Bwari community where pupils sit on stones

Piko is an agrarian village in Bwari Area Council. It is one of many communities in Abuja that lack basic social amenities. The borehole in the community has been vandalised, with the engine stolen. Also, pupils in the dilapidated primary school sit on large stones to receive lessons.  The rural community, which is home to […]

Piko is an agrarian village in Bwari Area Council. It is one of many communities in Abuja that lack basic social amenities. The borehole in the community has been vandalised, with the engine stolen. Also, pupils in the dilapidated primary school sit on large stones to receive lessons.
 The rural community, which is home to original inhabitants, Gbagyi, is situated on the Gaba-Iga road in the area council.
 John Jatau, who has been at the helm of the community’s affairs since the chief died last year, said the school was far from what a school is supposed to be.
 Another resident, Zaki Ernest, said pupils in the community’s only primary school had no choice but to sit on planks braced by stones.
Several cracks appear in the wall while the paints have been peeling off suggesting years of neglect.  The sight that greets one in the classrooms is more pitiful. The pupils were clustered to one part of the classroom due to inadequate furniture. Few lucky pupils in the class use broken desks and chairs, which they brace with stones, while others sit on bare stones.
 Some of the pupils only sit with a portion of their buttocks while the rest make do with planks on the floor, while several others are without desks. In the school, desks and chairs are luxury.
The pupils, conscious of their guest, maintained their gaze at the chalk board, which was as white as the letters written on it. One could barely see the writing on it from a distance within the classroom, undoubtedly why the pupils stay very close to it.
 There are no ceilings in most of the classrooms in the two blocks. In the classrooms, the pupils are not spared from scorching sunlight. Sun rays reflect in the classrooms through several patches on the roof.
 One of the teachers, who craved anonymity, described the state of the school building and facilities as pathetic. The teacher said members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) concerned about the school building and bought zinc, which was used to patch some portions of the leaking roof. The teacher said many of the pupils performed badly in their academics were due to the environment under which they learn.
 Some of the pupils, Aso Chronicle learnt, trek several kilometres to the school daily, only to get to school and sit uncomfortably on stones. The teacher said the parents could do little or nothing about renovating the school building as they are mostly farmers.
Ernest said those who completed primary school and wanted to further their education trekked about one hour daily to a secondary school in Shere. He said that despite the poor state of the primary school and long trek to Shere, the determination of most parents to educate their children was commendable.
 Though he said some of the youths still engage in farming, a higher percentage of them in the community were either in school or had obtained secondary school certificate.

He said nothing good comes easy in the community. Education, potable water, and quality health care services are all got at a great cost. He said, ironically, that someone could contract illness by merely visiting the health care centre.
 The centre was locked when Aso Chronicle visited, but a peep inside revealed crumbled ceilings. Zaki expalined that this was caused by rainfall. He said the roof leaked when it rains, while patronising the centre is with great caution as rainfall has weakened the building by causing several cracks in the walls.
“The roof is rusted while the ceiling could fall at any time,” he said.
 He said despite the poor state of the building and shortage of health workers, residents were left with no other option than to visit the centre when they took ill.
“Women are most affected by the poor state of the centre,” Liatu John, an elderly women said. Liatu, who spoke through an interpreter, said that women, especially expectant mothers only patronised the centre “because we have no other place.”
She said the first step to getting better health care delivery begins with the payment of more than  N400 tranport fare to commercial motorcyclists to Shere, a distant community.
The health care centre, if the words of Ernest are anything to go by, uses stream water. The stream, located in a swampy area few metres from the community, is the only source of water in the community.
 Jatau, the stand-in community head, said surviving on stream water had not been easy for the residents since the borehole in the community was vandalised by some unknown people. He said the engine with which the residents pump water into the overhead tanks was stolen and the iron net used as barricade destroyed.
 Ernest said since the engine was stolen three years ago, residents resorted to the stream they had abandoned during the two-year existence of the borehole.
 “It has not been easy for us,” he said, explaining that during the harmattan, residents evacuate sand from the stream. He, however, prefers the situation during the harmattan to what they face during the rainy season. The stream, he said, was contaminated with faeces from residents that defecate openly. He rated the community low in personal and environmental hygiene, explaining that some residents still defecate openly.
 The deplorable state of access road to the community compounds the plight of the residents. “The road is dusty during the dry season and sometimes muddy and impassable during the rainy season,” Ernest said.
 He added that two spoilt culverts along the road made the trip to the community after a heavy downpour difficult.
 The challenges of Piko residents changes with the seasons. As harmattan makes way for the rainy season, residents in the agrarian community are bracing up for another difficult life. But for them, live goes on, whatever the circumstances.
 A visibly tired Jatau, however, seemed re-energised while explaining residents’ firmness not to be deceived by ambitious politicians anymore. He said it’s an issue of once beaten twice shy, adding that the politicians cannot be twice lucky with such lies anymore.
He said residents would no longer condone underperforming politicians, adding, “Such people will not be re-elected.”
He said the era where politicians deceived residents during their tenures in office without implementing their manifestoes was over.
  “The problem is within. The person will come and lie, win the election and do nothing. He will do the same thing during the second term. We will not allow those liars to come again,” Jatau said, adding that politicians would be made to account for their actions.