BWARI AREA COUNCIL

WHERE CLIMATE CHANGE AIDED LAND/INFRASTRUCTURE DEGRADATION, RETARDS THE PEOPLE AND LEADERSHIP’S WILL-POWER FOR DESERVED DEVELOPMENT

While the fact of history has come to terms with the fact that Abuja City is the Unity Capital of Africa’s most populated nation, Nigeria, Bwari Area Council wears the unique toga of

playing hosts to the most dignifying aspects of the institutions of state that defines a nation, the Nigerian nation. A cursory survey undertaken by Wind Sound Africa confirmed that a higher number of Nigeria’s future leaders, the youths, who travel to the nation capital  every year are often headed to Bwari. The reasons are not far-fetched; Bwari Area Council plays hosts to elite Nigerian Law School, Federal Government Girls College and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). It is therefore home to more visitors to the Federal Capital Territory than any other Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory with the exception of the municipal Area Council. The substance that defines Bwari Area Council as hosts to these institutions and the population of future leaders and their economic welfare as well as those of the indigenous population combine to make the land and its people and the economic infrastructure available at them the most urgent issue for consideration  in view of the surreptitious damages being unleashed on its people.

The most dreadful setback for citizens of developing nations at the onset of the 21^st century A.D is the undaunting problem of land and infrastructure degradation occasioned by Climate Change. While countries of the Brighton woods institutions, called the developed nations try to divert attentions from the sources of the main causative issues to the mundane ones, it is incumbent on all appropriately informed organizations and individuals to provide other-wise unpopular developmental set-backs of people to all institutions that should take steps to ameliorate them.

The land/infrastructural Degradation dilemma of Bwari Area Council are hereby highlighted for the very reasons of bringing succor to their existence. This is made more urgent in view of depleting national resources available for development allocations. Research based information confirm that Bwari Area Council’s economic losses to Climate Change aided land and infrastructure Degradation per annum is put at about N600,000,000.00(six hundred million naira). Wind Sound Africa’s mission includes the establishment of the facts and figures

1. Barangoni Community Road

 

The road is a 1.5 kilometers long one that links more than 7000 members of families and visitors to Bwari Area Council Headquarters and other parts of the
Federal Capital Territory.  The road is badly eroded and needs complete rehabilitation and maintenance. When our team visited the community for Climate Change aided environmentally related degradation data collection, the road was found to be extremely unusable  for even the high suspension vehicle the Team used for the trip. Degradation data obtained along the road include long distance gully erosion damage, dilapidated and non-existent water channels and extreme flooding when it rains.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Barangoni Community Primary Health Care Center

 

The Centre which caters for hundreds of patients on daily bases is in need of urgent rehabilitation and maintenance. A borehole provided by the Area Council for the clinic’s smooth operations was discovered to be in urgent need of rehabilitation as it had broken down for many months as at the time of our Team’s visit.

Chief Danlamin I Nana who spoke to Wind Sound Africa on the state of the community’s  road and Primary Health Care Center confirmed that the Area Council  had done their possible best by setting up the PHC clinic in the area and helping to maintaining. He pleaded that the people need urgent assistance on the road and Health Center. Officer-in-Charge of the clinic Francisca Thomas told our Team that the clinic which admits several patients daily needs urgent rehabilitation of its aged borehole.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Guto Village Community Road And Clinic

Guto Village is populated by a mixture of energetic indigenous citizens and members of other tribes from other parts of Nigeria who find the community’s cultural hospitality and fertile land very attractive for the present pattern of multidimensional economic lifestyle unavoidably made necessary for citizens of Nigeria today. However, the prevailing problem of limited national resources for allocation and implementation of necessary economic infrastructural needs across African Nations, worsened by ever deteriorating effects of Climate Change have combined to make daily lives almost unbearable for residents of the community. When Wind Sound Africa visited the village to assess the people’s qualify-of-life development draw backs, it was discovered that the residents’ strong determination to forge ahead despite all odds are confronted by the dearth of the essential elements that give courage to even self-willed development initiatives. A community Primary Health Care Clinic initiated by a member of the National Youths Service many years ago upon realizing that there was no such health facility within the whole community has remained uncompleted unto date despite the ex-Corp member having single-handedly financed the building project up to lintel blockwork level. The village’s cultural leader, Chief Adamu Ibrahim who took our Team to the clinic building site lamented the health delivery dilemma of his people, explaining that during any health emergency situation, the people are often left helpless in the hands of God as there is no Primary Health Care providing facility in the whole village.

A walk with Chief Ibrahim to the abandoned clinic’s site from where our vehicle could no longer drive further brought us into contact with the heart-wrenching underdevelopment that stairs the people in the face. Self-help community efforts at keeping their torrential rain water flooded road was evident all along the way. The clinic’s long abandoned structure sitting on a 100×100 meters plot of land donated by the village’s leadership layed desolate and overtaken by weeds. Chief Ibrahim appealed for good hearted Nongovernmental Organizations, corporate Conglomerates like banks and Telecommunication Service firms patronized by residents of Gotu village to come to the assistance of the village by completing the clinic and upgrading their only source of Communicating with the rest of the world through their torrential rains devastated 3 kilometers long Gotu road. Visible self-help efforts on the road’s maintenance were sited by our Team. Conservative estimate of economic losses suffered by residents of Gotu village due to the deplorable state of the road were put at hundreds of millions of naira per annum
JUSTICE CHARONGHE FAMILY EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION

A Bubble Of Hope And Care On The Horizon In Gotu
The development retardation data collection mission of Wind Sound Africa to Gotu village assumed the aura of a great surprise when our Team, led by Chief Ibrahim had disembarked from our vehicle and trecked a handsome distance on foot came upon an expansive modern building with all the trappings of expensive construction work out of which bursted a middle-aged lady with assertive and determined carriage. As we took unavoidable notice of a gigantic billboard in front of the house and the infectious presence of the lady, Chief Ibrahim quickly introduced the personality behind the scenario, Pst Dr Kathy Charles as the sponsor and sole financier of Justice Charonghe Family Empowerment Foundation. Chief Ibrahim told Wind Sound Africa that the foundation had brought so much succor and empowerment to needy residents of village by offering quality education and feeding of indigent children of the village to the huge appreciation all residents and cultural leadership of Gotu village. He passionately pleaded with the International and Local NGOs, Governmental Development Agencies, Humanitarian Foundations and Corporate Social Services departments of Corporate Conglomerates to please join forces with Justice Charonghe Family Empowerment Foundation to fund their humanitarian objectives in the village, complete the construction of the abandoned clinic and refurbish the road that links the village to Bwari and other parts of the state in order to add value to the economic lives of his subjects.

Pst Dr Kathy Charles told our Team that her passion is God inspired and that God has continued to sustain her commitment to improving the economic lives of people she has met through the activities of the Foundation. The main challenges of the Foundation, according to her includes funding and governmental partnership in furthering the vision and missions of the Foundation.
Other residents of the village who spoke to us plleaded for urgent extra-governmental assistances in view of the lean and depleted federally allocatable financial resources.

PMABWARA COMMUNITY OF USHAFA WARD

Pmabwara Community and it’s estimated population figure of five thousand residents is a vintage scene of the kind of Land and Economic Infrastructure degradation African communities suffer from the negative effects of Climate Change. Torrential rain falls unleash seasonal floods on the people’s homes, roads and their farmlands. Clean drinking water is hard to come by and the costs of farm inputs which enables them to enjoy profitable harvests from their farms have sky rocketed out their reach. When Wind Sound Africa visited the community to obtain fact-based data on these issues, we were confronted with a deluge of revelations.
Clean drinkable water, one of the most important needs of people is a rarity with in the community. A properly equipped borehole provided by the Area Council years ago in response to the people’s need in this regard had, over the years, been rendered unfuctional by a combination of wears and tiers from years of unrelenting usage, flood-water-conveyed pebbles and sand, and of course lack of expensive maintenance. As at the time of our visit the borehole had been completely rendered useless, reportedly for years. Only the high-quality overhead tank stood gallantly as a reminder of it’s erstwhile existence. It needs entirely new drilling and re-equipment.

The Hon Councilor representing the area on Bwari Area Council, Hon Gabriel Ayenajeyi Solomon who spoke to us and took us around the community informed us that water scarcity is one of the many biting needs of the community that needs urgent extra-governmental intervention in view of the other vast developmental needs of the people waiting for scarcely adequate financial allocations from the various tiers of government. Gully erosion has affected up to fifty residential homes of Pmabwara Community and are in urgent needs of stone-pitching works to prevent the owners from being rendered homeless in the nearest future.

Our Team visited two major streets in the area that have suffered from years of flood water damages due to complete absence of water drainages on both sides of the roads ostensibly due to the emergency circumstances of their construction as far back as 1985 when the community had to relocate from their previous location which now plays host to Usman Dam.

The affected streets needing urgent reconstruction, drainages and stone-pitching of gully erosion ravaged homes are Zalo – Poyi street and Chief Danladi Awyekwo streets in Pmabwara Community all of which combine to be one kilometer, one hundred meters long. Ushafa to Bwari road which is also known as the Old Bwari Road is a major casualty of the torrential rain water that destroys economic infrastructure put in place by government agencies in the past. The stretch of road is three kilometers long and needs urgent reconstruction. Residents of the community who spoke to Wind Sound Africa pleaded for all forms of Assistances from Governmental and non-governmental organizations to bail them out from their present developmental dilemma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DILAPIDATED  BLOCKS OF CLASSROOMS IN IGU COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL

The proof of the presence of a very strong will for Economic Infrastructural development in the hearts of Bwari Area Council’s leadership is evident in the quality of road the Council Administration has constructed between Bwari town and Igu Community in one of its Council Wards. Our Team drove on the 8 kilometer long road on our way to the community for our fact-finding mission. The road, said to have been constructed and commissioned last year is of the highest quality in terms of the materials used, it’s size, culverts and drainages where they are necessary. It is a bold proof of the quantum and quality of development the Area Council is reputed to be determined to bring to the grounds in it’s sprawling rural communities.

 

The community’s primary school structures is another evidence of the use of superior building materials by the various levels of government in the states. Constructed many years ago with strong walls, terrazzo floors and high grimace security iron doors, it is only the high intensity rays of the sun from years of Climate Change aided ozone layer depletions and exposure that led to the collapsed roofs and wood works the four blocks of the school as suffered as  witnessed by our team. However, there were signs of the degradation and collapse spreading to more blocks when we visited.

The District Head of Igu, Chief Solomon TanzakoIgu who spoke to us in company of a concerned spiritual leader, Rev Isuwa Emmajelo pleased for extra-governmental assistances in renovating the affected blocks and the ones already showing signs of dilapidation.

The Hon Councilor representing the ward on Bwari Area Council, Hon Jerry Alkali also called for urgent intervention on the school structures in view of the huge number of developmental needs of the people in the scarce financial resources available to governments at the various tiers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE BLOCKS OF DILAPIDATED CLASSROOMS AT SHERE COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL.

Shere Community in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory is a typical African rural Community whose residents are overwhelmed by the vagaries of development retardations brought upon voiceless African rural  dwellers by the multiphacated negative effects of Climate Change. Unceasing torrential rains that wreak havocs on the only road that links them to Igu Community and on to Bwari, headquarters of their Area Council make the transportation of their farm products to profitable markets impossible.

A high number of school age children of the community have had to undertake their studies under very stressful situations due to the level of dilapidation their classrooms have been subjected to in recent years. When our Team visited Shere Community, it was found that the most centrally located primary school in the community has lost up to three whole blocks of classrooms to negative whether situations in recent years. Community dwellers who spoke to our Team pleaded for renovation and rehabilitation assistances from Nongovernmental and governmental agencies on the situations on the ground in the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBSOLETE SOLAR POWERED BOREHOLE IN THE CHIEF’S NEIGHBORHOOD, DEI DEI.

More than 5000 residents of Shagari Quarters, Dei Dei in Kubwa Ward of the Area Council used to treasure fetching their clean water from the borehole when it was put in place by the Area Council many years ago. It served them for quite a good while. However, nonstop usage of the facility as a result of the overwhelming population ran down the pimping machine and the entire well ran out of water possibly as a result of changes in the underground water level. Consequently, the pumping machine and the well have become obsolete and in dare needs of complete reconstruction as the overhead tank stand may not be strong enough now to bear the weight of it’s full content without an integrity test being carried out on it. Women and elders of the area cried out for urgent assistance in this regard. Mal Ibrahim Wambai a royal family member and Mal Mohammed Abdulahi, son of the District  Head of Jibi who all re-echoed the voice of the community Chief Usman Dalatu pleaded for quick assistances from all legitimate quarters for the reconstruction of the borehole.

Another of the community’s urgent need is the road that links them with the rest of the world. The eight kilometer long road is the economic life wire of the people and needs complete construction with drainages and Culver works.

EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGES AT FEDERAL HOUSING JUNCTION AND MAMA CHARLIE AREAS OF USUMA WARD, KUBWA.

One of the overwhelming negative effects of Climate Change which Africans find difficult to comprehend is the one that has everything to do with the life spans of existing economic Infrastructure. Due to the intensity of the sun rays which used to be absolved by the ozone layer in yester-years, but now bounce back to the surface of the earth because of the depletions of the layer by Climate Change worsening Green House gases, what used to last longer are now weakened in less than half the time they were meant to exist in good shapes. Increased population pressure, especially in urban African cities put further pressure on these hardly affordable economic Infrastructure.

This is one of the reasons why residents of the enormous population that use popular vehicular hubs such as the Federal Housing and Mama Charlie junctions in Kubwa find themselves at a loss on the daily experience they encounter at these junctions due to the bad shapes of the areas. The Hon Councilor representing Usuma ward, Sunday Obeya and a community leader Mr Balla Ali Sule who took our Team to the areas explained the kind of dilemma motorist’s experience everyday at these points and strongly requested for urgent interventions from non-governmental, government and all Humanitarian minded organizations for the complete reconstruction of these vehicular hubs to make lives easier for the people.

 

BAMKO ROAD DUTSE, IN DIRE NEED OF WHAT IT’S LAND FACILITATE IN OTHER PEOPLE’S LANDS.

Bamko Road presents a quintessential story of the irony in the truth, or lack of it, in the age long adage that says “a giver will never lacks”.  Bamko Road, on an average day, is a beehive of activities. In deed a beehive of developmental activities. It was particularly so on the day Wind Sound Africa Team visited the road for developmental data collection. Heavy duty trucks would not give the vehicle that conveyed our Team enough time and space to squeeze through to our destination in Bamko. It was as if there would be no tomorrow. Numberless trucks were all heading towards a Quarry Site along the road, hence tight traffic situation. When we enquired from the young man who had been delegated to meet and guide us through the road why the high number of the trucks were on the ground, he told us it was in fact the normal run of events around the road. But he admitted their was a special reason for the frenzy situation of that day. He said the cost of quarry stones was slated to go up by about 30 percent from the next day.

Bamko Road Dutse, home to Quarry Sites which builders use to fortify structures in other parts of the Federal Capital Territory and possibly beyond, is ungraded, un-drained and un-tarred most of its 4 kilometre distance from Baupma to Bamko. Residents of Bamko are great farmers who produce yams, maize, cassava, beans and rice. Hon Dauda Pashembo who spoke to us on the centrality of the road to the economic lives of the residents said the economic losses the people suffer yearly because of its condition is unquantifiable and pleaded for urgent intervention.

Mal Zakaraya Yahaya who led us around the road said the youths of the area have tried their best to keep the road as manageable as they can but a complete construction of the road would uplift their living standard. If Bamko community land offers development inputs to the government and peoples of other lands, they certainly deserve their deserved road.

BYAZHIN WARD FAILED SOLAR POWERED BOREHOLE PROJECTS IN DIRE NEEDS OF URGENT REHABILITATION.

 

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  Hon Dogara J Ahmed, Speaker, Bwari Area Council Legislative House.

  In this densely populated suburb of Kubwa, Wind Sound Africa Team discovered a high level of citizen’s self-development efforts with well-planned structural development activities going on. The area’s most urgent life quality improvement needs is clean drinking water. In obvious response to this need,  a former Federal Legislator who represented the area in 2920, Hon Micah Jiba Yohana  located his Constituency Water Project in the nerve central part of Byazhine near ECWA Church. However, the Borehole has packed up for years, reportedly due to over-use by the population. It needs urgent reconstruction and maintenance.

 

 

 

Another similar water Project in Chikakore part of the community had also collapsed from over utilization as the time of our working visit. It also needs urgent rehabilitation.

The Speaker of the Legislative Council of Bwari Area Council who represents Byazhine Ward told our Team that the presence of the failed Solar powered borehole Project’s are evidences of the fact that the political and traditional leaderships of the people are up and desirous of uplifting their living standard but are highly constrained by inadequacy of federally allocatable financial resources. He passionately appealed for the interventions of Nongovernmental Organizations for their needful rescues.

G S S KAWU to KAWU COMMUNITY to SABON KAWU ROAD.

This is a 7 kilometer road that remains the main economic nerve Centre of residents of Kawu Community. While Bwari to Kawu road is a model of excellence in rural Infrastructure development, G S S  to Kawu to SabonKawu village road represents the handicap inadequacy of federally allocatable financial resources can bring to bear on the hands of Council leadership in it’s desire to bring development to the people.

The road deserves any form of extra governmental intervention it requires to be constructed. It links very popular farming communities to Kawu and the rest of the Territory. These communities include Tungan Bijimi which major farm products include ginger, cassava and turmeric. Others are Dokuma, Kurmin Daudu and vast Nomadic Grazing Reserves which produce other crops that can combine to make major contributions to the national food basket.

CONCLUSIONS

When the full details of our research findings from the nooks and crannies of Bwari Area Council on the negative effects of Climate Change aided lands and Infrastructure degradation on the people’s economic lives were placed before an Economic Analyst, it was confirmed that the people and Area Council suffer a great quantum of losses per annum from deprived economic activities and related taxes. A conservative figure of between N700,000,000.00( seven hundred million  naira) to N1b(one billion naira per annum was said to be what the combination of losses to the people and government amounts to every year. This highlights the largely ignored impacts of seemingly natural phenomenon that are traceable to the economic life styles of governments and peoples of other regions of the world who contribute up to 85 percent of the green house gasses responsible for Global Warming.