Bad road: The plight of Bashuri community in Jigawa

Although it’s is just about 20 kilometre journey from Dutse, the Jigawa State capital to Bashuri village. The community virtually curved out from the capital owing to the dreadful condition of the only road that links them with Dutse. A recent visit to the area by our correspondent indicated that, the road was in bad […]

Although it’s is just about 20 kilometre journey from Dutse, the Jigawa State capital to Bashuri village. The community virtually curved out from the capital owing to the dreadful condition of the only road that links them with Dutse.

A recent visit to the area by our correspondent indicated that, the road was in bad condition to the extent that, commercial motorists have completely abandoned the road leaving the community with no other alternative than to patronize commercial motorcyclists.

Pyramid Trust’s further investigation revealed that the community were also forced to divert their daily activities to Gaya Local Government in Kano State because of their proximity to the local government and easy access to it.

It was further observed that, the 20 kilometres journey to the village from Dutse would take motorists two hours before reaching Bashuri village through Warwade.   

The community, Pyramid Trust learnt, preferred to take their farm produce from the village to Gaya than to Dutse. This, according to some members of the community was a minus not only to the community or the local government, but also to the state as a whole.  

The representative of the village head, Malam Sabo, told Pyramid Trust during the last cholera plague, some victims of the pandemic were rushed to Gaya General Hospital instead of Dutse General Hospital.

Malam Sabo stated that, if they had insisted to take the victims to Dutse for medical treatment, most of them might have lost their lives, as according to him they might likely have died before arriving at Dutse.

“Even though the road that links us with Gaya Local Government is also in bad shape, it is better up than Warwade-Bashuri road. We have been managing Bashuri-Gaya road for years as an alternative way of carrying out our daily activities,” he explained.

Malam Sabo noted that, only God Knows how the communities were going to suffer if not because of the Bashuri-Gaya road that had been helping them as an alternative road.

Malam Auwal Muhammad is one of road users in the area, who recalled his experience to our reporter. He explained that, the condition of the road was seriously affecting their lives, saying, “Sometimes we have to abandon our farms to conduct some works on the road. We have lodge several complaints to the government yet nothing has been done to address the problem”.

He pointed out that, “We have completely diverted our activities to Gaya Local Government because of the deplorable condition of the road despite the fact that, we are under Dutse Local Government in Jigawa State. Whenever we have a patient that needs urgent medical attention, we must to take him/her to Gaya general hospital in Kano State than to Dutse our state capital”.

Whenever the communities wanted to go to Dutse, he added, it was better for them to go through Gaya Local Government than to go through Warwade village, which is the shorter way.

Economically he pointed out, the condition of the road was affecting the incomes of the Dutse Local Government and the state in general, adding that, all business activities of the communities had been diverted to other weekly markets including Gaya market.

Another member of the community, Malam Muhammad Ibrahim told Pyramid Trust that, “We have been spending a lot of money on transport fees. For you to go to Dutse through this road, you have to spend about N300. This is because only acaba rider (commercial motorcyclist) can bear the consequences and fly the road. They will charge you between N180, N200 and above per drop”.

Pyramid Trust gathered that, several complaints were made to both the state and local government authorities by the affected communities but up till the time of filing this report, no effort was made by the authorities concerned to save the communities from the situation.

When contacted for comment, Chairman, Dutse Local Government, Alhaji Shehu Umar Chamo said, the local council was fully aware of the condition of the road, but the problem was beyond the ability of the local government as the project would claim a lot of money, hence, could not address it for now.

He added that, the local government authority had made several efforts in the past to improve the condition of the road, but because of the nature of the area, which he said was a wetland; the authority could not achieve the desired objective.

“We have constructed some culverts along the road to save the communities from annual excessive flooding. This was in addition to some repairs conducted on the road by the present administration. But because of the terrible condition of the road, we could not address the problem squarely,” said Chamo.

Alhaji Umar Chamo explained further that, nevertheless, the local authority had decided to include the road in the 2010 budget for rehabilitation, saying the road would be among the roads booked to be rehabilitated next year.

Commenting on the community’s claim that, they have been taking patients to Gaya General Hospital, the chairman disputed the claim, saying “It is a lie. They were just saying it to blackmail us after all we have been doing our best to rehabilitate the road.”