With over N250 million spent on self-help projects for over 15 years, residents of Tsaunin Kura community in Sabo Tasha Government Reserve Area (GRA) in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State have decided to resign to fate and lay before Governor Nasir el-Rufai to assist in tarring the nearly 15-kilometre intra community roads in their area, housing over 5,000 homes. JULIANA AGBO reports.
Tsaunin Kura is one of the few Government Reserve Areas (GRA) established by the Kaduna State government in 1978 under the then military administration, housing about 5,000 residents today.
While other GRAs established at the same time with Tsaunin Kura may have enjoyed the attention of successive administrations in the state, Tsaunin Kura has not been lucky even as its population continues to expand.
Past efforts by the residents to draw the Kaduna State government’s attention to their plights have been futile, leaving them disappointed.
With no infrastructure and amenities, some residents in 2005 took the initiative to grade the roads, connect the community to the national grid and provide water to their homes. It was a self-help project expected to gulp over N250 million in 15 years. However, 15 years down the line, they are still far cry from attaining their dream of asphalted and paved roads.
The pains of having to build paved roads by themselves, provide electricity, water and security in addition to eking out a living in a challenging economy are bitter pills Tsaunin Kura residents have been condemned to swallow repeatedly.
After enduring and spending their hard earned resources without any meaningful results, the residents decided to resign to fate and lay before Governor el-Rufai to assist in tarring the nearly 15-kilometre intra roads in the residential area, housing over 5,000 homes.
The health challenges from years of pollution, dusts and burglaries have become sources of worries to them. Hence, they said there is no better time to call on their governor to rescue them from these misery and pains than now.
A visit to the community leaves one with the stark reality of a people that have been enduring years of sufferings in spite of huge resources reportedly spent to make the area accessible to residents.
A community leader and one of the cluster chairmen of Tsaunin Kura Residents Association, Mr Jonah Silas, who spoke on the situation in Tasunin Kura, lamented that living in the community has been hellish for them.
Silas, who has spent 13 years in the community, said the GRA is faced with two-faced problems: Bad roads and inadequate power supply, which have heavily affected their lives.
According to him, all electricity infrastructure in the community have been the sole efforts of the residents except for a transformer donated by Hon. Yakubu Barde, member representing Chikun Federal Constituency in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
“Our community has paid a heavy price in developing the area in spite of the huge money spent on the nearly 15-km roads in the area. They are still inaccessible, especially during the wet season. We are at risk of airborne diseases.
“Before now letters were written to the Kaduna State Government under the administrations of Governors Namadi Sambo (former Vice President), Patrick Yakowa and Muktar Ramalan Yero on the need to fix the infrastructure in the community. We never got a response until the Nasir el-Rufai administration came to power.”
Explaining the situation, a former chairman of the residents association for 12 years, Mr Temitoye Omole, said anytime a new resident moved into the area, within two weeks the resident must experience robbery, a situation that has forced all residents to raise money for a security post.
“We bought 3,000 meters of aluminium conductors to connect light, 25 high tension poles, 28 stays, several insulators and paid for labour. We also installed four transformers for the community.
“On roads, we spent several millions of naira to make the community passable. The community has about 15-km roads and they get washed away every year, forcing the residents to spend more money in making them motorable,” Omole said.
In a letter to Governor el-Rufai in 2016 by the Tsaunin-Kura GRA Resident Association, signed by the duo of Hauwa Zachariah and Bitrus Yahaya, the community appealed to the governor for the construction of access roads and drainage in the area.
The letter reads in part: “We will like to use this unique opportunity to applaud the efforts of this administration led by your humble self, which has continually played a giant role in developing the state in terms of Infrastructure, Agriculture, Education and Health, to mention a few.
“Sir, we write to kindly draw your attention to an issue that has been plaguing our community since inception, which is lack of good access roads. This has posed a great challenge for motorist and pedestrians and has subjected residents to a lot of hardship, slowing the development of the community in spite of its huge potentials of attaining the proper status of a Government Residential layout.
“It will interest His Excellency to know that despite individual and community efforts made over the years to address this issue, not much has been achieved, considering the fact that road construction is a capital project that requires government’s intervention. As law abiding citizens of this great state, we, the residents have been supportive of your Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) policy by making considerable efforts towards Grand Rent Levy remittances.
“We are also very open to any form of consultation on this matter that may require some level of commitment on our part as a community.”
A special appeal was made by the Kaduna State Ministry of Works in September 2016 to the government for the construction of access roads/drainage of Tsauni Kura Layout Sabo GRA Kaduna.
In the appeal, the ministry said the length of roads (10km) which include: site clearance and earthwork, provision of pipe culverts of various sizes, provision of line drains, provision of stone pitching and dressing, and provision of two coats surface dressing. The cost of the project then was put at a little over N861million.
When contacted, Kaduna State Roads Agency (KADRA) Managing Director, Mohammed Magaji told The Nation that he was under lockdown as directed by the state government to curb Covid-19 pandemic spread hence, he could not give out any information without looking at the files in his office.
Meanwhile, some residents said the community roads were to be included in the 2017-2019 programme of the state government, but nearly four years after, the community is still living with the harsh reality of dusty environment.
Commenting further, Omole said after receiving their petition, the state government surprisingly replied them.
“I was shocked to receive a reply from the state government. We were referred to the Kaduna State Roads Agency (KADRA). The agency came in 2017 and did a good job and we enjoyed it for two years before the roads collapsed in 2019. We were told that the road was in the plan of government, but nothing has happened since then,” Omole stressed.
Omole lamented the rate of borehole drilling in the community, saying its increasing number has posed a danger to residents. He said he would not blame the residents for fending for themselves, which include provision of water. To him, it’s government that should be blamed for its inability to provide the community with pipe-borne water.
A resident, Mrs Hausa Yakubu while appealing to the governor to extend his urban renewal projects to the community, said the residents are open to Public Private Partnership (PPP) in order to reduce the financial burden on government.
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