excelsa).
It was also gathered that there are other species of trees used for this purpose in the country. These include prosobis africana, trichilia emetica, anogeissus leiocarpus, danielia oliveri, khaya senegalensis, tectonia grandis, milicia excelsa and vitellaria paradoxa which are popular and most frequently used among the inhabitants as fuel woods.
However, the sad story is that most of these trees are not replaced and the states involved have done nothing to plant replacements. More worrisome was the facts that most of the producers of this charcoal are ignorant about the need to plant a replacement. For instance, Mohammed Karim who has been in the business for over a decade confessed that forests will always duplicate itself likewise the trees!
Karim while agreeing that the trees are no longer in the forest as of the old, explained that the Kwara State government had often told them that if they cut one, five should be planted in replacement. He asked incredulously, “Where are we going to get the one we are going to plant?”
He explained that the recent effort in the area was by one of the exporters who came with about a thousand tree seedlings that were planted at a village called Tumbuyan via Ilesha Baruba in a dedicated forest. “Aside this, there was nothing from the state government apart from the radio jingle that if a tree is cut, five should be planted.”
Karim regretted that both the producers and exporters of charcoal paid about four different levies to the state, the local government and the forest guides, which they claimed was revenue to the government before charcoal could be transported from any of the villages. “Why can’t the government plough this money back to replace the fell trees? The recent one planted here few months ago by a business man, the whole community felt the impact as a lot of farmers were engaged to do the planting and were paid. If this type of action is continuous then we can regain the lost forest.”
The Nation gathered that myriads of reasons have been advanced as the cause of deforestation. Some of these are subsistence and commercial agriculture, fuel wood and biomass harvesting, logging and mining, as well as charcoal production. Of all these reasons however, charcoal production seems outstanding in terms of rural sustainable livelihood, diversification and exportation.
It was also discovered that these charcoal producers are migrant farmers, comprising mostly Tiv, Bassa, Zuru, Dukawa and Hausa who were into charcoal production as diversified means of rural livelihood. Although, this was previously a coping strategy it has turned to secondary occupation and virtually everybody in most of the villages visited are doing the business.
Danger looms
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) research, between 2000 and 2005 the country lost 55.7 per cent of its primary forests and the rate of forest change increased by 31.2 per cent to 3.12 per cent per annum. The study also stated that from 1990 to 2010, Nigeria nearly halved its amount of forest cover, moving from 17,234 to 9041 hectares, with the combination of extremely high deforestation rates, increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfall. This contributed to the country’s desertification, with the carbon emissions from deforestation said to account for 87 per cent of the total carbon emissions of the country.
Speaking in his office in Ibadan, Oyo State, the Chief Executive Officer of Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) Dr. Adeshina Adepoju pointed out that deforestation is a serious problem confronting the country at this critical period.
According to him “The problem is complicated because the federal government owns the policy and the machinery to enforce the law, but the States owns the forest. The state also see logging as a form of revenue generation and there is danger of losing some species of logs which are in the category two list of the scientist which has species like Terocapor and Ventileria which are best suitable for charcoal. These are already in danger. Some states are collecting revenue for people to explore it.”
The researcher explained that the North Central of the country is where the best species suitable for coal are grown; adding that if the State governments are collecting huge revenue from charcoal producers and exporters, why can’t they plough the revenue back to replace the fell trees?
He lamented that a great danger is looming. “That is why we are having multiple flooding in the country. Once there is no grass cover, you have a free run off, it will lead to flood. The more tree cover you have, the better, water will not run the same speed on bare ground and on grass. Once there is forest cover, the water will slow down because some will percolate into the root, little will be left to run on the ground. So it cannot form the huge volume of flood, but the more bare ground you have, the more flooding.”
Adepoju pointed out that all hopes are not totally lost as the forest can still be restored if all hands are on deck to do so. “We recently had a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some states like Kogi, Edo, Benue, Kaduna, Niger and Plateau. We are collaborating with them. Kogi State has planted about 20 hectares of tree this year. Planting ought to be nurtured for three years before one could be sure about its survival. There is what we call beaten up, the gap between the planting that do not survive, we close the gap in the first two years and make sure that all survived. Planting is not just dig the ground and walk away, no; it is not done that way. Nurturing is more expensive than the actual planting.”
He explained that “Within three years of planting, the tree has not formed any canopy therefore you can plant your crop in between and weed them along the tree. Those people engaged in the weeding are still going to be paid by government and you still harvest your crop, so it is a win, win case. It is a project that has to be done meticulously and diligently, the state must have a comprehensive programme to do that. There should be a task force directly linked up with the governor’s office which will monitor and holistically carry out all agreed upon to the letter. If you saddle it with the ministry of the state, it has a limited fund.”
Speaking in the same vein, an environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey stated that over 30 per cent of Nigeria’s forest cover has been lost in just the last two decades, noting that there are a lot of pressures on the country’s forests and a number of factors contribute to the decline of the forests. For him, they could be traced to socio-economic as well as political situations.
“We have been running a highly extractives economic system for decades now and this has basically meant exploiting nature’s resources for sale in the local as well as export markets. Logging has had a free reign.
“Forests have been depleted because we live for the day and have given very little thought to the future. Our trees have been treated the same way we have treated the so-called excess crude revenue, or even worse. Our forest resources have been damaged by reckless exploitation.
Policy somersault
According to a forest scientist at FRIN, Ibadan Dr. Oladapo Akinyemi, trees are essential to human existence as they provide food, shelter, remedy for ill health and source of energy and also help to prevent desert encroachment, therefore it should be adequately protected.
However, government’s policy inaction and half-measures sometimes lead to ineffectiveness. For instance, the federal government in 2016 suddenly declared a ban on exportation of charcoal via a circular without informing all the stakeholders. The Custom department that would see to its full implementation, was cut napping thus the law was ineffective.
Equally shocked about this decision, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, disclosed that he was equally informed of government’s decision through a circular to his office.
According to him, the new directive had thrown exporters of charcoal into confusion as some of them had existing agreements with their partners abroad. He said government must explain the reason for the move, adding “How can the government ban charcoal when people have been processing it? They did not even carry exporters along.”
However, while speaking on phone about the latest on the issue, Awolowo explained that everything that has to do with the importation of charcoal is the exclusive right of the Federal Ministry of Environment adding that the council only make sure that the right thing is done while exporting any goods from the country be it charcoal or others.
In Kwara State, there was a law according to the Commissioner of Environment Otunba Taiwo Joseph, banning the production of charcoal in the state, yet the same State government was collecting revenues and levies on producers and exporters of charcoal!
More worrisome was the law that if charcoal farmer cuts a tree, five should be re planted. But the same government did not have any concrete plan for such replacement.
In addition the state said production of charcoal is illegal, but the government is generating revenue from loggings and exporters of charcoal through its agencies.
Given credence to this statement, a charcoal exporter and the Managing Director, Anamelo Forest Concession Limited, Mr. Edward Ayeni said that a lot of levies are paid to the state before he could take his coal consignment to Lagos. “If there is a law that charcoal is banned in any of these states why are they collecting various levies with receipts issued in government’s name? Take for instance, a container will pay about N25,000 after loading before it could be allowed to leave the state. This is different from other levies from the policy and others on the road.”
Ayeni pointed out that “The state should not play the role of an ostrich, they should harmonise all the members of the association and identify them, let them have a forest, get it certified and operate within the guided law, therefore make it a legal business not just swooping on a loaded trailer of charcoal and pretend that all is well. The supply chain for the local consumptions cannot be curtailed.”
He argued that “It is high time the government see it as a business otherwise they will create more hunger in the land. The dealers, middle men, the transporters, the mechanic that fix their vehicles, the custom collects huge amount of money therefore banning will compound the problem.”
If the system is not harmonized like other countries that have licensed forest where things could be monitored and controlled. This will give room to plant more trees where deforestation could be arrested.
He argued that the government was not sincere in most of her pronouncement noting that only 30 per cent of the total productions of charcoal are exported while the remaining 70 per cent are consumed locally. “How can any government discourage the production when there was no serious alternative for rural dwellers that relied on charcoal for their domestic use?”
The frustration
Putting the record straight and shedding more light on the purported ban on the importation of charcoal in the country, the President of Association of Charcoal Exporters in Nigeria, Mr. Lere Fagbola, explained that the ban has been lifted adding that charcoal exporters were frustrated from all fronts by the government who virtually milked them before consignment are exported.
According to him, “we paid various levies to government purse at the procurement point, at the port, the Customs Service and even money for planting of trees which at the end was not usually plough back to the forest, yet the same government accuse the exporters of not planting in the forest.”
He regretted that the association could not attract good investors because of the fear of inconsistent government policy, “a situation that made some of the big time investors go to countries like South Africa, Ghana, Brazil, Congo and Malawi to invest in forestry.”
He explained that exporters of charcoal are facing a lot of challenges particularly on the issue of forest certification; the charcoal produced in such a forest can only be marketable in Europe. “Therefore all hands are on deck to meet up with this standard, but the government is not helping the matter at all because of inconsistent policy.”
He explained that the association has acquired about 10,000 hectares of land in Ora village in Ifelodun area of Kwara State where about 5,000 hectares has been planted with Euclatus trees, adding that this will be a continuous exercise in order to arrest the serious crisis of deforestation.” We have acquired another area in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State where similar things done in Ora will be replicated. This will be our own contribution to save our forest from deforestation.”
Coal briquette to the rescue
In order to salvage the forest from total desertification, Dr. Akinyemi said coal briquette is a good alternative if it is well exploited. According to him, it has universal advantages if a special stove can be designed for the sole purpose of the coal briquette.
Shedding more light on the sustainability of coal briquettes, Mr. Adegoke Idowu a wood expert at FRIN noted that coal briquettes are made from saw dust and a good alternative to charcoal from fire wood.
“Whenever logs are cut into desired sizes, the remnants in form of dust that are disposed anyhow could be used for coal briquette after processing and can be used with a specially designed stove. This is environmentally friendly, cheaper and a source of better energy than charcoal from the wood”
Idowu explained that if government is very serious about deforestation, coal briquette should be well funded and made available to the people especially in the rural areas where it is needed mostly. “It can be exported to all neigbouring countries if investors are encouraged to venture into the business in a commercial quantity. This will discourage drastically the usage of charcoal and the demand will fall abysmally therefore the forest will be restored back gradually.”
To Adepoju, coal briquette is a laudable ideal but all hands must be on deck to make it work. “We are still back to same spot, if there is no concerted and deliberate step to fund the project, it cannot work out. There are better ways of using coal briquette; in fact a small one can cook for the family a day if it is put in a stove. We should just get our priority right and put attention to where it should be put. If flood is reoccurring for 10 years and we start planting of trees this year in the next ten years the flood will be disappearing gradually the way it came.”
Thinking along same line, Fagbola pointed out that coal briquette could have been the best alternative, but he regretted that it is extremely difficult to convince the people to key into such a technology. “From my own experience, I made some coal briquette prototype with the hope of duplicating it commercially, but unfortunately I met a brick wall at the marketing level. Government must be able to do a lot of advocacy and aggressive enlightenment programme to convince the people that coal briquette is better and cheaper.”
