Opanda Game Reserve: 30 Years of Abandonment

The game reserve was conceived about 30-years ago when the area was still under the old Benue State, but was never given due attention, before Kogi State was carved out from old Benue and Kwara State. Their even with the creation of  Kogi State 20 -years ago, according to a source, the state government has […]

The game reserve was conceived about 30-years ago when the area was still under the old Benue State, but was never given due attention, before Kogi State was carved out from old Benue and Kwara State. Their even with the creation of  Kogi State 20 -years ago, according to a source, the state government has not deemed it  necessary to make use of the game reserve, which,  he said, would have been beneficial to residents and the entire state, in terms of employment generation.

 

The reserve, which has a  land mass  of  about  232.98 square kilometers,  shares a boundary with Bassa  as well as Dekina Local Government Areas,  and  has   been encroached into by the residents and the Fulani herdsmen in the area.

The game reserve now serves as grazing land for Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, while residents have turned part of the reserve to farmland, for logging operations by timber contractors. It is quite obvious that wild animals cannot be said to inhabit the reserve, as it has no vegetation due to bush burning and other human activities,   which have affected the area.

There are no roads in the reserve for easy movement, except the ones created by cows as a result of continuous grazing. It takes patience and perseverance to go round the reserve, due to numerous weeds which hinder motorcyclists that can meander through the weeds that have grown across each other on the paths created by cattle. Despite  the complaint  by our  reporter, the   forest officer who guided  him said  you have to be patient” as these are   the pains  they  go through each time  they  intend to go round the reserve,  to make sure that  the activities of trespassers are checked and  contained.

As we were going round the reserve we noticed a Fulani cattle rearer grazing cows on the reserve, while a resident was sighted digging ridges on his yam farm. He told Sunday Trust that they are quite aware that the land belongs to the government, but that they would leave when the government is ready to work on the reserve.

The forest officer   explained that serious hunting and logging operations, as well as bush burning have taken place in the reserve, a development which, he said, has driven wild animals away from the reserve.

He said they have tried   to prevent people from trespassing into the reserve, by arresting farmers and Fulani herdsmen, and also seizing the property found with them. This, however, has not deterred them from trespassing into the reserve.

“The game reserve land is very wide, so whenever we catch them, they normally move far into the reserve to continue their cultivation. Before we could discover them they would have done a lot of damage to the area, and because the land is not fenced it makes it easy for trespassers. It takes three hours to conveniently move round the reserve, and we are very few in the area office to effectively do the protection,” he said.

Sunday Trust stumbled across   large hectares of yam, sugar cane maize as well as cassava farms.

Most of the people that farm on the reserve have started planting economic trees, like cashew and oranges, which   the guide said they are trying to use   to claim the land, in anticipation that the government might give back the land to the community.

What is very obvious in the reserve is that it is a project that has been abandoned for several years, and the damage done to it is   enormous.

The Director of Forestry in the Kogi State, Ministry of Agriculture, Jibrin Onutojalen told Sunday Trust that the Opanda Game Reserve is not a full fledged game reserve, because it was not properly gazetted   by the state government.

According to him, during the colonial era, some reserves were created within Kogi State, and because of the population of the animals in Opanda reserve, the government of the old Kwara state decided to make it a game reserve.” But when part of Igala land where the reserve was located was moved from Kwara State to Benue State, the move to gazette it was stopped.

He said the reserve has been destroyed by people, because governments were not making use of it. “Farmers who were looking for land for agricultural purposes trespassed into the land, and began farming on it. Some of the trees that were there were felled. Invariably, the vegetation that was supposed to shelter the animals has been destroyed, hence you can hardly see animals in that place.

In his words, “It would have been a tourist centre for the state and the country at large, just like Obudu ranch and the Yankari game reserve, but now the economic importance is not there. If the government wants to resuscitate it, they have to find a way of bringing back wild animals like elephants, buffalos, lions, tigers, among others, that have gone into extinction, due to the destruction of the vegetation as a result of human activities.

The communities living around the reserve are even trespassing into the reserve to fetch fire wood and carry out logging operations, even though they are aware that the place is a game reserve.

According to Jibrin, the state Ministry of Agriculture has made several proposals to the government, but till this moment nothing has been done about it. He attributed the non-development and abandonment of the reserve to lack of funds, saying that operating a game reserve costs money, and the government does not want to spend money on it, because they look at it as a waste of funds.

He, however, plays down any political undertone for the non-utilization of the reserve, which, he said, would have been generating employment and revenue for the state.

But, Paul Atabor, who is the Area forest officer in Abejukolo, the community which hosts the reserve, blamed the old Benue State for the condition of the game reserve. “Before we were carved out of Benue State, the funds meant for this reserve were diverted to other projects, due to the reasons best known to the government.

He said “Our directors have been writing to the government to raise funds for the development of the reserve, but all to no avail. For the federal government to take over the project, there is a stage the state government has to develop the reserve to, before such can take place.

On the activities in the reserve, he said they have written several reports to the government about the destruction of the place, without response, adding that if the reserve is functioning, it would have created more employment for the people.

“As it is now the villagers are denied of farming on the land, and the job opportunity that would have compensated them for having the land in their community, is not being felt, thus making them lose out completely,” he said.

He appealed  to the state government to employ forest and game reserve guards  to be posted  to each of the villages that have  boundary with the  reserve, so that  it can be effectively protected  and  for  it  to retain its vegetation. “With only five working staff in the area office, it is grossly inadequate for any effective protection to be made on the reserve,” he said.

The communities in their reaction said they are not happy with the situation of the reserve which, according to them, is of no economic benefit to the village, since it is not generating employment for the youths, while they are also not allowed to farm on the land.

The traditional ruler of the area, the Onu Ife, Chief Boniface Musa who is the Chairman, Omala traditional rulers council, told Sunday Trust that the community is not happy with the abandonment of the reserve.

He lamented that if the project had been made functional, the community would have benefited a lot, but for the past 20 years both the state and federal government have not done anything about it.

“As it is now my intention is to write to the government, so that if they are not having the plans to develop the reserve, they should allow us to take the land back to our people, so that they could have a place to farm. The government is not doing anything on the land, and my people are not allowed to go in there to farm,” he said.

He, however, appealed to both state and federal governments to open up the reserve, so that the people could benefit from it, as well as generate revenue for the state and the federal government.

A farmer who was working on his yam farm and pleaded anonymity, told our reporter that he is aware that the land is a game reserve,  but had to farm on it since the government is not doing anything on the land , and they need land to farm.

“The land has been there for several years, but the government has not done anything about it, and we were asked not to farm on the land. As it is now, there is nothing we can do since the government has abandoned the land. Whenever they are ready to commence work on it we will quit, he concluded.