STAR FEAT Kaiama: How 200k collapsed bridges t
The town is the food basket of Kwara state, but three federal roads leading to it have failed, and the cost of transport keeps rising
This reporter travels along hundreds of kilometres of roads, forming connections with every crater, every pit, to have a feel of the dusty broken road which farmers must endure every day, to imagine the last moments of the lady pregnant with twins who died alongside the unborn, and the asthmatic father who perished in the dust. is told by Salamatu Yusuf, of Wurma Koto village, of 17 women who had miscarriages. Adama Yusuf, wearing a pink hijab, recalls “5 months ago we were taking a woman to Kainji. But she started bleeding, and had a miscarriage.”
Daily Trust
Health workers in Kaiama won’t comment on this. You mull over food security and the reasons why border communities in Nigeria are almost always neglected. Development dies. Development resurrects only within Nigeria’s capital cities, some argue. Suleiman Bata, Sarkin Kasuwa and former police officer says “people won’t vote in the 2019 elections if the roads are not rehabilitated.”
Mariam Salihu is the Iyaloja (leader of market women) “We are not enjoying the market as before, because it takes up to two weeks before our customers are able to return to purchase yam flour.” She argues “Kaiama is the largest producer of yam flour in north central Nigeria, but due to the bad roads, the trade is not going smoothly. What we want is the intervention of the government to repair all the existing roads. If the roads are repaired, there is the possibility of buyers returning.” She provides statistics which confirm the drop in the yam trade “When the road was manageable, we had three hundred buyers of cocoyam and yams, but due to the bad roads, now less than one hundred buyers come from Ibadan, Lagos, Ogbomoso and Ekiti. Some traders also come from Lagos to buy three hundred bags of yam flour, but now they don’t come. They simply send money for twenty bags of yam flour.”
Dr. Amina Ahmed, hails from Kaiama “If we had good roads, Kaiama would supply food to the whole nation.You need to see the amount of foodstuff we grow.” Abdullahi Bata, Chairman, Kaiama local government, speaks on the potentials of the area “Kaiama is the food basket of the state.But the roads are in deplorable state.” Yams are grown all year round. As a new harvest is being gathered, yams of the previous harvest are still being sold.
Sarkin Kasuwa exclaims “It’s as if we are not part of Nigeria. We have been abandoned by the government. We feed the North West, south west and Abuja. But because of the bad roads, traders cannot afford to come again.” He adds “If you keep yams for some time, they will begin to dry up. After it has dried and reached a particular stage, what will you use it for? We have fertile land, for which we don’t even need fertiliser, and you have bad roads which are spoiling our trade. Instead of people becoming rich, they are becoming poor.”
“The road is affecting our economy. We are farmers, and that is what is causing the high cost of food prices in Kaiama now, especially yam flour, melon and guinea corn. The transporters always complain about the road, and the high cost of transportation,” says Engr Ahmed Usman, Chairman, Kaiama Development Association (KDA). Oladipupo Peter is the