Reuben Buhari
13 January 2009
analysis
Lagos — Urban dwellers accustomed to clean water gushing from their taps would not really appreciate how important a single borehole is to rural dwellers that rely on polluted streams for their survival. Or the importance of a bridge to communities who have lost several of their people to drowning.
Reuben Buhari writes on the noticeable socio-economic improvement the people of Zangon Kataf are gradually witnessing
Yangal is a sleepy rural village of about a hundred and twenty people in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, populated mostly by farmers and some few hunters. Mrs. Tabitha Yariok, who was born in Yangal some thirty-nine years ago, has found it difficult to stop talking about the new borehole that has recently been dug in her village. This is because despite the closeness of her village to Zonkwa, the headquarters of Zangon Kataf Local Government, the village has never had a borehole. According to Tabitha, the village relies on some few wells which dry up during the dry season making them to resort to the river that runs parallel to the village.
However, the problem with the river is that as the dry season bits harder, the water dries up in certain parts. The area where the water remains becomes the only source for both the villagers and Fulani herdsmen, which sometimes results in violent clashes between the two groups, as the villagers sometimes accuse the Fulani men of dirtying the village's only source of clean water . But all that has become history as the village now has clean water courtesy of the borehole. The story in the village is even set to become sweeter as plans are underway for a second borehole.
The people of Zauwuru village, who despite their proximity to Jama'a Local Government are part of Zangon Kataf, also have a reason to smile. This is because the river which separates their village with Kafanchan, one of the biggest towns in Southern Kaduna, now has a bridge after several of their people drowned while trying to cross the river during the rainy season.
According to Angus Bulus who spoke in Hausa language to THISDAY at the edge of the bridge, on his way to Kafanchan, said the bridge was like a dream come through. He further narrated how two people lost their lives last year while trying to cross the bridge when the river overflowed its bank.
"We know what it means to be in a democratic dispensation. This bridge has not been passable for as long as I remember. During the dry season we wade across it but when the rainy season sets in fully it becomes a battle as we have to look for the narrowest point along the river, or try to cross by stepping on the big stones you see jutting out. In some instance, when the river is really swollen, we simply stayed in our village.
"That is how we have been losing people to drowning because some of our young people who have pressing issues in Kafanchan and don't want to go through Kamanton Village, which is very far, attempt going across the river. Last year, we lost two people who drowned while attempting to cross it," Bulus said.
Women empowerment has also received a boost in the village of Zuturung Gida where in addition to a newly-dug concrete well for the village, a grinding machine capable of grinding both cassava and any other type of grain was made available to the village and handed to the women. The women were told to form a cooperative society and the machine was provided for the group.
The provision of the machine was based on the fact that the village produces a lot of cassava and with the machine, the women can process the cassava instead of selling the tubers or taking them to Kafanchan for it to be turn into gari. How the women handle the machine is that each person in the village that wants to use the machine pays a token. The money is use for maintenance and the left-over is given out to the women as a soft loan which they use for other petty trading.
An even more interesting angle to the issue of transformation taking place in the five wards of Madakiya, Zonkwa, Kamanton, Gidan Jatau, and Ungwan Rimi wards is that the member representing Zonkwa which comprised the five wards in the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Hon. Irimia Kantiok and who has been responsible for all the projects in all the villages doesn't talk to the press and has never been known to grant any interview. This has made carious journalists in the state to picked interest in him and the projects being executed by him in his constituency.
When he came in 2007 after being in legal practice for more than twenty years, the lawyer-turned politician resolved immediately after assuming office, to play a different brand of politics of allowing achievement speak for him rather than speaking about it. He is also practicing a spectacularly effective kind of politics where communities in his constituency are encouraged to start a project by themselves and then he will come in and complete it.
He told THISDAY that communities should learn to help themselves rather than depend or wait for government to come and do everything for them. This has become highly successful as several of the villages in his constituency have started one form of project or the other, even when it is glaringly clear that they don't have the financial capacity to finish it. And on his part, he has come to the aid of every village that initiates any project.
He has also decided not to give money to any village head or politician from any part of his constituency. Rather, what he is doing is to ask either the village head or party leaders to nominate one project or their most pressing need that would benefit the whole community and then he would come in and in the presence of all the people would announce that rather than the village head or the village party officials accepting money from him, they have decided that such and such project should be done in the village.
In this way a clinic started by the people of Kagal village has been completed by him and would soon be staffed and equipped by the Local Government. A clinic was also renovated for the people of Zutungh Shankom, and also another one at Zuturung Kangura. The village primary school at Tachet was also renovated. A block of three classrooms was built by him in Kangum village in addition to providing all the doors, windows and roof of six classes built by the community. However, Sule Haruna, one of the villagers further told THISDAY that what the village needed most, and to which Kantiok has agreed to provide is a borehole.
The district head of Abet, Mr. Ishaku Audu who also spoke to THISDAY in his palace said the village is now aware that democratic rule has moved closer to their village. He also praised Kantiok for completing a community hall for them. The septuagenarian chief further noted that the kind of politics being practiced by their member at the State Assembly has become a new standard that other politicians would have to emulate.
This was corroborated by the village head of Kadon, in Madakiya ward, Mr. Manasseh Umaru, whose one block of classroom of three classes started by the village has been completely finished by Kantiok. According to Umaru, "the politics of today as we are witnessing it is not like that of yesterday, according to our member who on assuming office in 2007 informed us that he will not carry money and give to anybody but will rather construct a project that the whole village will benefit from. By completing our school, he has ensured that the child of every person in this village, who desires, would be able to be educated."
Kantiok further speaks on his idea of not just giving money to people except students in tertiary institutions writing their projects. "During my campaign, I made it very clear that my focus is to develop the rural communities in my constituency rather than to give them money as it was done before by other politicians, except in the case of final year students, widows and the seriously ill.
"I resolved that when I get into office, the respective communities are going to benefit from me in terms of projects. The projects will be fundamental to the villages. I also resolved that any community that shows it willingness to develop by starting a project which they cannot complete will be completed by me. An example is a community that is in need of a hospital, they had already started one but yet to complete it.
On the issue of some clinics that he is involved with in places like Ramai, Kanzir, Yangal, Kagal Zuturung Kangurara, Zutungh Shankan, and Farman Dutse, THISDAY sought to find out what will happened if after building the clinics the local council fails to staff and stock their pharmacies. Kantiock said, "the local government is aware of what I am doing, in fact in the case of the hospital at Ramai, the local government is aware that a rural clinic is being built for that community and by the time it is through, it would be handed over to the local government for them to staff and equip. I have gotten the assurance from the council chairman Hon. Timmy Kambai that every clinic built in Zonkwa constituency would be staffed and equipped."
However, despite the effort in improving the socio-economic lives of his people, a lot still need to be done as evident by the rampant complaints of absence of electricity and clean water by other communities visited by THISDAY. But the lawmaker has explained that "our plan for them is that we can't dig well for them or borehole now, because the water level is up, but between January and March, we intend to dig more boreholes and repair all broken down wells that we have already identified.
"As to the issue of electrification, I can't single-handedly finance the electrification of the communities, but the local government is tackling the issue and will do all within its power and within the means of available resources to ensure that the issue is tackled," he said.
In as much as Kantiok has done what could be described as moderate achievement, the fact remains that more, especially in the areas of good road, clean water, agriculture and electricity need to be done before the expiration of his term in the Kaduna State House of Assembly, as not just people from his constituency are watching, but so are others people in the state.
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