An hour with Jigawa stone crushers

Stone breaking is one of the popular menial jobs that provides means of livelihood to many youth in Dutse, capital of Jigawa state. Although the the job is dominated by the youth as it requires much energy, however, aged persons are not left out in the business, our reporter, observed. It is a kind of […]

Stone breaking is one of the popular menial jobs that provides means of livelihood to many youth in Dutse, capital of Jigawa state.

Although the the job is dominated by the youth as it requires much energy, however, aged persons are not left out in the business, our reporter, observed.

It is a kind of a job that one applies a lot of energy while using crude tools to break a mould of stone away from a mother hill and subsequently break it into various sizes.

Apart from using, mattocks, sledge hammer, iron bar and other related instruments to break the stone, the crushers also use worn-out tyres in setting the stone on fire until it reaches a high temperature, which leads to a rapture over a large portion and that eases the use of their tools in cutting the stones into various shapes and sizes.

They crush with care as they use their tools with dexterity while cutting a mould of stone from the rock.

It was observed that wrong application of any of the tools could affect the final result of the shape and size needed to be produced.

When they are using sledge hammer, the crushers carefully select spots to hit in order to avoid demolishing the mould of the rock curved out which would be used for producing sizes and shapes.

Production of stones into various sizes and shapes is necessary considering each size of a stone in construction has a purpose, therefore, for effective construction result, sizes are not compromised as alternative size hardly work in place of the original requirement.

For the fact that the entire processes are manual, it takes an individual a week or so to crush a 40mm stone size use for a mansard foundation.

In a situation whereby the buyer needs the material within a time frame, more hands would be invited for the job but the buyer had to pay extra charges.

Four to five committed stone crushers, would be able to produce a full load of 911 tipper truck in a day while the story remains the same for other sizes of the stones.

The stone crushers, do not have a standard measurement for selling the finishing goods, as buyers could get as low as a quantity of N300 worth of crushed stone.

They stored crushed stones so that whenever a buyer comes would have variety of sizes to choose. This is necessary looking at the time and energy it consumes to come up with a certain quantity of stones.

Another reason that makes the stone materials always available is lack of ready market. The materials are only sold when there is construction work going on around the town.

Isa Takur Adua, is one of the stone crushers in Sabuwar Kasuwa hill site in Dutse has been working as crusher since his tender age.

He said, “Though, in between, I have abandoned the job for seven years, I have come back to it.”

He said they produce various forms of stone sizes, from 40mm to 20mm, three quarter, sand dust and chipped stones for various construction purposes, adding that the nature of construction determines the type of stone needed.

He said it takes a strong and energetic young man, who works with extra commitment four days to be able to produce 20 to 40mm sizes for a full load of a tipper truck but in a situation where a team of four or five work together, they could produce same quantity in just a day.

On prices of a full load of a tipper truck, Takur-Adua said 40 mm size of stone costs N6,000 while 20mm is sold at N8,000.

“After we have broken a big part of the rock, we usually engage the services of other young people that you can see around for breaking the stones into other sizes. The breaking of the rock requires strong people.

“We are making a lot of fortunes from the job. We cater for our families as we never lack food on our tables. Once constructions works are going on in the town we don’t have problem as we enjoy high patronage. But when people are not building the demand automatically goes down and you know what that means.”

Also speaking with our reporter, 70 –year-old, Ibrahim Halilu, said he had been on the job for the last 10 years, adding that he had to abandon his grocery business for stone crushing because his former business could not sustain him.

On how he copes looking at his age and the energy needed for the job, Halilu said that nothing had ever deterred him from participating in all processes of stone breaking, saying he actively takes part in producing 20mm and 40mm sizes.

“For one to be able to produce these sizes, it requires enormous energy and ability of using the tools appropriately otherwise, misuse of the appropriate tool could ruin one’s effort as he would not be able to produce the needed sizes.’’

On patronage, Haliru, said the flow of the business is not so encouraging as it was the case in the past, noting that few months back he spent over four weeks without earning a penny from the job.

However, he said now the business had started picking as the patronage was gradually improving.

“I produced and sell all sizes of stone. Though, at my age I am suppose to retire from this type of job but in order to avoid turning myself into a beggar, constituting nuisance to the society, I decided to continue with the job,” he said.