Zamfara: The shock called Daba

Bagega is a rural community with less than a hundred thousand inhabitants, but the absence of healthcare facilities, schools and other recreational facilities shocks first time visitor to the village, considering the international attention the community had received in recent time.Even more shocking is Daba. The mining enclave created by miners from the village following […]

Bagega is a rural community with less than a hundred thousand inhabitants, but the absence of healthcare facilities, schools and other recreational facilities shocks first time visitor to the village, considering the international attention the community had received in recent time.
Even more shocking is Daba. The mining enclave created by miners from the village following the contamination of the entire  village, in the course of the mining  activities.
The contamination resulted in the death of over 500 children, countless abortions occurred, and  there is growing infidelity among the male population. Medical experts have noted that many more children may be on the waiting list for diseases, such as skin cancer, kidney failure or brain damage, following their continuing  exposure to lead.
On entering Daba, one is greeted with a strong stench of Indian hemp and the sight of women and under-aged children running errands, as is common in most ghettos across the globe.
The area has a lot of camps and make-shift dwellings to accommodate the various operations of the miners, but it is well fortified against any external aggression or intrusion, and visitors are easily spotted and interrogated right at the entrance on the reason for coming.
Activities at Daba show that Bagega is sitting on wealth. Armed  with this knowledge, the miners are bent on getting their own share of the wealth at any cost.  
The end product of the miners’ crude and tedious work is Sponge Gold, which is forwarded to the thriving black market, where the gold is sold for onward refining and marketing.
Between getting the sponge gold and the black market, a chain of activities are carried out, and this is where scores of children lost their lives, women have abortions and men quickly become impotent.
A normal day at Daba starts with the miners filing out to their various digging holes, where they excavate the soil in search for  rock like substances.
Alhaji Adamu Seko, Chairman of the Bagega Mining Association, said that the excavation is dangerous, but they have to do it anyway. “In the last three years, we have lost over 10 miners, as result of the caving-in of the hole where the raw gold is being extracted in rock like substances.”
When these substances are mined in sufficient quantity, they return to Daba, where it is  pounded and made easy for the machines to grind  into powder form. The work at this stage is mostly handled by able bodied men,  or youths between the ages of 16 and 25, who have  the physical build to undertake the rigorous work of pounding rocks.
The children will then load the  rocks into sacks for washing, one of the last stages, but the most dangerous of the heinous jobs, before arriving at the gold.
The processes from this stage show  some level of ingenuity on the part of the miners. They were able to construct a washing platform padded with rug carpets, so that in the process of washing the rocks grinded into powdered form, any element of gold in the rocks will automatically attach to the rug in the form of mud. The mud is collected into a pan and   Mercury, is added onto it,  and the children now use their bare hands to mix the mud laden with high gold prospective with a drop or two of mercury, before the final washing is done, to get out the sponge gold.
Dr Kabiru Ibrahim Getso, a medical expert with the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme in Abuja, noted that handling of mercury with bare hands by the children, would definitely result in skin cancer.
“This is really risky for the children. They are using their bare hands in the processing of gold. This is dangerous and may result in skin cancer, while the lead which has already contaminated the gold they are mining, can also damage their kidneys, brain and reduce their IQ drastically,” he added.
Shehu Anka, an expert, said that the method employed by the miners lead to the loss of over 70 per cent of the gold in the process. “Because of the crude  methods the miners here are using,  they are able to get only 30 per cent of the gold at the end of their tedious work.”
The question observers are asking is who is buying the sponge gold produced by the miners?
The answer would not be farfetched  considering the vibrancy with which the black market is thriving. A Chinese company was said to be operating in Anka, the local government headquarters,  and about forty minutes drive from Bagega. But the company was shut down following the uproar that greeted the death of the children, following the incident of lead poisoning.
Seko, the miner’s Chairman said that their activity is a money spinning one, adding that depending on one’s luck, it is possible to make some millions of Naira at the end of a single process. “We make millions from the business ,but it is  just that maybe in a single hole there may be up to 10 to 15 people working, so at the end whatever we get is shared among everybody present.”

Commenting on the activities of the miners, Alhaji Jibrin Haruna, District Head of Bagega, said that mining has become a permanent feature of the community, as almost all men in the community are involved.
He appealed to government for intervention, saying that if properly organised, government would be generating a lot of revenue from the activities of the miners.
But other villagers within Anka local government did not share the district head’s view, saying that any source of livelihood that results in  deaths within the community, should not be encouraged.
Kabir Isah, one of the villagers, noted that mining has become a curse to them rather than a source to alleviate poverty. “Mining is bringing us death instead of money.”
Mohammed Ahmed, a cyclist in Bagega says “I refused to mine and  instead chose to ride my motorcycle, and  I am managing my family well.”

President Goodluck Jonathan was reported to have said penultimate week that government was determined to end the lead poisoning in Bagega, while the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development, has appealed to the miners to organise themselves into  a cooperative society to enable government reach out to them.
It is now over three years since the news of the lead poisoning in Bagega broke, the villagers said that mining and processing has been happening in the village for over 15 years. There is still no step taken by government at all levels to dissuade people from mining, just as there is still no health centre to attend to sick ones.
More importantly, the children are still being exposed to lead in the absence of school or any other recreational activity to engage them. Also, there is the fact that  doctors without borders providing medicare to the children presently, won’t be there forever.
A rapid response from government was lacking at the outbreak of the poisoning, but after three years, no excuse will be accepted on the part of government for not taking action to prevent further death of children from this preventable activity, say a few concerned villagers.