Bokanya: Remembered during elections, forgotten afterwards

A dearth of development projects in Bokanya is a situation which could not have gone down well with members of the community who receive visitors only during pre-election campaigns. The politicians turn up to ask for their votes. The people oblige after being freely promised amenities. But the politicians after elections abandon them. Irked by […]

A dearth of development projects in Bokanya is a situation which could not have gone down well with members of the community who receive visitors only during pre-election campaigns. The politicians turn up to ask for their votes. The people oblige after being freely promised amenities. But the politicians after elections abandon them.

Irked by this situation, the people have been crying for a change. Four to five kilometers off the Jereng-Jalingo road is Bokanya village in Bajama district of Mayo Belwa. The village indeed, symbolizes the lopsidedness in the development agenda of the local government administration.

“The presence of communities such as this at a time like this when other communities are smiling over dividends of democracy,” one of the villagers complained, “shows that the task ahead is not an easy one.”

When an “achaba” operator who simply identified himself as Umaru Chairman insisted on being paid N1000 from the Jada Junction, along the Jada-Ganye road, there were arguments. But after the ride on the bike across villages for hundreds of minutes on the bad roads, one was inclined to agree that the “Achaba man” deserved to be paid more. The other cyclists may not even go there for any fee.

It is far from any neighbouring community but it is only in a place like it that one can get the right information on what life is really like in rural communities, especially after the increase in the annual budgets of states and local government areas.

Mr Chairman, the motorcyclist who hails from Jerreng, a neighbouring village, said the situation is worse during the rainy season when the valleys are flooded.

“We do not leave our houses whenever it rains,” he said. “No matter how serious any appointment or business transaction you have, you need to wait for the flood to abate before you can use the road.”

THE INFRASTRUCTURAL NEGLECT

A student of the Federal College of Education (FCE), Yola, who served as a volunteer teacher in the area but who does not want his name to be mentioned, told Sunday Trust  that the Bokanya people are grossly disadvantaged and have been so for ages.

True to his testimony, the community has remained down for many years as certified by the village head. The inhabitants of the area include the Mummuye, the Yandang and the Fulani people.

While speaking to Sunday Trust, the village head, Mr Bitrus Balavo, explained that almost every resident of the community is a farmer.  

“We plant yams, millet, guinea corn, rice, plantain and vegetables and all kinds of fruits are in abundance here,” he said. “Our problem is that this place is far from town and there  are no vehicles to take our produce there. The road is bad, so we are not making money from what we produce.”

The village head who spoke through an interpreter, said government has failed his people and that politicians only come to the place during campaigns. He said no government official, either from the local government council or from the state government has ever visited the area to assess their situation.

“They make promises to us and do not fulfill them. During campaigns, they promise to give us road, provide water, build school, and give us a befitting health centre. Till today, we have not seen anything,” he said.

He announced that the only primary school established in 1993 still has no single structure, a situation he said, prompted teachers to resort to sending back pupils to their homes during the rainy season.

Sunday Trust learnt that the school has a total enrollment of 450 to 470 pupils from class one to six. Balavo said sometimes, the villagers resort to using ex-pupils to help in giving extra mural classes.

When contacted on the matter, the executive chairman, Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Salihu Bakari Girei, assured that the government will consider their plight and rehabilitate the school. Bakari stated that the board has moved for the synchronization of the tripartite educational sector, which is necessary for shielding and seating all school age children who before this approach, remained under trees while their teacher taught them.

The immediate intervention was the rapid renovation of classrooms to end the long shame under which the state found itself, he said. He told Sunday Trust that the UBE in the state has completed the construction of 1,800 classrooms, apart from its fresh construction of additional special schools in the three senatorial districts of the state.

He disclosed that while the three special schools are near completion, the 1800 classrooms have been equipped with modern furniture and other facilities to serve as and encouragement to pupils.

He also stated that there was a decision by the board to stem the tide by making teachers understand that their roles in the efforts to develop the nation is supreme, and as such 14,000 teachers were retrained in specific skills to impact on children .

The people still use traditional birth attendants for the delivery of babies, though some visit the dilapidated health clinics in nearby villages. Several die from birth complications before they can reach Jerreng or Mayo Belwa town where there is a hospital.

The community has just one source of water – a pond known as Bakin-Kogi (river bank). When Sunday Trust visited the almost dry pond, villagers were scooping the deep-brown water into pots.

The villagers say they drink this water, cook their meals with it, wash their clothes using it and take drugs with it. It was the same case in the neighbouring Binkola village. Yet, it costs less than N500,000 to dig a hand pump borehole.

FAILURE BY THE COUNCIL ADMINISTRATION

Efforts to reach the chairman of Mayo-Belwa local government council, Mr Adamu Kpante, who was sworn in recently after his former boss, Umaru Abbo was impeached by the councillors, proved abortive as his phone rang unanswered. He is at present seeking re-election, according to sources.

But one of his aides who preferred anonymity, said the council administration cannot take care of the whole place at the same time.

“We built road in Mayo Belwa and other villages near Bokanya but because the contract awarded in this regime was too much, we felt we should stop for now and complete what we have awarded and pay for them. We have rehabilitated primary schools and we are trying to enhance health care delivery,” he said.

While Bokanya community cries out over neglect, the state Governor Murtala Nyako who hails from Mayo Belwa, says one discerning aspect of his administration is to lift the educational status of the state adequately. He said school age children have neglected education for various reasons and luring them back into schools is his priority.