Residents of Majelu- Gurdi in Abaji Area Council of the FCT are lamenting the deplorable state of the Gurdi- Mayaki road.
Some of those who spoke with Aso Chronicle said the road from Yaba village to Mayaki has been in a deplorable state for too long.
They said farmers face hardship while transporting their farm produce to the market as only few motorists dare ply the route because of fear of their vehicle breaking down.
A resident of Majelu community, Ishaku Audu, said the Yaba-Mayaki road was the only access road to other communities such as Gulida, Kpache, Tekpese, Madani, Kuloho and Rafin Daji, among other farming villages.
He said the rural people in these areas are cut off from the outside world as the road becomes impassable at the height of the rainy season.
“Most of the streams and rivers over flow their banks and the road become waterlogged, making it difficult for even motorcycles to ride on the road.
“The situation we the rural people are facing is so pathetic, especially during the rainy season. You can hardly ply this road right from Madani, as most of the streams over flow due to heavy rainfall. Sometimes people in this village don’t travel out for two weeks whenever rains are regular,” he said.
Also speaking to Aso Chronicle, the district head of Gurdi, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, said the deplorable state of the road has been a nightmare to residents especially farmers across the rural villages in the area.
He noted that over the years, no government had bothered to give attention to the road, adding that the road from Yaba to Gurdi was graded during the administration of a former chairman of the council, Alhaji Musa Yahaya Muhammad, but that nothing has been done on the road since then.
He said members of the rural communities are peasants farmers who cultivate varieties of crops such as maize, guinea corn, yam, rice, beniseed, soya beans and ground nuts , but they found it difficult to transport the farm produce to the market.
“In fact, you hardly see vehicles plying this road in the rainy season until the dry season sets in because of the bad nature of the road. I have had to park my car in the village and board a motorcycle to Yaba on several occasions because of the bad state of the road,” he said.
He said some residents of Gurdi, Mayaki and Kuloho sometimes take a detour through Zago village in Niger State before linking up to where they are going in Abaji.
“I can remember vividly, Gurdi-Mayaki road was graded only once, which was during the administration of then chairman of Abaji Area Council, Alhaji Musa Yahaya Muhammad, and since then, the road has not been graded again,” he said.
He noted that the road, if graded and culverts built, as well as bridges constructed across streams along it, will go a long way in boosting socio-economic activities in the area.
“Now, for example, there is a big market at Mayaki village which is far but traders and buyers from the eastern part of the country and Niger State go to the market to buy farm produce in large quantities and transport them out but they always pass through Lapai because the road from Mayaki to Yaba is in a bad state,” he said.
The district head also complained over the abandoned electrification project from Yaba to Gurdi village.
He noted that after electric poles and high tension cables were mounted, the work stopped, lamenting that some of the poles have fallen as a result of strong wind.
“A transformer was mounted at Gurdi village and Tekpeshe as well as Madani, but there was no light because the electrification work stopped half way. And the most worrying part of the whole thing is that thieves have been stealing and vandalising some of the cables especially where the electric poles have fallen,” he said.
He added, “How I wish the past administration had used the money it wasted on this extension of electricity to Gurdi which stopped half way to grade the road and construct culverts. That would have been better for us.”
Mohammed said he regularly mobilized the youth and elders of the community whenever the dry season approached to fix some bad portions of the road to enable farmers transport their farm produce to the market in Abaji and Kwali.
He therefore appealed to the authorities of the council, under the leadership of Alhaji Abdulrahman Ajiya, to intensify efforts to grade the road and complete the abandoned electrification project.
The district head, however, said people of his community have access to good health care service through the efforts of the area council.
A farmer who resides at Mayaki village, Dantani Mohammed, who was seen filling some bad portions of the road, told our reporter that he and his younger brother decided to fill some bad portions of the road in order to enable them transport their crops from the village to Kwali market.
“As you can see, this is the kind of challenge we have been facing especially during the rainy season, one hardly travel out because of the bad nature of the road. And we are trying to fill some bad portions of the road so that we can transport some of our crops to the market,” he said.
Mohammed, therefore, appealed to the council authorities to come to their aid by grading the road, especially as the dry season was about to set in so that farmers can easily transport their crops to the market.
When contacted, the chairman of the council, Alhaji Abdulrahman Ajiya, said the council was not unaware of the challenge of bad state of roads facing people of the rural communities across the council.
He said immediately he assumed office, he decided to embark on a thank you tour to take stock of some challenges facing rural dwellers, adding that the council had already captured some of the rural roads in the budget.
“During my campaign, we took out time to go round all the villages across the 10 wards of Abaji Area Council, and their major challenge is road. And even as I speak, we started work on construction of a double cell culverts linking Gasakpa to Mawogi community,” he said.
