Residents lament state of health centre at Baribari

Residents of Baribari in Gurdi Ward of Abaji Area Council have expressed concern over the dilapidated state of the health centre in the community. The spokesman of the community, Aliyu Danjuma, who spoke with Aso Chronicle, said the health centre which was built by Sure-P some years ago was in a deplorable state as parts […]

Residents of Baribari in Gurdi Ward of Abaji Area Council have expressed concern over the dilapidated state of the health centre in the community.

The spokesman of the community, Aliyu Danjuma, who spoke with Aso Chronicle, said the health centre which was built by Sure-P some years ago was in a deplorable state as parts of the structure had collapsed.

He said apart from that, the health personnel attached to the clinic hardly comes to attend to patients, saying he comes to the health centre once in a month.

According to him, the health centre had always remained closed due to the absence of the health staff clinic, a situation, which forced some patients to travel on motorcycle to neighbouring Dobi village in Gwagwalada to seek for medication.

He said despite the fact that the health centre was the only health facility in the community,it also served about 13 neighbouring communities in the area, and the residents had been finding it difficult to access treatment there.

“In fact, the only time you can see the nurse at the clinic is during the monthly polio immunisation exercise, and sometimes he comes around after three weeks and goes back to Gwagwalada where he stays,” he said.

He said the doctors’ and nurses’ quarters were empty as no staff of the clinic was living there.

“And even when he is around, after attending to patients, he only prescribes drugs and the patients have to travel to Dobi to get the drugs,” he added.

He, therefore, appealed to the authorities of the council, under the leadership of Alhaji Abdulrahman Ajiya, to liaise with the management of the FCT health and human services secretariat to renovate the health centre and post health personnel that would be committed to work.

The spokesperson further complained over lack of access to pipe borne water in the community, saying residents had to trek long distances to get water from ponds and streams, and therefore called on the council to provide the community with a borehole.

”The only borehole is the one at the health centre, which has broken down for some years and residents depend on getting water from the stream, which is far from the village. They have to dig out sand; especially this dry season, before they get water,” he said.

 Also, residents of Madani, a neighbouring community in the area, have decried water scarcity, saying the effect of lack of access to potable water had resulted in the spread of unknown diseases with some children vomiting and stooling.

A community leader, Musa Bako, said though the population of the community was not much, but that since politicians came to the village to canvass for their votes, there was the need for the government to provide them with basic amenities.

“Just look around this village and see if there is any sign of government’s presence: there is none, as even a hand-pump borehole is not there, while our women have to always take the risk to trek a long distance down to River Gurara to fetch water: and you and I know the health implication of drinking such water,” he said.

He also complained that pupils of the Local Education Authority (LEA) primary school in the community had no classrooms, saying parents contributed to erect a grass tent to enable the pupils attend classes.

He said the primary school which had a total number of 60 pupils was established on September 10, 2016, and that before then, pupils had to trek a long distance to attend school.

He said there was a committee set up by the village head which had already met with the management of Abaji Local Education Authority (LEA) on the need to build a block of classrooms in the community.

“But up till this moment as I speak to you, we are yet to hear from the LEA. A piece of land was donated by a farmer and they actually promised that they would write to the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) in Abuja to come and construct a block of classrooms at Madani,” he said.

In a related development, residents of Chakumi community in the area have also complained of lack of a health centre.

The village head of Chakumi, Mohammed Magaji, who spoke with Aso Chronicle, said the absence of a clinic in the community had been one of the major challenges facing his people, saying patients travelled to Dobi village in Gwagwalada to seek for medical attention.

He said some women; especially those for ante-natal or who were about to deliver, had to travel to Dobi, and that some of them took the risk to deliver their babies at home traditionally.

“My people travel all the way from this village to Dobi to access medical facilities as the health centre at Baribari is not accessible because the nurse there is hardly on ground,” he said.

He also complained of lack of pipe borne water, saying women trekked to River Gurara to fetch water and that the only borehole that was provided to the community by Sure-P some years ago had broken down.    

According to him, the road linking the community to Mayaki-Gulida is in a deplorable state, saying “as you were coming, you might have discovered that some bad portions of the road were repaired, including some culverts. I was the one, who three days ago, mobilised farmers to carry out the repair,” he said.

He said despite his people being peasants who were into cultivation of varieties of crops, the road to transport such crops to the market had always been a big challenge.

He said vans only had access to the community during dry season.

He, therefore, appealed to the authorities of the council to come to the aid of his people by providing a new borehole or refurbishing the grounded one, adding that the council should also endeavour to grade the road to enable farmers move their produce to the market.          

When contacted, the chairman of the council, Alhaji Abdulrahman Ajiya, said his administration was not unaware of the infrastructural challenges of the rural communities in the area, saying the council had met with all party women who also tabled some of their challenges.

“And as I speak, we have already captured some  of  these amenities; especially the grading of rural roads and sinking of new boreholes and refurbishing of some broken down ones across the villages in the council’s budget,” he said.

The chairman, while commenting on the state of the dilapidated health centre at Baribari village, said he would meet with the management of the FCT health and human services secretariat to inform them about it, but that “The health personnel you talked about, I will see the head of department of health to know the step to take about it,” he added.