The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Village

  • Village head arrested over killing of 13 persons in Zamfara

    The Police Command in Zamfara has arrested Alhaji Muhammadu Danmliga, the Village Head of Wabi in Maru Local Government Area, over alleged connection with the killing of 13 persons.

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Sanusi Amiru, told newsmen on Saturday in Gusau that the killing of the 13 followed a meeting held in the village head’s house on March 24 by members of the outlawed ‘Yansakai group.’

    According to him, 13 persons were allegedly killed at Tubgar Wabi, a neighbouring Fulani settlement on the evening of that day.

    He said that sources in the village told the police that some ‘Yansakai members’ suspected to have come from Bena in Kebbi held a meeting at the village head’s house before moving to Tungar Wabi for the attack.

    Amiru said that consequently the police swung into action and arrested the district head and four others suspects namely: Basiru Lawali, Sakke Sada, Ibrahim Muhammad and Umar Muhammad.

    The police spokesman said that items recovered from the suspects included six guns, swords and arrows, fifteen cartridges, axes, knives, charms and 10 motorcycles.

    He warned that the police would continue to carry out covert operations as well as use credible information from members of the public against all criminals and their gangs in the state.

    Amiru said all the suspects would soon be arraigned in the court after completion of the ongoing investigation. (NAN)

  • When a village fails

    When a village fails

    Lupita Nyong’o, perhaps Africa’s front-line actress in Hollywood, confessed to fear. She played the role of a nubile girl in a play set in the Liberian civil war. In the drama, three girls wallow as sex slaves to the vile virility of a rebel soldier.

    The play, titled Eclipsed, and written by a Zimbabwean writer, Danai Gurira, shows how a human can translate from innocence to beast, and even sometimes enjoy that bestial metamorphosis. That explains why Lupita was terrified to act that part.

    If an actor quakes over that role, imagine the innocents who have lived it, and those now living the nightmare as though routine. If to pretend offends, imagine the life Ese Oruru just walked out of. Imagine the others now highlighted profusely in the media, like Progress Jacob, Blessing Gopep and Lucy Ejeh. They are all underage, human and enslaved.

    We can lament this about religion, and it is true. We can grieve over the impunity of some bigots who have claimed that being Muslims make them lords over a young girl’s flesh. We can also wonder at the perverse stamina that propels a young man to take a 13-year-old on a 15-hour road trip into servitude. Then we imagine her. A girl who grew up in trousers and tee-shirt, in skirts, her waist that wiggled to the beats and subversion of rap music, who walked free on the street, who loved the vanity of braids and other hairstyles, who knew only play and school work and mother’s errands. This same girl, only 13, is now presented as suddenly wise or wild. We are told that she left all that to a devout devotion. She became Muslim, and followed a man up North without her parents’ consent. And they expect us to accept it.

    We also imagine the sort of conversation she now gets accustomed to. She speaks a different language, and when she speaks to her mother in Urhobo she is bullied into speaking an accepted one. Imagine the cuisine. She did not have the right to be hungry for the right food. She, an Urhobo girl, was not permitted to crave usi and banga.

    If the matter lasted a week or two, we might have excused all the big names and institutions involved. But it lasted an eternity from August 2015 to February 2016. It might have lasted longer but for the audacious front page of The Punch, in language and aesthetics. It said Ese Oruru was abducted and “forcefully” wedded. The right, word, “forcibly,” tells the right story. Not to worry.

    So all that time, no big man could give an order to release the girl? The Governor, Seriake Dickson, was busy swaggering around over election, and he did nothing about it. Was that not irresponsible of a governor who is the chief security officer? He woke after the media hoopla and issued a rhetoric of concern. Neither the Emir of Kano nor Emirate Council have acted with wisdom.

    The police, the DSS and others kept silence. Why? They did not want to offend the big power vortex. They did not want to lose their jobs for doing their jobs. It is because we have not decided what law is important. That is the bigger issue. Where is our loyalty? Is to tribe, faith or royalty? So, when we brandish our fidelity to the rule of law, we must ask ourselves, what law? Is it the rule of Islamic or royal or Christian law? Or is it the federal constitution? That was the innuendo buried in the IG’s words that Ese’s matter lay in the hands of the Emir of Kano.

    We are in a democracy but we do not have a democratic sensibility. We are in a modern world but we still exude ancient values. Laws will make no sense until we have sorted out what kind of society makes sense. We still live in a universe where a senior lawyer can cloak impunity and ask a flock of senior lawyers to defend him. These are SANs sans shame. It is no different when an adult debauches a minor. King Solomon calls it “folly set in great dignity.” So, for a rule of law to make sense, we have to decide whether sharia law has a place in Nigeria, and if it does, when and how. We have to decide what law takes precedence, the constitution or the sharia, or the renegade fury of a monarch. The Nigerian conscience is a war zone between the “king is law” and the “law is king.”

    When Vladimir Nabokov wrote the novel Lolita, the western world fell into a scandalised rapture. The novel, rated one of the best ever written in the English language, was about an adult romping with a girl of Ese’s age all over America. The lascivious man did not end well, the girl ruined for life. The movie is hardly acted because the girl who acted Lolita the first time was unable to soar in her career. A stigma sullied her brilliance.

    The prosecution of pedophile Yunusa and the battle release of others, including Lucy Ejeh, will help begin that sojourn to our concept of the rule of law. The legal positivists tend to give credence to the sources of law over the concept of natural law. I think when natural law supervenes, we have justice. We must have all those involved fall under the hammer of the Nigerian law. We either have Nigeria or not.

    The most disappointing for me is the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari. He cannot wage a corruption war and act as though the Ese saga is not corruption. Corruption of childhood, of law, of religion, of natural rights. A girl was abducted, coerced into the family way, and made to swear to a God against her will. You cannot be the president of all and cocoon yourself in silence. It is not right, nor presidential. It is even more potent since he is a devout Muslim.

    The failure to tackle the Oruru matter is a failure of Nigeria as a village. Hillary Clinton wrote a best-selling book, It takes a Village, and showed that nurturing a child is a communal effort. She took her inspiration from African ethos. Of course not the Africa that failed Ese. Ese means gift in Urhobo, and Oruru means it’s well done. Nigeria gifted Ese an abduction, and early pregnancy and eviscerated future. Girls of that age know little about motherhood. As a reporter in the U.S., I reported a story where teenage girls simulated the lives of mothers. They had toy babies that woke up at night, cried at odd moments, etc. The girls told me they would only become mothers when they were temperamentally ready. In the movie Spotlight, a character says, if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse it. That was Ese’s story.

  • Artistes Village demolition

    Artistes Village demolition

    ‘We have receipts for the spaces,’ – Victims cry out

    Over a week after the demolition of the Artistes Village at the National theatre in Lagos, the dusts are yet to settle, as victims and the authorities trade words. Udenma Chukwuma reports

    When news broke that the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), also known as Artistes Village in Iganmu, Lagos, has been destroyed, lots of questions arose. Chief among them were: What could be the problem? Who authorised the demolition? Were there any notices?

    As one approaches the scene of the demolition, the sight that greeted this reporter was one of exasperation on the part of artists who had been affected and their sympathisers. A certain voice said, “Government get power o,” while another remarked that “What can we do? Na anything they like, they do.”

    Sources said the demolition took place on Saturday, January 23. One of the occupants of the place, Pelumi Lawal, said they suddenly saw a large number of policemen in the arts and culture council around 5am. He said it was a strange sight, especially at that time of the day and he and others were frightened. He told this reporter that before they could ask any questions, the structures which serve as studio and workshop for artists were being pulled down by a bulldozer.

    He said other structure that serve as stores went down as well. Majorly affected were some dancers and choreographers, whose rehearsal studio was destroyed.

    Now, the occupants are pointing fingers at Alhaji Kabiru Yussuf, General Manager of the National Theatre, wondering how come buildings of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) were left untouched.

    An attempt to get Yussuf’s version of the story was however not successful, as he was not in the office. It was however gathered that Yussuf was present during the demolition at NCAC.

    A source who works at the National Theatre said the demolished structures were illegal. “We did not demolish the NCAC building. What we demolished were the illegal structures and shanties,” he said.

    But the occupants said the spaces were rented to them by the NACA management before they erected the structures.

    The source said “Immoral activities were taking place in the buildings, insecurity reigned, some people were even rearing pigs in the area and Indian hemp were freely sold and smoked there.

    He said, “NCAC is competing with the National Theatre. They are renting events place, and showing cinema there… they wanted to create a kingdom for themselves but government said no.”

    He also said the place had been turned into a residential area and was fast becoming an eyesore, and that the government’s intervention was to give the place a new face.

    He stressed that no artwork was damaged, but a visit to NCAC showed lots of artworks scattered among ruins.

    Gubadia Monday, an artist, was affected the most. His artworks were scattered on the ground, while the saved pieces stood beside the debris.

    Wearing a sad look, Gubadia said there was no warning from the authority and he was not given any notice or chance to remove his works and belongings. He said before he knew what was happening, “Kabiru (referring to the National theatre GM) don carry caterpillar come here.”

    Presenting invoices, which he said were issued to him by NACA, the sculptor said he has been there for three years and legally too.

    Smart Owie, a visual artist, who was reported to have been shot during the demolition explained that he wasn’t particularly aimed at and that a bullet hit him on the calf when the artists followed the police in protest.

    Although our source at the National Theatre office said no shots were fired, Owie said shots were fired to scare the protesters. “Everybody ran away, but I stood there.” he said; “I felt it would be safer to stand still than run, because I knew they wouldn’t deliberately aim a gun at me.” Luckily for him the bullet passed through the back of his right calf.

    He also said he had paid for the space on which he built his workshop.

    Even as he recuperates, Owie said he is devastated and still in shock at the loss   at his source of his livelihood. “I have three children to pay their school fees and my wife is pregnant!” He said.

    Owie said the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammad, when he visited NCAC, offered to take care of his injury; but as at Monday when this reporter visited the scene, he hadn’t heard anything from the minister’s office.

    Aremo Tope Babayemi, who said he is the Coordinator of NCAC, Artistes Village, alleged that Yussuf is trying to get back at them because they opposed the idea of selling of the National Theatre. He stressed that there was a report in the media that miscreant disrupted activities at the National Theatre, which Yussuf used as a tool to convince the minister to demolish the structures.

    They asserted that the Minster had visited them and pledged to look into their matter.

    Popular Nollywood actor, Yemi Adeyemi, known as Suara, was also affected. His store where he sold soft drinks and provision was destroyed. Suara however said his heart goes to the artists “who have lost priceless artworks. “

    He also said “I paid for the store and sought government consent before building the store.”

  • ‘Some former governors can’t walk freely in their village’

    ‘Some former governors can’t walk freely in their village’

    Hon. Stanley Ohajuruka is an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Abia State. He was Acting Governor and former Speaker of the House of Assembly between 1999 and 2007. In this interview with reporters, Ohajuruka speaks on governance in the Southeast state, the gale of defections to the APC and other partisan issues. SUNNY NWANKWO was there. 

    What do you make of the recent defections from the PDP to the APC in Abia?

    The truth is that our people in the Southeast have realised that being in the mainstream of Nigerian politics is the best thing that can happen to them. Majority of Nigerians have embraced the change represented by the APC. We needed a change from the way things were done in the past. We needed to ensure that there is probity and accountability in governance. The people of the Southeast cannot remain aloof to the wind of change in the country.

    The last administration was the worst thing that happened to Abia since its creation. Our people were confused and misled with propaganda of the Theodore Orji administration. Sycophancy and bootlicking were the booming industry in Abia at the time. A few of us who had the temerity to challenge bad governance were hunted and cajoled and we know what we passed through. It is a good thing that majority of Abia people have realised the need for change and are now trooping into the APC. All progressive-minded persons are welcomed to join the APC and help salvage our state and Nigeria. The progressives must come together to bring about change because Abia cannot be an exception. You can find some progressive elements in APGA, PDP and other parties; they are welcome to the APC. But, we don’t need the conservatives within PDP and other parties in the APC.

    But, it appears only aggrieved PDP members are defecting to the APC…

    We have been receiving only progressive-minded PDP members into our party. If you listened to Senator Chris Adighije, he said he is no longer contesting any election, but he has come to work with the APC to salvage the state and country. We all know him as a goal getter. Look at Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, she is a woman of substance who has served well as a political leader. Everybody knows Chief Tony Ukasanya’s political antecedents and how he has always delivered in any political party he finds himself. There is also Senator Onyeka Okoroafor, who was a member of NADECO and ex-Information Commissioner, Eze Chikamnayo, among others. All these politicians who joined the APC, from the PDP, have great followership. We are glad that these quality people joined the APC. I want to tell you that many other progressives from the PDP are set to join APC because they don’t want to be left behind in the emerging order in governance and the rule of law.

    Why is the APC not playing the role of opposition in Abia?

    We had our problems, but they have been resolved. Now, everyone is working together because an individual cannot make a political party. We have all agreed to work for the common good of the people. The progressives are back to ensure that what is happening at the centre is replicated for the good of the Abia people. The APC has been repositioned and cannot be intimidated by anybody in fulfilling the roles expected of us as a party.

    Gov. Ikpeazu has just marked 100 days in office, what are your impressions?

    There is no impression. He still has vestiges of the former administration. The only time we will begin to assess Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration is when he drops the vestiges of his predecessor. During the last eight years, Abia was a definition of bad governance. I once advised Ikpeazu to be his own man and think independently. I understand he is an intellectual. As a result of his status, he is not expected to be dependent on anybody. He has no reason to rely on his predecessor who has nothing to show for his eight years of governing the state. I m saying this because Abia people are still finding this vestiges of the former administration in him; if this continues, we will strive to ensure that it won’t be the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. Ikpeazu should avoid this as much as possible.

    You say Abia under Orji is a definition of bad governance. Have you not heard of his legacy projects?

    Let me correct an impression; there are no legacy projects in Abia. Look at what we suffered in the last eight years. Abia is an example of rape on democracy. The definition of bad governance is written all over Abia. What we had was mediocrity, sycophancy and boot-licking. In fact, the only industry in Abia prior to this period was sycophancy. This was the character of the last administration in the state. Tell me your friend and I will tell you who you are. Where are the so-called legacy projects? Is there any well-equipped hospital in Abia? No. In agriculture, I urge you to go to Bende; between Umuahia and Uzuakoli, you will see where the government reclaimed a rice farm with its natural terrain for a housing estate. Is this the character of a government interested in agriculture? Again, why will they build a new Government House when the topography of where the current one is remains the best place? It should be developed and an edifice built, but they have abandoned it to build a new one because of clannishness. Theodore Orji’s administration left no legacy in Abia State.

    A group recently petitioned the EFCC over alleged looting of state funds by the former governor. What is your take on this?

    I am not a member of the EFCC or the ICPC and I am not here to recommend people for jail. I am only interested in encouraging people who find themselves in governance to know that a day of reckoning must certainly come; you will always be assessed by your actions.

    In the course of your actions, if you are found wanting, the law will take its course. You will be called to render account of stewardship. This is why I encourage public office holders to be ready to give account for their actions. Situations where you go into hiding and cannot work freely after your tenure imply that you are not clean.

    The test of good governance after your tenure is to walk the streets without army or security agents guarding you. Any governor, who wants to test his popularity whether he performed well or not, should walk the streets without security. Most former governors can’t go near their villages without heavy security.

    If you are a good man, people will be clapping and singing your praises. Some of our former governors can’t walk freely in the local markets in their villages without being stoned. If you are only praised while in office and when out of office, people no longer sing your praises, it means you have a case to answer.

  • Cargo village coming in Enugu

    Cargo village coming in Enugu

    Enugu State is gradually shedding its civil service status and becoming a business-friendly environment, thanks in part to the upgrade of the Akanu Ibiam Airport to an international status.

    An estate developing firm has mapped out a stretch of land where the East Gate Enugu Airport City will be built just beside the airport.

    Add that to the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) saying it will develop a cargo village by the airport too.

    The National President of NAGAFF, Dr. Eugene Nweke has visited Enugu for an on-the-spot inspection and assessment of the site.

    He was taken round the project by the Representative of the Corporation, Mr. Daniel Kalu, the NAGAFF Enugu State Chapter chairman, Comrade Sunny Okonkwo and the Project Legal Consultant who is also the Secretary of NAGAFF Enugu Chapter Mr Chinedum Agwaramgbo.

    According to the NAGAFF President, the proposed NAGAFF Cargo Village is to be fashioned after a similar one in Malaysia, and to get a clearer picture of the Malaysia model a delegation comprising officials of NAGAFF, representatives of the Enugu State Government, and of the investor, NECI Land Development Corporation Limited as well as other 27 business venture companies including the banks would visit the Asian country in October.

    Nweke intimated that NAGAFF seems to be enjoying the goodwill and trust of all stakeholders involved in the Project and all hands will soon be on the deck to make the project a reality.

    Nweke added that the cargo village when completed would boost and further simplify the process of cargo clearing in the country and help in removing the congestion at the Lagos ports and entry points as importers, exporters and freight forwarders will be happy to divert their cargoes to the Akanu Ibiam International Airport.

    The proposed cargo village is part of bigger project which has the potentials of creating a wide range of business opportunities in Enugu State and the entire South East geo0political zone.

    It would encompass the establishment of key investment component such as air cargo terminal logistics hub, high industrial zone, duty-free and export zone and commercial and residential real estate.

    The Enugu State government has indicated interest in the project. The governor, Ifeanyi Uguwanyi recently visited the site of the proposed East-Gate Enugu Airport City Development project where he expressed delight in the proposals.

  • Four suspected Boko Haram terrorists arrested in Borno village

    Four suspected Boko Haram terrorists arrested in Borno village

    Four suspected Boko Haram militants were yesterday arrested by members of the Civilian JTF in Malari, a village in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State.

    Their arrest, which came three days after some insurgents raided communities in the troubled northeastern state, coincided with the visit of Governor Kashim Shettima.

    The governor was on solidarity and sympathy visit to Malari after an attack by insurgents claimed nine lives and displaced many.

    The people were killed when the militants stormed the villages including: Shettimari, Kammiri, Kakurami, Kalari Auwlari, Burari and Malari , all in Konduga council area.

    Governor Shettima was shocked when some youths, alighted from a Volkswagen Golf car wiith four young men, whose hands were tied.

    A civilian JTF leader, Nuhu Kumshise said one of the arrested sect member, had been notorious, terrorising and wreaking havoc on the villagers around Konduga.

    “We arrested them today after his father handed over them to us. Then they led us into the bush where the two remaining guys hid themselves,” Kumshise said.

    One the suspects allegedly confessed to his membership of the deadly group and he further named his leader.

    Another member of the Civilian JTF, Bakura  Yusuf said: “Long before now we have been told that one of those arrested is the leader who used to lead attacks on us.”

    The governor appealed to the hundreds of displaced persons at the Malari Primary School that they would soon be moved in buses to Konduga and that food items as well as other materials will immediately be provided by the state government.

  • New head for French Village

    The Federal Government has appointed Prof. Raufu Adebisi as the Director/Chief Executive Officer for the Nigeria French Language Village, the inter-university centre for French Studies in Ajara, Badagry, Lagos State.

    Adebisi, who assumed office on June 18, was until his appointment, a Professor of French at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State.

    He had his early education in Ghana before returning to Nigeria for his secondary and tertiary education. He studied French at ABU and was employed by the university as an Assistant Lecturer on graduation.

    His masters and PhD were also earned at the university, where he became a professor in 2004.

    He was sponsored to undergo a basic certificate course in Chinese language in 2008 by the Chinese Government.

    He held various positions in the university, including the Head of Department and Acting Dean, Coordinator.

    Adebisi will serve for a term of five years.

     

  • A village shop without shopkeeper: can it keep the customers satisfied?

    On a sunny spring morning in the quiet village of Clifton in Derbyshire, steady streams of people are making their way towards the cock inn. They are not early-rising drinkers; the pub is not yet open. Instead ,they head around to the car park at the back.

    Here sits the United Kingdom’s (UK) first “automated shop” – a bus shelter-sized giant vending machine selling everything from fresh milk and eggs to umbrellas and cat food.

    Designed to look like a quaint village shop, yet with the advantage of more reliable opening hours, it is intended to lead a quiet, mechanised revolution in rural areas across Britain, filling the gap left by the widespread closure of traditional stores.

    The Clifton SpeedyShop, as it is formally known has been gratefully welcomed by residents, who haven’t had a village shop for more than a decade.

    “They pretty much emptied it on Monday evening. It was great,” says Lorraine Garside, the landlady of the Cock, who admits that she has already fed her hungry customers using a loaf of bread bought from the machine.

    “We haven’t had a village shop for about 13, 14 years and there are no bus services through the village anymore, so if you want a pint of milk you have to walk into town if you don’t drive. It’s very reasonably priced- i think it’s marvellous.”

    The machine is the brain child of peter fox, a 50-year old electrical engineer who used to live in a small village and became frustrated at coming home late from work to find nothing in the fridge. Having spent more than two years designing the prototype, he now hopes that similar machines can be rolled out nationally, but says he doesn’t have the resources to expand as quickly as he would like and is now actively seeking a business partner.”i own all the intellectual property, but i don’t have a factory with 500 people and i cant manufacture hundreds of these a week,” he says. “ i certainly intend to roll it out myself anyway, and i’ve already got other machines in my factory which are almost complete…

    But obviously i can’t instantly start making hundreds of machines and sending them all over the UK. To do that I’ve either got to grow organically, which will take time, or find somebody who wants to jump in with me”

    Accepting cash or credit cards, the machine emails Mr Fox whenever it despenses an item , so he can keep a trak of stock levels. Although he is reluctant to reveal just how good business has been so far, on the grounds that it is “ early dayz”, he says there has been a teady stream” of villagers buying everything from washing powder to toothpaste and bags of sugar.

    Last weekend, The independent contributed to the machine’s coffers by buying that key houshold staple, a can of eight hot dogs (89 pounds). Other items on offer included six eggs (1.75 pounds), bacon (2.69 pounds), a pair of sticky toffee puddings (1.99 pounds) and a book of first class stamps (3.60 pounds).

    Although the machine is attracting more publicity than Clifton has received in years, most customers’ yesrterday seems happier to browse rather than buy. Barbara Goodwin, out for a walk with her husband and their two dogs, was among the window shoppers. “I’m not quite sure,” she says. “There is a general store a couple of miles away. But having said that, late at night, you dont have to go far, and it’s very convenient.”

    The machine carries another benefit for Mrs Garside: relieving the pressure on her pub to act as an informal grocer for naive tourists who rent self-catered cottages, only to be left baffled at the village’s lack of Tesco Express. “You do get some southerners … who come up and think that every quaint village has a shop, and of course it doesnt anymore, “she says. “So, now, we have.”

    • Source: The Independent Saturday

  • Chinese investors to construct Abuja Talent-Hunt village

    Some Chinese investors are in the country to finalise arrangements with the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) for the construction of a talent hunt village for Nigerian youths.

    The Talent Hunt village when fully operational will have an artistic  segment where young and gifted  Nigerians will showcase their skills and earn money rather than depend on white collar jobs.

    The President of the NYCN, Yakubu Shendam who disclosed this in Abuja over the weekend in an address he presented at 2013 National Youth Summit said the Youth Village will be purely for commercial purpose.

    Shendam said desired Nigerian Youths will have the opportunity of earning a living from the village while engaging in entrepreneurial skills, shows among others.

    He also added that an Agricultural programme called, JEGAABA will soon be launched in order to create jobs for over 100,000 youths annually.

    Shendam said, “for the agricultural project, youths will be selected per village form the 19 Northern states of Nigeria”

    “The youths will be trained and empowered to grow highly profitable crops for local and export purposes while a skill acquisition programme for the youths from the South-South with the theme, “Niger Delta beyond oil” is due to commence soon.

    He said about 30,000 youths stand to benefit from the South-south programme.

    While urging Nigeria youths to continue to tap into its most powerful resources, he urged them to continue to have confidence in the Administration of President Goodluck Jonathan as he strives to build a good Nigeria for all its citizens.

  • Lead Poison: A village remembers

    Lead Poison: A village remembers

    When the National Good Governance Tour (NGGT) arrived at the village of Bagega on April 26th, the team was met by cheerful children. Energetic boys ran alongside the vehicles in the convoy; and the girls appeared to be no different from anywhere else, dressed gaily and already showing interest in eye-shadow and lip gloss. But behind this appearance of normality, Bagega, a remote village in the Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State, is a stricken place; and the team had come to inspect the site of the worst lead poisoning in Africa and the world.

    Minister of Information Labaran Maku was accompanied by two other of his colleagues: Hadiza Mailafia (whose Environment Ministry is in charge of the ongoing remediation programme) and Bashir Yuguda (Minister of State for Works). “Bagega has become a national concern,” said Maku, who heads the team made up of civil society groups, official stakeholders and a sizeable media contingent.

    They had come to see for themselves the efforts being made to address devastating lead poisoning in this large village of about 7000 inhabitants, an estimated 1,500 of whom are children – the demographic that has suffered the most from the contamination. “If you are looking for obvious signs of sickness, you won’t see any, but every one of these children has lead in their blood,” an official told members of the team. Impaired brain development is one of negative impacts of lead contamination, caused by unsafe artisanal mining for gold and other minerals in and around the village.

    To the rescue

    “Children have died here and will be affected irrevocably,” said Simba Tirima of Terragraphics International, an environmental engineering organisation that arrived in the state in May 2010 and started work in February this year. Médecins Sans Frontières has also been very active in the village. However, as Mailafia stated during the Citizens Forum that concluded the tour of Zamfara State, “It is not true that foreign agencies got to Bagega first.”

    A massive remediation programme is under way, spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Terragraphics, to rid Bagega of the lead poisoning that affected 417 homes and caused fatalities in 2010. The funds for the remediation are 100 per cent from the federal government, with over N800 million released by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to three MDAs for the clean-up exercise.

    As the team inspected residential Zone B, the Industrial Site and held a meeting with some of the locals in front of the traditional ruler’s palace, the women of Bagega stayed within the confines of their courtyards and counted the costs of Guba-Dalma – which means ‘lead poisoning’ in Hausa. The women spoke of deaths, “too many deaths in the same household”, especially among under-fives; as well as high childhood incidence of blindness, convulsion and polio manifestations. They also reported increased rates of impotence and miscarriage among adults. One woman, who gave her name as Luba, is the wife of a miner and suffered a stillbirth in the aftermath of the contamination. Her daughter died at age four; her five-year-old son is blind.

    Tales of tragedy

    Luba and the other women are in no doubt as to what brought lead poisoning into their midst. The ore from the industrial site was often brought into households for processing by family members including children, leading to the contamination of homes. “The soil used to be moved here,” said one woman, pointing to the middle of the small courtyard. “The soil mixed with the water, the food the children ate, and so on.”

    As Tirima explained at the Industrial Site (the main processing centre), the lead in Bagega is not soluble. “The particulate part stays in the water and is very dangerous when drunk.” Mountains of silted contaminated soil at the site must therefore be moved, as they pose a serious threat in the event of rain. “Children like to come and play here, but it is very dangerous for them,” said Tirima, whose team tests for lead contamination using XRF, a device that measures the presence of over 80 metals in the soil.

    Bagega women explained that that mining activities are no longer carried out in their homes, and have been moved to an isolated location. They are pinning their hopes on the remediation exercise, a delicate process that involves the removal of contaminated soil as well as mineral processing wastes from homes, compounds and open areas of the village. Even Bagega’s wells have to be remediated.

    The programme is on course. Over 300 homes have been remediated so far, and Terragraphics hopes to issue certification by the end of June to indicate that Bagega is clean. The remediation exercise utilises 90 per cent indigenous expertise; 19 Zamfara citizens are employed in the programme; and 164 unskilled workers are also engaged. The Minister of Environment emphasised the importance of knowledge transfer and continued to do so as she walked through the village with Tirima, his American colleague Casey Bartrem and their local counterparts to Terragraphics offices to sign the visitors register. “It is important that those working here pay attention and learn skills from Terragraphics,” Mailafia said. The XRF machines will be taken over by officials of the Ministry of Environment when Terragraphics leaves Bagega.

    Though some (including Nasiru Kura of Basic Rights Action) have called for the relocation of Bagega’s inhabitants, it is not thought to be a feasible option, given the size of the village. And, asked if they want to be moved elsewhere, the village women posed a rhetorical question: “Where to?” They do not wallow in self-pity; they just want a solution and are happy that the end of their travails is in sight.

    “The ultimate goal of this intervention is to ensure this does not occur again,” said Maku, who called for all to be properly trained and instructed on prevention.

    Remediation is necessary before treatment, to prevent further contamination. The Federal Ministry of Health will then move in to administer medication to those affected. The third MDA, the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel, will train and sensitise residents on safe mining methods going forward. And then the detoxification of Bagega will be complete.

     

    Wood, a journalist and writer wrote from Abuja.