After 15 years in the dark

Inside Osun communities that have been off the national grid for years In Osun, several communities have been without light, road and water for years. Our correspondent reports on the hardships and the initiative that is changing the story.   Gbadebo Ridwanullah is fifteen. And in his native Aratum-Omu, in Osun State, he had never […]

Inside Osun communities that have been off the national grid for years

In Osun, several communities have been without light, road and water for years. Our correspondent reports on the hardships and the initiative that is changing the story.

 

Gbadebo Ridwanullah is fifteen. And in his native Aratum-Omu, in Osun State, he had never seen a light bulb or a TV flicker. In all his life he had never seen electricity in his village. His encounter with electricity and technology is only through third parties at school.

“My schoolmates told me how they use computer at home but I could not even watch television in our house,” Ridwan said.  “My classmate who watch news regularly know many things that I don’t. No electricity to iron my school uniform like my friends and it hurts.”

For other residents of the village, the lack of electricity has been a reality they have known for years.  Despite Aratumi-Omun being just a few kilometres from the National Control Centre at Power Line area in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, they have been off the national grid for a decade and a half.

Mr Ibrahim Sunday, the Chairman of Aratumi-Omun Community Association said the situation has exposed the community to dangers aside the suffering that the residents experience.

“This community was in darkness for 15 years because there was no electricity. We could not use electronics at home and life was difficult. We have television and fridge but we could not use them. Few of us have generators. Those that could not afford to buy generators depended on lanterns and they could not use amenities that require electricity. Those that could not cope left this community and some of us continued to bear it,” he said.

Mrs Afusat Abdullateef, one of the residents of the community said she depended on her place of work to charge her phone and lamp. Watching television was a luxury.

“The only time I watch television is when I’m in the office. I also charge my phone and lamp in the office. At home, it’s hell. We are really suffering here,” she said.

Very few people could afford generators and the cost of maintaining them. One of them is Alhaji Oyinlola Kazeem who said he spends N2,000 daily to fuel the generator which he turns on for a few hours every night.

In neighbouring Ikire-Ile, another community in Ola-Oluwa Local Government Area of the state, their problem is of a different nature from their neighbours. Here water supply is a challenge and the villagers have to rely on wells which are often too deep and their waters are often impure.

The alternative is for women and children to trek some kilometres to the stream to fetch water, especially in the dry season when the wells dry up.

Mrs Wailatu Jimoh, a housewife in Ikire-Ile, often has to embark on this long trek.

“As early as 4am, we go to the stream to fetch water. We will queue and fetch the water one after the other. By 5am, the stream would be jam-packed and we experience hell to get water,” she said.

For Mrs Kemi Adebayo, a food vendor at Ikire-Ile, the water scarcity almost ejected her from the community like her friend. “We go to the stream in the bush as early as 3am and 4am just to fetch water. I usually pity my kids whenever I wake them up at that time but we have no choice. We just have to go otherwise there would be no water and we cannot do without water.”

One place Mrs Adebayo will certainly not be migrating to is Aladua in Ayedaade Local Government Area where the people are almost completely isolated from civilization. No electricity, no water, no road, no school.

A cocoa farmer in the village, Evangelist Moses Adesiyan said, “Cars cannot enter this village. Even motorcycles will struggle to enter. The road is too bad. When we harvest our cocoa and other farm produce, we have to use our heads to carry the produce from here for over one kilometer where a vehicle can access. Some of our farm produce get spoilt as a result of this and we suffer shortage.”

Another cocoa farmer, Mrs Hanna Olanrewaju concurs. “We use motorcycles to carry our cocoa, banana and other farm produce from this village and in transit, we experience a lot of shortage and we spend double on transportation. It has been very difficult and discouraging,” Hanna said.

But these challenges are not limited to Aratumi-Omun, Ikire-Ile and Aladura villages as many other rural communities in the state have different disturbing stories to tell.

Recently though the Osun State Agency for Community and Social Development (CSDP) set out to change these stories. The CSDP is a World Bank Assisted project with counterpart fund from the state government.

“We needed N9,730,100 for the electricity project at Aratumi-Omun and we ran to CSDP for help,” Mr Olayiwola Kazeem said. “The agency told us to contribute 10 percent of the cost, which is 973,010, which we did and deposited in our community’s account. We set up an electricity committee and I was appointed as the Chairman. Having gathered the 10 percent, CSDP gave us 8,757,090 and now we have electricity after 15 years in darkness.”

Alhaji Isiaka Amoo said the quest for water took the people of Ikire-Ile to CSDP to request boreholes.

He said the drilling of the borehole and installations including a generator gulped N2,079,640. The community contributed 207,964 which is 10 percent and that CSDP supported the project with N1,871,676 which is 90 percent of the total cost.

“Our women and children now fetch water at 10 different reticulation points in the community. Thirty-two people can now fetch water at the same time as a result of the reticulation. We now drink potable water without stress. No more diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases,” Chief Imam of Ikire-Ile, Alhaji Adio Abdul-Ganiyu said.

For 90-year-old Mama Sinatu Azeez, there is joy that she had lived to see running water in Ikire-Ile, which means less hardship for her grandchildren when they visit.

In Aladua village, the road situation has improved following the organisation’s intervention. They too approached the organisation. They too were asked to raise 10 per cent of the total cost, the Secretary of the Aladua Village Road Construction Committee, Mr Surajudeen Odediran said

Evangelist Adesiyan, Chairman of Procurement Committee for the Aladua Road Project, said the project gulped N8,764,800.

“We contributed 10 percent of the project cost which is N876,480 and CSDP assisted us with N7,888,320 which is 90 percent of the cost of the road construction,” he said.

There is excitement that when completed, the road will make it easier to ship out farm produce.

The General Manager of Osun CSDP, Mrs. Funmi Abokede said the agency disbursed about N1.5 billion to 340 communities in Osun State to make life better for the people. Abokede noted that Osun State government paid N800 million as counterpart fund between 2010 and 2018. She added that 422 gender sensitive, socially inclusive, multi-sectorial micro projects were also supported and are of use to beneficiaries. She lauded the state government for the consistent and prompt payment of counterpart funds.

This figures may not mean much for the likes of Gbadebo Ridwanullah who can now sit in his own home and watch TV for the first time since he was born . Who knows what difference that would make in his life?