At the backdrop of Sen. Bala Mohammed’s tongue-lashing of his directors that they have been lying to him about the city’s environmental ‘sanity’, AWAAL GATA, having weighed the under-development in the area councils, asks whether the chairmen, like the directors, are liars
Recently, after an emergency tour of the city, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sen. Bala Mohammed, decried lack of ‘sanity’ in the city, accusing his directors of lying to him over the levels in which they discharge their duties.
Although, the minister has not subjected the chairmen of the six area councils in the territory into scrutiny as he did to the director, he needs to do that because in spite of the allocations that go to the councils from the Federation Account, the residents are still decrying lack of basic amenities. Worse of all, when the councils embark on projects, they abandon them before completion or poorly implement them and divert the money into other uses.
An example of one of these projects is the Gwako road. The road was awarded to a contractor by the former chairman of Gwagwalada area council, Zakari Angulu Dobi, and ever since the contractor rarely works on it. However, when our correspondent had a phone interview with the contractor on the slow pace of work, he said the council was not releasing money to him as he wanted.
In the same Gwagwalada area council, many places like Zuba, Ikwa, Machedna and a number of others are horrendously lacking basic infrastructures. No electricity, no roads, no healthcare centres and no potable water.
In Ibwa, there are electric poles but there is no electricity in the households. “The contractor said the contract does not include supplying electricity to the households,” was the response of the residents when asked about the absence of electricity in their houses despite the poles and transformer.
The electricity project, according to residents, has been at the same spot for over two years, thereby making no impact on the residents aside beautifying the community. In terms of security, the residents of Gwako and Paikon-Kore in the area council look up to vigilante groups while abandoned police outpost adorn the communities.
Moving to Kwali area council, a community like Daka in Yangoji ward, needs to be visited by the minister. In Daka, our correspondent gathered that pregnant women have been delivering babies at home for over 30 years because there is no primary healthcare centre, and if they must asses one, have to travel for over 20 kilometres.
Again, the two boreholes which supposed to provide the inhabitants with potable water, one is no longer working and the second one gets spoilt almost every day. The situation is not different in other villages in that axis.
In Kuchiko, near Mpape, in the Bwari area council, the residents are few but their challenges are many as they are without basic amenities aside block of classrooms in the community’s primary school. The community, according to the head, Zamwowosayi Gimba, appears to have been abandoned by the government with the residents saying they are tired of narrating their ordeals after several promises for assistance by governments.
In the absence of these amenities, some traditional rulers take up the task of fending for their subjects as demonstrated by the actions of the head of Rubochi, in Kuje Area Council, when he provided the residents with water.
Also, in the area council, a community of about 2,000 inhabitants relies on a dilapidated primary healthcare centre. The same centre, with a collapsed wall, also serves Pebiri, Chida, Gaye, Rubokya, Dadu, Ibada, Gurusu, Tumbwa and other Fulani settlements as disclosed by a health worker at the centre.
In Abaji area council, a significant part of Ayaura community has been washed away by erosion, yet nobody has said anything. Now, as the rainy season beckons, residents are in fear.
Having highlighted the plights of the people in these councils, the minister needs to take a tour of the councils to know whether the chairmen, who all live like demigods in their respective domains, have also been lying to him like the directors.
“The minster was saying that his directors were lying to him, yes, it is true, they have been lying but we also want him to take a tour of the area councils to ascertain the level of developments there. As far as I am concerned, the chairmen don’t do anything, they only live for themselves and become gods for their people, besides that, nothing more. So we are begging the Minister to investigate on them and indict them wherever they are erring,” Mahamud Mustapha, a resident of Zuba told our correspondent.
Similarly, Sani Alhassan, a lawyer based in Dei-dei, told our correspondent that with the “big amount of money taken to the area councils, they don’t do anything with it, so the EFCC needs to investigate them.”
According to him, “I heard that the Charman of Abaji has been saying that the area councils need more funds to enhance development; what has he done with the present allocations? They should use the ones presently given to them before they canvass for more.”
