Ladduga: Where 50,000 nomads face kidnapping, cattle rustling

Ladduga grazing reserve is one of the grazing reserves out of the 26 gazetted by the then  government of northern Nigeria. Now a district, it is a community of predominantly Fulani inhabitants. It is located in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna state, and is about three hours drive from Kaduna town. With a population […]

Ladduga grazing reserve is one of the grazing reserves out of the 26 gazetted by the then  government of northern Nigeria. Now a district, it is a community of predominantly Fulani inhabitants. It is located in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna state, and is about three hours drive from Kaduna town.
With a population of 50,000, the community has a 20-bed private hospital, and it lacks government facilities including roads, water, schools, hospitals and security.
It was gathered that civil servants reject posting to serve in the  abandoned Primary Healthcare Center and public schools in the vicinity. This  is a community which is cut off from civilization during the rainy season due to the bad nature of the only link road between it and the other parts of Kaduna State.
Even though the grazing reserve is equipped with a modern state-of-the-art skills acquisition centre, the community is increasingly faced with daunting challenges of climate change, incessant conflicts, insurgency, rural banditry, lack of social safety nets, molestation, kidnapping, animal disease and cattle rustling, leading to loss of lives and property, abandonment of schools and infrastructure due to out-migration to safer areas.
It was further gathered that many women and children have died  due to lack of clean water and health care. Also gathered is the fact that kidnapping and cattle rustling is also rampant in the area. Even  though surrounded by Fulani, the same group   terrorise the people and the area ,leaving members of the community in fear for their lives and their property.
The 45 minute  drive from a place called ‘crossing’ by the locals from Kachia main road to the community, is a nightmare given  its rugged, dusty and muddy nature lined with a thick forest.
Recently, the National Commission for Nomadic Education inaugurated a Board of Directors for the already established Ladduga Innovative Business Enterprise (LIBE) under the Nomadic Business Development Centers supported by the African Development Bank, Assisted Skills Training and Vocational Education Project (STVEP) in a bid to equip nomads with skills.
The skills including daily processing/ livestock health and production, shea-butter processing and marketing, bee-keeping and honey processing, ICT skills development (e-learning), sewing and knitting, agriculture, community animal health workers scheme and an auto mechanic project, is aimed at impacting the necessary skills for the overall benefit of the community.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Professor Rashid Aderinoye said that due to the dwindling fortunes of the nomads, there are over four million out of school nomadic children in the community.
Yakubu Bashai, an indigene of Ladduga, lamented that the community has been abandoned by the government who he claimed, refer  to Fulani as threats to the society. “Due to the atrocities some Fulani people have been doing in the name of cattle rustling, Fulani’s have been tagged as terrorists  because of some bad eggs that we have in our clan.
“It will interest you to know that we also face incidents of kidnapping in this community, even though  we are all Fulani. The community has had series of kidnappings and even ransoms have been demanded. We have no option than to pay the ransom so that they can release our relations. I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the government to provide the basic amenities for the community with a view to safe guarding the lives or nomadic Fulani who are facing eminent threats.
“We also face water problems as well as lack of a proper road network.I  am sure you saw the road when you were driving down to the community.At times, we are cut off from the main town during the rainy  season because of the bad nature of the road,” he said.
On his part, Dr. Muhammad Jamo, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital said he decided to come back to his society and impact positively on the lives of his people. “Anytime I came home from the city, I saw how people in the community were suffering, especially pregnant women and children, which informed my decision to relocate here.
“There is no type of surgery that we do not perform in the hospital including caesarian section, appendicitis as well as general hospital service. We have a delivery room, a theater, a laboratory, 20 bed-space, toilets, consulting room and a bore hole. It has not been easy because I independently established the hospital, and I am independently managing it.
“Our major challenges are inadequate bed space, inadequate drugs  and  poor funding,  because  a lot of times, the hospital services are overstretched due to increase in patients,  especially when there is an outbreak which is not very common.”
Ummikulsum Adam, is one of the health workers in the Ladduga community hospital. She said, “We do everything in this hospital ourselves, and we need assistance from the government. The beds, drugs, staff and general day to day management of the hospital, is done by the indigenes of the community.
“We do not have enough funds to continue with the management of the hospital, because it is the only one the community has. The state government has abandoned us. Before, we used to have a Primary Health Care Centre.Unfortunately, during the upgrade of the centre, the renovation work was stopped halfway,  and since then, we have not heard anything again of the centre, if not for one of our own that decided to leave his Federal Government job to give back to his community.”
Shuaibu Magero Usman, Marafan Ladduga said the construction of the road is the community’s number one priority, “if the road is fully accessible, the clashes between farmers and herdsmen will be tackled.
“We have about 16 primary schools and two secondary schools that are presently being managed by members of the community, since government stopped sending teachers to the community over  the issue of insecurity. But I am optimistic that things are starting to change since the Nigerian Navy School of Armament Technology (NNSAT) brought a free medical outreach to the community where eye and high blood pressure illness where checked.”
He noted that 99.9% of the members of the community are Fulani while the remaining 1% includes Bajju and Ikulu people, whom they have been living peacefully with for decades.
Another member of the community, Ahmed Yandeh who was born in the community before moving to the city to further his education said, “My parents are members of this community and they gave birth to me in this very community. So it is very painful to see that it is not developing, but rather under developing, everything is still the way I left it. Nothing  has been added except for the good Samaritan who established a hospital for the community.
“How can such a community not have a government hospital, is it because they are Fulani? Even the government schools have been abandoned by the government, and it is the members of the community that are managing the school.”
He therefore appealed to the state government to look into the plight of the people, with a view to finding lasting solutions to the outlined problems to make life easier for the masses.