From Jerusalem to Makoda in Kano State: The journey

in the previous part, I recounted how my studies in Israel and the Negev Desert inspired the creation of FADE Africa and the decision to launch a pilot antidesertification project in northern Nigeria. In this part, I tell the story of how that vision took root in Makoda and the unexpected impact it had on the lives of the people.

With such considerable funding at my disposal, I met with experts at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Ibadan for assistance in plants selection.

Though I was given some seedlings, I was advised that it would be more prudent to establish a nursery in Kano State that would supply my needs. They offered to contact the State Secretariat on my behalf. The Kano State Government also made land available for the project in Makoda village in Danbatta Local Government Area.

The village was losing farmland, livestock, and farmers were leaving town for lack of sustenance, to the ravages of desertification and drought. The only secondary school in the area had an enrolment of less than 50 students.

To underline the commitment of the State, my contact with the State Government was the Office of the Deputy Governor, Late Engr. Mogaji. His Excellency, graciously asked his Permanent Secretary, Abdulazeez Abbah, to co-ordinate the programme. It was, therefore, relatively easy for us to enlist the services of the relevant ministry, in this case the Ministry of Environment, for warehousing and production of the required seedlings for our various projects.

The very first milestone we accomplished was the sinking and commissioning of a deep borehole. Prior to this, the community had no public potable water supply. The indigenes depended on collecting water from ponds and seasonal streams for their water supply. To me, this would be grossly inadequate to sustain the pilot project.

Besides I also wanted to change the lives of the people by providing a source of clean water for their use.

With the borehole in production, we started planting in the 3rd quarter of 2001.

Initially we planted ten thousand trees, but kept expanding and replacing dead ones with time. I enlisted the help of the students in the daily watering of the trees.

Let me point out that watching the trees grow and bloom was an immense fulfilment of purpose for me.

But what I really did not envisage was the tremendous growth in students’ enrolment at the only secondary school in the village, within 2 years, they had grown to over 200 students. Where did they all come from? The school principal informed me that a lot of those who had earlier skipped town due to loss of income and livelihood, returned with their families. Others were children of settlers from nearby farming communities, who were then able to tend to their livestock with water from the borehole.

I was told that under the supervision of the district head, water would be piped, periodically, from the borehole through a series of plastic hoses and pipes to nearby fields and farms. For their domestic needs, women and children would collect water in jerry cans, buckets, and leather pouches. I was truly astonished with what FADE had accomplished.

Furthermore, the other thing I did not envisage at all was the endemic passion that was displayed by the Project Consultant, Winnie, who worked tirelessly to help achieve the success we did on the pilot project, yet did not talk about fees all through the project completion and commissioning. Although, if she had requested the fees, considering her career level in the organization she worked with then, and her level of expertise, her fees would have wiped out the account. Then, add to the fact that whenever we needed her expertise, she would always fly into Nigeria from the US, where she lived and still lives. Out of fear, I would often try to raise the fee issue with her, but she would always laugh that she earned enough for two jobs. It’s over a decade now I still fear that one day she may come up to ask for the fees.

In Makoda we had only planned to provide water for the plants, and here we were providing water for a whole community, and growing the community in the process.

The bigger question though was, “What to do with the students who now require more classrooms and teachers?” My, oh my, had I stirred the hornets’ nest?

But never to be daunted, I went to Abdulazeez and the Deputy Governor. “We would need to build a new classroom block,” I informed them, and if they could do that I would also throw in a computer laboratory for ICT studies. The State Government took up my challenge, and the project consultant, Winnie, with her team and I went in search of funding to equip a computer laboratory.

The British High Commission in Abuja, International Energy Insurance, and Exxon Mobil Corporation came to my rescue. Hence, FADE was able to set up a computer laboratory, a Generating set to supply power, and relevant books for the school.

Twenty (20) computers were installed, and computer trainings were personally conducted by the Project Consultant, Winnie, who was also very knowledgeable about computers, for both students and teachers of the school.

Therefore, in 2004, barely three years since the start of planting, and everything else working smoothly, we commissioned the Makoda Wall of Trees project, an Oil Mill Workshop that uses the seeds from the Neem trees as raw material, and a new Computer Laboratory at Government Secondary School, Makoda, in the presence of all my benefactors, board of trustees, and friends of FADE, with the Emir of Kano as the special guest of honour. The Federal Ministry of Environment sent Dr. Bukar

Hassan as a representative to the event. Dr. Hassan would later play major roles in the activities of FADE down the years.

The Wall of Trees, the Oil Mill Workshop (cottage industry), and the school computer laboratory were not the only things that were commissioned that fateful day in January, 2004.

Now, during the sinking of the borehole, the construction of the elevated water reservoir, and the planting of the trees, I was spending quite a bit of time in Kano and at the project site. Usually I would be given a car and a driver from the Deputy Governor’s office to use during my stay. The driver would dutifully stay with me until I was finished for the day, and he would drive me back to my hotel at first, and with time, to FADE’s guest house.

I was always conscious of the driver sitting in the car all day, waiting for me to complete my day’s work. And this would go on for days because I could stay for upwards of 7 days. In addition, I did not particularly like the daily drive to and fro Makoda, wasting valuable time in traffic and on the road. There was also the toll it was taking on my health.

So, in the course of the development of the project, I decided that I would be camping out in my field tent during each extended visit to Makoda. Besides, this made it possible for me to spend time with the villagers and the district head, as we could talk long into the night. And waking up in the morning to go straight to work reminded me of my good old days as a farm boy with my uncles.

In the process, I struck up friendship with a particularly well-to-do Alhaji in Makoda, who did a lot of trading and spent most of his time away from Makoda. Unknown to me however, my camping bothered him; for with all his entreaties, I would not accept his offer of sleeping in his house.

During one of my visits I noticed that there was this construction of a modest traditional hut going on about 100m from the school, but I never gave it a thought.

Alhaji and I would normally exchange pleasantries on the phone whenever he was in Kano, but this time he was insistent on knowing when I would be in Makoda so he could synchronize his return.

By this time, the Makoda project had grown far beyond anything I had originally imagined. What started as an effort to plant trees and provide water for their survival had evolved into a project that was transforming lives. The community had access to clean water, school enrolment had increased significantly, new facilities had been provided, and a sense of hope had returned to an area that was steadily losing people to desertification and drought.

For me, however, the greatest reward was not the successful commissioning of the Wall of Trees, the oil mill, or the computer laboratory. It was the bond that had developed between me and the people of Makoda. Over the years, I had ceased to be merely a visitor. I had become part of the community, sharing in their daily lives, their aspirations, and their challenges.