Posted by Samuel on Wed 14th Aug, 2024 - tori.ng
They have no access road, healthcare facilities, potable water, functional schools, not to talk of electricity; their lives are truly brutish and short. Yet, they vote during elections when politicians usually remember with buckets of unfulfilled promises.
For the many residents of Obeagu Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, life has become extremely harsh, with survival being a struggle as they have been completely abandoned by the government.
Vanguard reports that they have no access road, healthcare facilities, potable water, functional schools, not to talk of electricity; their lives are truly brutish and short. Yet, they vote during elections when politicians usually remember with buckets of unfulfilled promises.
Located along the Enugu-Nkalagu-Egedegede-Eha-Amufu-Ikem-Obollo-Afor Road, Obeagu community can only be accessed through a deplorable 15-kilometer road with dangerous terrain, making it difficult for vehicles to pass, especially during the rainy season.
The deplorable condition of the road has forced people of the agrarian community to convey corpses of their beloved ones to and from the morgue in Eha-Amufu and other places in motorcycles during rainy season. In some cases, families procure the services of willing young men to carry the corpse on their head for several kilometers before a motorcycle will take over.
Clearly and sadly, the community is cut off from the rest of Ebonyi State, due to lack of access roads. Going to Obeagu community is a nightmare as it is only accessible through a track road by foot or motorcycle popularly known as Okada.
In Obeagu community, expectant mothers and sick people go through hell due to lack of access to medical facilities. Children trek for hours under the scorching sun and rain to get to school.
“My brother, that community is an abandoned community in Ebonyi State; I don’t know the offence they committed that made administration after administration in Ebonyi State to completely forget them. No access road, no hospital and no clean water. The only secondary school in the community is completely in ruins. You hardly find teachers in the school after some teachers posted to the school were massacred in April 2021 by Fulani herdsmen.
“All the teachers posted to the school from outside the community visit once or twice in a month. Even some indigenous teachers posted to the college have also abandoned the school. Most of them live in Enugu and Abakaliki and visit the school once or twice a month.
“The only secondary school built by community efforts was burnt while two blocks of two classrooms each were destroyed by rainstorm. It was learnt that the incident happened over three years ago without any attention”, an Okada rider lamented.
Lamenting the development, former Councillor of Obeagu Ward, Ede Ejike said: “What is happening in the community is very worrisome; I cannot fathom the reason behind the abandonment. When I was Councillor, there was nothing I did not do to draw the attention of the council chairman then to build drainage culverts along the only road for easy access. But like every average Nigerian politician, he promised but did nothing.
“The then chairman, Henry Eze who is currently representing Ishielu North State Constituency asked me to get an engineer to survey how many drainage culverts would be constructed on the road. Unfortunately, after everything he refused to fund it. You passed the road, at least you can tell our story better.”
On the dangers faced by the people, Ede said that 10 residents of the community had been killed along the road by Fulani herdsmen and seven kidnapped because of the deplorable state of the road.
“Herdsmen routinely lay siege along the road and kill and abduct residents and take them to Benue State and demand for ransom. Politicians from this community are seriously lobbying those in authority to look our way but nothing is forthcoming.
“Our community is like an orphan that has nobody to speak or intercede for her in the government. Our neighbouring community, Nkalaha is suffering from the same situation. The two communities are boundary communities. During the administration of former Governor David Umahi and the current Federal Minister of Works, our people made several entreaties to the administration to at least construct the only access road to the two communities. But as usual, after promises, nothing happened.
“We are now in a new administration; we hope that this administration of Governor Francis Nwifuru will not abandon us like previous administrations. The more the years pass by, the worse our situation becomes. There is no electricity in the community because the two transformers in the community spoiled. For four years now, since the first transformer got spoilt, that section of the community has not had electricity supply. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EEDC) has asked them to buy transformer to replace it. They have paid close to N1.5 million to the DISCO. Now the second transformer supplying electricity to the second part of the community has spoiled too. For over eight months now, EEDC hasn’t repaired the transformer.”