Residents of Gulida, a community in Gurdi ward of Abaji Area Council live on the banks of River Gurara and water transport appears to be the only means of ferrying their goods to the markets.
For people in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is not unusual that their main means of transportation is water.
Aso Chronicle’s visit to the community revealed that the residents face several other challenges.
The inhabitants of the community, who are Bassa by ethnicity and their major occupation is farming and fishing, have not witnessed development.
There is total absence of social amenities in Gulida. Accessible, passable road, pipe borne water, electricity, health centre and a functional primary school are not available to the residents of the riverine community.
It is also tough and rough getting to and out of the community as the only means is canoe.
Mrs. Hauwa Usman, a housewife who strapped a two-year-old boy to her back as she sat in a canoe to cross the river, said she goes from one villages to the other to hawk second hand clothes.
She said though she is from neighboring Tungan Sarki village in Kwali Area Council, she has been taking the risk of boarding canoes to across the river to Gulida, Munaya, Nasarawa and other neighbouring villages to hawk fairly used clothes.
She added that it has always been hectic for people residing in villages like Tungan Sarki, Dogon Ruwa, Dafa, Gwomani and others to get to Gulida community, as the only available option was the use canoe to cross River Gurara.
Usman, who is a mother of six, said her husband is a farmer, while she chose trading to complement his effort and augment the family’s income.
She called on the government to construct a bridge across the river to ease movement of people in the villages.
Ayuba Bako, a farmer from neighbouring Munamaya village, who spoke with our reporter at the river bank, while off-loading some bags of melon out of a canoe, said he was conveying them to Kwali market and that using canoe was the only way his farm produce could get to the market.
“After I load them in the canoe and crossed the river, a pickup van will now come to the river bank to convey them to the market. That is how I have been doing it over the years, along with many other farmers, across this river,” he said.
He said he pays N100 per bag of melon to get his consignment across the river, adding that he also used the canoe to cross the river whenever he is going to a neighbouring village to access health care service.
Thirteen-year-old Danladi Saidu, a native of Gulida community, who operates a canoe, told Aso Chronicle that he collects N100 to N300 per load to ferrying passengers across the river.
Mrs. Jummai Garba, a mother of four, while narrating her experience, recalled how she was in labour one night and her husband had to go and wake up a canoe operator at night to ferry her across the river.
“And this thing I am telling you was just a year ago. How I wish my husband is at home so he can to tell you the risk he took that night to take me in a canoe across the river,” she said.
She added, “Even for ante-natal care, some women find it difficult to attend it because of lack of health care centre here in this village. Some take the risk to deliver their babies at home,”
Also speaking to Aso Chronicle, the district head of Gulida, Alhaji Umar Awaje, said the community has been neglected by successive administrations in terms of provision of viable amenities that would impact on the lives of his people.
He said the residents have no access to health care service, adding that patients always took the risk of boarding canoes to cross the river to access healthcare services at neighbouring Dafa, Yangoji and Kwali towns.
He said lack of health clinic at the community and a bridge across River Gurara have been the major challenges facing residents of the community.
Lack of bridge has also affected school age children as they are yet to enroll in school and pupils of the Local Education Authority (LEA) primary school at the community, because of the risk in daily being ferried in canoes across the river.
“In fact the teachers hardly come to school especially when it rains heavily as the river overflows,” he said.
Awaje, who is also chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of the school at the village, said lack of bridge across the river has also forced the students who are in junior secondary school at Yangoji to skip classes.
He said the only way to address the challenge of crossing the river using canoe was for the government to construct a bridge across the river.
He also said that 90 percent of his people were peasant farmers who grow varieties of crops such as millet, beniseed, guinea corn and soya beans, but were frustrated while trying to transport their produce to the market.
“Sometimes, some farmers go and look for middlemen in Niger and Kogi states to come and buy their crops at very cheap rates here in the village since they (farmers) do not have the money to convey their produce in large quantities across the river,” he said.
He noted that the cost of transporting farm produce to the market was high.
“So some farmers sometimes prefer to sell their crops at the farm at cheaper rates instead of stressing themselves to pay women who will convey them on their shoulders to the river bank before loading them into canoes to across the river,” he said.
The district head further complained of lack of access to potable water at the community, saying the only source of water was River Gurara which, he lamented was unhygienic and a threat to his people’s health.
“Sometimes we have cases of stooling and vomiting especially among children, which is caused by the kind of unhygienic water we drink,” he said.
He noted that the only healthcare centre the community has access to is located at Baribari village, which he said was far from Gulida and that health personnel were hardly on ground to attend to patients.
He said there were over 12 villages such as Munamaya, Gwarda, Yabami, Makama, Paikon Bassa, Tuba, Patakomi, Madani, Baribari Guriza, Shadadi and others under Gulida, but they all lack access to basic amenities.
The district head called on the management of the Universal Basic Education Board ( UBEB) on the need to establish a Junior Secondary School (JSS) at the community, saying students of the village board canoes to cross the river to Yangoji village to attend classes.
He also requested for a police outpost at the community, saying the absence of security has become another challenge facing his subjects. Whenever there was a misunderstanding between farmers and herders, he has to place a call to police outpost at Yaba to come and intervene, he added.
“And even before police come, it has to be the next day, because of the distance and deplorable state of the road linking to this village,” he said, adding that “if I am travelling out, I prefer crossing the river than plying through the bad road,”
The district head, however, noted that providing a police outpost will help checkmate cases of crime at the community.
“As the dry season sets in, there are reported cases of motorcycle snatching by hoodlums.
I believe if we can have a police outpost here it will help a lot,” he said.
When contacted, the chairman of Abaji Area Council, Alhaji Abdulrahman Ajiya, said the council has already captured some of the challenges facing the community in its budget, adding that he would channel the request for a bridge to the coordinator of the Satellite Towns Development Department ( STDD) for necessary action.
“Even before now, we are making arrangement to provide speed boats for the people of Gulida and other riverine communities to ease their movement and for them to convey their farm produce to the markets,” he said.
