As the 2019 election is boiling under the nose of the nation, the atmosphere is polluted with political discourse, succession and the struggle on who gets what, when and how.
But for some communities, the story is entirely different, it is about survival.
Some of these communities are Nduni and Shuwari Mainari, in a Borno local government, Konduga.
They have been facing difficulties with access to water supply for donkey years.
They are less than five kilometers from Maiduguri, the state capital.
In an interaction with the community members, our reporters learned that, the people never had any access to education, besides other basic amenities such as portable drinking water.
Fatima Abubakar, 19, said that ‘we heard stories of schools but we have never gotten the opportunity to attend any because we don’t have it here.’
The young lady said their only preoccupation during the day is going out to fetch water, noting that they cover a distance of over two hours.
‘We sleep and wake up with the only thoughts of going to fetch water. We walk for two hours to get access to water and we go there twice a day.’
In an interview with the village head of Shuwari, Mainari Mal Goni, he told YERWA EXPRESS NEWS that ‘I am 50 years now and I was born and brought up in this village.
‘The only source of water we used to have was a borehole built here in the 1970s by Gov. Mohammad Goni’s administration.
‘When it gets spoilt, we use our resource
s to repair it and now it has spoilt beyond our capacity,’ the community leader said.
He also accused politicians of only visiting them when it is election year.
‘Every election year, since Shehu Shagari, politicians have been promising to build a source of water among other things but to no avail, they are like a chicken in need of water, it will come to drink your water and go back to continue destroying your properties,’ he said.
As such, they resorted to sorting out themselves, they buy it or walk long distances to fetch.
‘We have a water dam where I sometimes pay 8,500 Naira to get a tank of water.
‘It will sustain us for just two days. I use my hard earned money to pay for it.
‘We go to as far as Moromti, a two hours walk from here. Some go on foot while others on donkeys,’ Goni explained.
Atom Maina, father of five, at Shuwari Mainari also added that they not only need water but schools and hospitals as well.
‘Our biggest challenge in this village is lack of water but we also need hospital and school to enroll our children.
‘Nobody has ever attended school in this community, I am more than 30 now, but I will not hesitate to enter class if we will get school’, Atom said.
However, these communities have never experienced any security threat even though they are located along volatile areas of the state.
‘Since the beginning of Boko Haram crisis to date, we have not witnessed any security threat. We have never been displaced, I didn’t lose anyone in this village nor faced any attack,’ Atom explained.
Efforts by our correspondents to get the views of the local government authorities did not yield results as at the time of filing this report.
