Gurara Waterfalls: ‘Hellish’ state of a ‘heavenly’ treasure

To make maximum utilization of my annual leave, I decided to plan how to spend it even before it was approved. And, as someone who is in love with adventures, one of the things I resolved to do was to visit the Gurara Waterfalls in Nigeria after hearing so much about it. Luckily for me […]

To make maximum utilization of my annual leave, I decided to plan how to spend it even before it was approved. And, as someone who is in love with adventures, one of the things I resolved to do was to visit the Gurara Waterfalls in Nigeria after hearing so much about it.
Luckily for me also, when I brought the idea up for discussion among my some of my friends they all supported it. There and then, I agreed to take responsibility for all what we will eat there. Of course that was after one has agreed to use his car and another has agreed to fuel the trip. We also collectively agreed to take the trip on a weekend, and we chose February 16, 2013. We also reckoned that going in February will be good since the waterfalls, as we were told, can be dirty and deep during the raining season.
Right from the start, we agreed to drive at a speed limit of N100kilometer per hour, and the driver never gave us cause to complain. From the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, we took the famous Dikko junction, which leads to Lambata on the road between Suleja and Minna, the Niger State capital.
We arrived at the Gurara Waterfalls, which is some 50kilometer away from Minna, around 10am after driving for about two hours from Kaduna. Apart from the huge sign post directing visitors to the waterfalls, there was nothing to show government’s commitment to making the place the tourist destination it deserves to be.
At the entrance, some youths – who look more like touts – sat under a small shade. They were the ones collecting admission fee into the site but they had no semblance of acting on behalf of the state government other than the receipts they gave us after collecting N2,000 to let four of us in. The road leading to the park is also in dire need of rehabilitation,   though it seemed better than many Nigerian roads.
However, coming face to face with the heavenly treasure, we immediately forgot the negative ‘throwback’ leading to it. The captivating sight of water gushing, albeit lazily, around rocks from the top of the cliff was more than beautiful. We were simply wowed by the sight of crystal clear water cascading down the rocks, seemingly out of nowhere. The waterfalls, it is said, spans 200 meters across with a sheer drop of 30 meters. Gurara River is a large tributary of River Niger.
Indeed, we did not take notice of the hellish state of the environment which a serious government can easily turn into ‘heaven on earth. And with the help of a guide, whose green vest bore the inscription of Gurara Waterfalls, we were able to climb to the peak of the waterfalls right from the gorge. We did not only go close to the waterfalls, two of us, who are good in swimming, had a great time in plain pools. They were not deterred by a warning which says “Swimming in the fall is dangerous; whoever attempts it does so at his/her own risk.”
Not even the tiring route we took to return to the hilltop could dent the fun we had at the feet of the waterfalls where we took breathtaking pictures with beautiful sceneries at the background. In fact, if one is to rely on the pictures we took, there is nothing to suggest that the environment was in Nigeria, and Niger State to be precise.
I was, however, surprised to observe that, apart from a bill posted somewhere with the surrounding of the waterfalls of a plan to build a world-class resort, there was hardly any evidence of government’s interest in the potential revenue-earner.
But if the government seems unable to fully tap the potentials inherent in the waterfalls, many fun-seekers, from within and outside Nigeria,   recognize the importance of the area. On the day we visited, the turnout was, to me at least, satisfactory. There were many visitors including students of the Al-Amin International School, Minna.
On our way back to Kaduna, after spending five hours at the site, I kept asking myself one question: why should a serious state government allow a heavenly treasure in such a hellish state?
Haruna is a banker based in Kaduna.