Life inside ‘Bola’, a refuse dump turned Maiduguri’s auto village

Dahiru Sama’ila, Chairman of the National Automobile Technicians Association (NATA), Bola chapter, told Kanem Trust the refuse dump was turned into a mechanic village in 1976. “Why we refer to this place as Bola is because it was used as a refuse dump before the refuse was evacuated and it was converted into a mechanic […]

Dahiru Sama’ila, Chairman of the National Automobile Technicians Association (NATA), Bola chapter, told Kanem Trust the refuse dump was turned into a mechanic village in 1976. “Why we refer to this place as Bola is because it was used as a refuse dump before the refuse was evacuated and it was converted into a mechanic workshop,” he said. Samaila said that the earlier settlers at the market were the mechanics who were the native of Borno but who went out of the state and learnt to acquire skills on car repairs.

The chairman who revealed that he has been in the business as an apprentice since 1979 before graduating in 1982, to set up his own business, said, “people from different parts of the country operate in Bola. We pay rent to the lands we operate on aside from the personal income taxes we pay to the state and local governments. We also collect N500 levies from our members.”

Across workshops in Bola, different cars ranging from Toyota, Honda and Mercedes Benz are regularly brought there for repairs but the most prominent of cars seem to be Toyota brands, according to Samaila. He attributed this to  the large percentage of Toyota cars in the country.

On how new technicians are accepted into the union, Samaila said before anybody can join the business of fixing mechanical faults at the market, the person must present a certificate that he is qualified to practice but in most cases, he said, “people who were apprentice in this place before graduating have easy access to join this association and be practicing here because they are well known to everybody unlike somebody from elsewhere whom we do not know before.

“For somebody to be an apprentice at the Bola market, the person will come with his parents or guardians and we enter into an agreement. Usually for most people, we collect N10,000 but the person can make a part payment before completing the payment at the end of his apprenticeship. For some people, it takes three years while some spend up to five years. It depends on how intelligent the person is,” he added.

One of the problems the occupants of Bola appear to be facing is the lack of a drainage system because according to the mechanics, anytime it rains, the whole place, especially the mechanic section, becomes flooded. Samaila told Kanem Trust the problem has been a re-current one every year once the rainy season arrives and appealed to the state government to construct a drainage for them to alleviate the hardship they normally faced. He said, “this place becomes water logged and from time to time, we experience malaria and cholera. We embark on environmental sanitation but it’s not easy during the rainy season.”   

Ironically, some sections of Bola is still being used as a refuse dump by residents close to the area, the union chairman said. “Some residents living close to this place also use this place as their refuse dumping ground and we have tried countless times to stop them because they usually perpetrate this act in the night. We do not have the capacity to evacuate this heap of refuse and I am calling on the state government to help us in this aspect considering the economic significance of this place to the state and local government as well,” he noted.

“Sometimes, there is a problem between a mechanic and a customer which may lead to the customer getting our member arrested, we intervene and settle the matter but if it is the problem of car theft involving our member which is a criminal case, we leave it for the police to settle and also sanction the mechanic if he is at fault,” he added.

Samaila told Kanem Trust that before, he used to make up to N20,000 in a day but all that has changed because of the economic situation in the country. Most of the mechanics operate in open grounds though with make shift shades for their customers to wait and also for keeping tools.   

But at the other section which deals with spareparts, traders operate inside shops built on part of the land. The traders deal in different car accessories and spare parts and expectedly, they come from the eastern part of Nigeria. They are mostly Igbos to be precise. The section is the home of spare parts in Borno State. Most times, passersby are ‘harassed’ by sales boys who even drag people in the name of attracting customers.

Nze Mac-Anthony Umegwuagu, is the president, Auto-mobile Spare Parts Dealers Association in Borno State. In a chat with Kanem Trust, he collaborated what Samaila said earlier. “The early settlers in this place had to battle with so dirty environment because this place was a dumping ground before shops were built here,” he said.

According to Umegwuagu who said he has been in the spare parts business for over thirty years, there were over 2,000 spare parts dealers in Borno and majority of them operated in Bola. How do they react to threats of stolen items sold there given cases of car theft in the country?

Nze Mac-Anthony Umegwuagu said whenever there was problem of stolen spare parts brought to Bola, the union liases with the police to settle the problem. And whenever a problem occurs between a trader and his apprentice, such issue is also handled by the union in accordance with some guidelines set for all members to follow. Sanctions are also applied where necessary by way deregistering someone, he indicated.

One of the challenges the spare part dealers face, according to their president, was inability to get another site where they can relocate. Umegwuagu said several appeals have been made to the government to relocate them but all efforts are yet to materialise. He however said that Bola has though, remained safe except for one incident. “A building was once gutted by fire in 1996 and huge losses were suffered by some of our members but apart from that, we have never witnessed any such cases,” he noted.

“Another problem is the porosity of this place but we engage the services of watch nights and the police also help a lot because they always patrol this place at night,” he said.

Our correspondent reports that not only men operate in Bola, women are not left behind. Some of the women engage in the sparepart business, some partnering with their husbands to run their businesses. Kanem Trust encountered one lady who simply identified herself as Madam Mikail from Enugu State. She recalled that she joined her husband in the spare parts business back in 1997 and after years, she got to know the nitty gritty of the business. She said she doesn’t have problems with her three children also helping in the business since to them, trading in Bola is what brings food to their table. She none-the-less said her children would acquire education also.    

Like the madam from Enugu, many other women trade in Bola and God helps anyone who underestimates their power of negotiation with buyers. Many of them seemingly have the capacity to sweet-talk a car owner into buying spare parts for cars ordered than what he or she requires. They are so persuasive. Along with their male counterparts working as technicians or spare part dealers, they have made Bola a must go for anyone with a troubled car in Maiduguri, other parts of the state and indeed many car users in neighbouring Yobe who come to Bola to get their vehicles back on track.