•Lament poor road infrastructure
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Good road networks and medical facilities are key to community development. In most cases, especially in Nigeria, when new roads are constructed, both those on the demand side (the residents) and those on the supply side (the government) feel good about it, thereby improving productivity and the internally generating revenue drive of the government.
So, when the Kaduna State Government, under the immediate past administration of Nasir El-Rufai announced the construction of a 6.5-kilometre ring road in a fast-developing Kaduna suburb called Goni Gora, located in Chikun LGA of the state, the residents were happy and felt a sense of belonging for the first time in many years.
The road project was constructed from Goni Gora up-market to its current terminating point, Hayin Katapawa, though looking like a 20-year-old road due to its deplorable status barely three years after.
The road was expected to go beyond Hanyin Katapawa to cover other communities through Angwan Ijeh by the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
In 2019, the village head of Goni Gora, Chief John Dodo Yusuf Sarki, expressed satisfaction and commended El-Rufai, who was fulfilling his promise, unlike his predecessors who failed to fulfill such promises for years.
However, residents of the area are in August 2023 singing a different song as they now find it difficult to commute, thereby appealing to Governor Uba Sani to help put the major road that connects them in good shape.
This is even as pregnant women asked their governor to put a perimeter fence, electricity, and safe water source at the Health Care Centre in Goni-Gora to ensure their safety and that of their newborn.
To these residents, there is no better time for Governor Sani to put them in mind than now when the responsible ministries, departments and agencies are developing the 2024 budget for the state without which no serious capital project could be executed.
The Goni Gora Health Centre, which is competing with Primary Health Centres elsewhere, having been taking 30 deliveries on average per month, is without a perimetre fence, security, safe water, electricity supply, and good access road thereby making it difficult for pregnant women to access the public facility.
When this correspondent visited the area, there were about 14 qualified staff most of who were recently employed and deployed by the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, an indication that personnel was not a problem here.
The person in-charge of the facility, Lucy Maiyaki, commended the state government for recently employing and deploying relevant staff to primary health facilities in the state.
“We work here from 8am to 6pm because of the condition of the facility. If we have a perimetre fence, gates and security, we are ready to be here 24/7 for our clients. This place is open and the environment itself is developing with scanty houses which means anybody can come and attack us at night.
“We are not happy that a woman will come here for antenatal only for us to refer her in case the labour starts at night. But if the labour starts in the morning or afternoon, we are here for them. They go to General Hospital, Kakuri (Kaduna South LG), General Hospital, Sabo (Chikun LG), or Primary Health Care Centre, Romi (Chikun).
“If the area is well developed, we can take the risk of working here at night even without the perimetre fence. So, if the government or donour agency or even corporate organisations can do that for us, we will be happy, “she said.
A pregnant woman sighted at the facility, Jessica Ibrahim, lamented that though the environment looks clean, “the hospital does not have perimetre fence, no electricity and no good road.
“I also discovered that there is no safe water. They rely on a well and we all know water from this kind of well can add to our problem. Imagine using such water to clean up a woman that just give birth or even to bathe the newborn baby,” she said.
Another pregnant woman, who uses the facility, Falere Stella, called for swift intervention in the community saying: “Once it rains, coming here becomes very difficult for me because I can only come here on a motorcycle.
“You can imagine the risk involved when the motorcycle rider conveys a pregnant woman through the slipery and bumpy road to the health centre. I wish these issues of bad road and others are attended to as soon as possible so reproductive age women like me can heave a sigh of relief,” she said.
As far as Andrew Hassan was concerned, the road has been abandoned by Kaduna State Government for long. According to him, “the road was tarred from the Up-market up to Katapawa even though the constructed part started depreciating almost immediately after it was done because of the shoddy work done by the contractors.
“The implication of the bad state of this major road includes but not limited to high cost of transportation and difficulty in bringing farm produce from farms as well as poor business for traders around here.
“I want to appeal to Governor Uba Sani to come to our rescue by ensuring this road is put in the 2024 budget of the state.”
Another resident who has been residing siding in Goni Gora for 15 years, Johnson Nwaemere, lamented that ” living here has been terrible. We have been yearning and hoping that a road that connects several villages like this would have been put into proper shape by the government considering its social and economic impacts.
“When the road was approved in 2018, we celebrated it and commented the administration of Nasir El-Rufai. The people here have been neglected as if we are not a part of the state. We hope that Governor Uba Sani will not allow this part of the State to remain like this. We have suffered too much.”
To James Odama, the current situation of the road is more than a nightmare to the residents. He said: “Every day, we spend our earnings on repairing our cars. Once it rains, no motorcycle or tricycle can pass through. The only alternative as a necessity may demand is the vehicle.
“Initially, we thought our suffering had ended when the news was all over that the road would be fixed. It is a difficult time for us with the rains in August. As you can see, cars are not on the road as busy as the area is because we have parked our cars.
“Even the places we used to pay commercial motorcyclists N50 is now between N200-300. With the fuel situation, we are paying more. We are in a deep mess.”
A trader at Sir Gbagyi Street, Goni Gora, Mrs Sunday Orku, said: “For the past 18 years, we have been praying for the time help will come to us concerning this road. This development is a big threat to small business operators like me.
“Sometimes, to get your goods down here can be so difficult that you think of quitting. With rain, it is not a good experience at all. We hope the new governor will remember us any time soon.”