Ibrahim Shuaibu writes that the communities of Danbare in Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State have continuously decried the absence of governance and basic amenities, especially accessible roads and healthcare
The communities of Danbare in Kumbotso Local
Government Area of Kano State have decried the absence of government attention
to them for quite a number of years which led them untold hardship.
The residents also decried the absence of access roads to their areas, especially during and after the raining period, lamenting that the government forgot the community for years without motorable road despite its closeness with federal Highway linking the community with the Bayero University Kano.
The community said the only road leading to the communities was in a deplorable state and had become impassable, especially
during the rains.
When THISDAY visited the area, landlords, residents and business owners lamented that the abandoned road project had negatively impacted commercial activities in the area and called for its speedy completion by the state government.
It was also observed that conveying pregnant women for routine ante-natal care has been hindered by inaccessible roads One of the residents, Malam Umar Muhammad, told
THISDAY that the road was “horrible” and that the residents were wondering if
the state and local governments had not forgotten them.
Umar, said the condition of the road was more disturbing because of flooding, which often made it difficult for the residents to get back to their homes after work.
“As you can see, whenever it rains residents find it difficult getting back to their houses because the road will be flooded. Sometimes, the situation will be so bad that the few people that manage to ply the road are scared and residents returning from various destinations walk home, wading through the flooded stretch.”
He said those that own cars and motorcycles were avoiding the route due to the damage it often caused to their vehicles.
“Honestly, the road is a problem to us. Many people have stopped coming to their houses because of the access road.”
Another resident, Mr Emmanuel Ilias, said many people had moved out of the area due to the bad road and called on the state Ministry of Works to come to their aid.
“I appeal to the government to come to our rescue by including the road in its urban roads rehabilitation programme,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, another resident of the area, Malam Yusuf Danbare said the community had been playing host to the hordes of students studying at the Bayero University over the years considering the compelling need for the establishment of adequate hostels on the campus.
According to him, the time has come for the Kano State government to extend a helping hand to the community in the form of physical infrastructure, adding that earning a good living is the best way to pay them with the positive side of the coin.
THISDAY reports that the communities are not only parts of Kano, but densely populated with farmers, civil servants, businessmen and students due to their proximities to the state seat of power and several federal, state and religious institutions.
Among the institutions situated in the nearby Danbare community is Bayero University Kano, among other federal government organisations.
A resident of the area, Lawan Muhammad, appealed for the state government’s urgent intervention on the failed portion of the road to avoid what he termed untold hardship it would cause on the populace.
At the moment, there is no healthcare facility owned by the state government and the only healthcare centre is owned by Kumbotso Local Government Area.
In the area of the healthcare system, it is disheartening that Danbare communities have been neglected and marginalised to the extent that they would need to travel miles to get medical attention. The community is therefore in dire need of a well equipped and staffed health-care facility.
This is because the health facility built in the area is lying fallow without medical and health personnel. The predicament came to the fore during the recent COVID-19 pandemic whereby the inhabitants resorted to private hospitals nearby their area for medical attention.
The residents also had a standard power supply by the power holding company and are not economically enjoying the power supply because of the government’s inability to construct a befitting motorable road.
The residents also lamented that the Kumbotso Local Government Council, which Danbare is among its community, has forgetten the community for years as there is no any move by previous and the present leadership to fix some basic needs in the area. They noted that this attitude by the local government might not connected with the state government’s failure to allow the local government areas in the to control their federal government allocation.
The residents therefore appealed to the state government to provide social amenities for them.
Mr Adam Yunusa, said that Danbare has no hospital, recreation centre, police post, adding that the entire community has only one government public primary and secondary schools that are even in bad condition and far away from the community.
Therefore, the residents appealed to the Kano State government to urgently come to their rescue and build a befitting road and even equip the Primary Health Care facility with adequate manpower to improve health services in the community to stem maternal and infant mortality.
“Complaints have been made to the Kano State government but all to no avail,” said Lawan.
“We are calling unto the government to
consider the Danbare and also reconstruct the road network and provide us with
basic social amenities because over one million people are leaving in the area.”
Malam Umar Iro Musa, also an occupant of Danbare
says the state government has ignored all the complaints by the community to fix
both the roads and construct drainages in the area, coupled with provision of
basic social amenities.
The Kano State government has neglected us, Umar lamented, adding that “the absence of the road has negatively affected our daily activities. Most times, pregnant
women lost their lives due to bad roads. During
the rainy season, transporting is hard, it has impacted our access to health
care services”.
Our reporter also tried to contact the Chairman
of Kumbotso Local Government Area to find out why the Danbare town was being
neglected, but he declined to speak, but a source told our correspondent that
the government was planning to build a road in the town.
Other sources also
confirmed that the chairman of the local government area also submitted the
proposal for construction of roads in this community.
An official of the state government told our correspondent under the condition of anonymity that the residents were neglected because of their closeness with Bayero University Kano and government believed that the community can rapidly develop
without even projects from the state government due to caliber of community
that are mostly from the main city of Kano and those who are partially non indigenes.
Efforts to
speak with two commissioners of rural community development Mr Musa Ilyasu and his counterpart of Works and Infrastructures Mr Idris Garba proved abortive.
Recall that government is making necessary step to construct the road and may likely be involved in the 2021 budget proposal by the state governor Mr Abdullahi Umar
Ganduje.
