The story of Asa Local Government area of Kwara State will definitely worry a first time visitor. As a state with an acclaimed slogan, ‘It is good here,’’ therein a community where life seems brutish and make mess of it all. Time Nigeria Senior Correspondent, Wale Rayners, who takes a trip to the community writes on how good it is good in Asa, a community that produced the current Speaker of the State and elected member of House of Representatives representing Ilorin West Asa Federal Constituency.
Travelling to Afon, the headquarter of Asa Local Government area of Kwara state, could be very hazardous. The journey from Ilorin, the state capital through Ogbondoroko, Laduba to Afon is characterized with narrow roads, dangerous pot holes and fear of the men of the underworld. It is a taboo for a car owner to reside in Aboto because the entire community is completely cut off from the rest of the over 25 villages that make up the local government.
Residents of Aboto, a community that bordered Benin Republic always trek to the secretariat located in Afon whenever an inevitable reason arises. Gidado Abdulateef, a resident of Afon told Time Nigeria how he battles with incessant car damage living in the area. He added that neither the Bukola Saraki led government in the state nor Abdulfatah Ahmed regime constructed a single kilometer of road in the whole local council area.
Getting drinkable water in Asa is like a precarious assignment. Residents of Odo Ode, Budo Ojoku, Olodomeji and Igbo Aran walk miles daily to fetch from the moribund boreholes situated at the outskirt of Afon. Alhaji Amuda, Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Asa local Government engaged our correspondent in an interview in his Afon office. He decried the exclusion of Asa local government in the priority list of the All Progressive Congress led administration in the state.
“We wonder what our offence is and why there is no presence of government in the area. We lack motorable roads in Asa. Journeying from one village to the other is always a herculean task. The government of Saraki has consistently impoverished the entire Asa. And year in year out, they come here to campaign. We have over 15 polling booths in Asa. There are about seven polling units where ballot papers will not get to before 7 pm on the Election Day because of impassable roads yet result will be declared for those polling units”.
Ayinke Mustapha, 47, also spoke to Time Nigeria in Efue, a community where Razak Atunwa, current speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly and elected member into the House of Representative claimed to have hailed from. He said Efue community has no drinkable water at all. She noted that Sherif Shagaya, PDP candidate for the Federal House of Representatives in the last general elections constructed the only bore hole the community enjoys.
Alima Abdulsalam, a trader from Temidire, lamented lack of government commitment to rural women in the area. She appealed to government to respond to the yearnings of the Efue community in Asa.
Despite the claim by Femi Akorede, media aide to Governor Ahmed that the government has constructed new cottage hospitals in the state and renovated the existing ones, medical services is nothing to drive home about as the only hospital in Efue looks like “poetry”. When our correspondent visited the hospital, it was under lock and key. Grasses had grown in and around the premises, a situation residents linked to lack of staff and drugs at the hospital.
Taofeek Ganiu, a Youth leader in Asa, noted that politicians under Saraki leadership style are one sided, stressing that there had been no iota of development project in Asa since Bukola Saraki emerged as god father of Kwara politics.
“You see, our community is highly isolated. There is no GSM service, no internet facility, you can’t browse or check facebook until you go to Ilorin or Ganmo. We are totally abandoned here,’’ he said.
The traditional head of Efue, Alhaji Sadiku Bomin, told Time Nigeria in his palace that “he has written a lot of letters appealing to the state government over the deplorable state of the community but seems it’s a deliberate act to isolate the entire Asa from the trend of globalization.
“We have no school in the whole community made of about five villages. From here in Efue to Temidire, the entire residents live in abject poverty. Life is meaningless here and it appears as if God wants to punish us by giving us a representative who has passionate hatred towards us. The current speaker of the state assembly, Atunwa claimed he is from our community, even when we cannot trace his lineage to any family in this village, we have appealed to him severally but to no avail.’’
Tears rolled down the cheeks of Alhaji Bomin who is traditionally known as Dawodu of Efue as he painstakingly hosted Time Nigeria in his mud palace. The aged man noted that “virtually all these chiefs, (pointing to some elderly persons who had gathered to corroborate the need for urgent infrastructural development in the area) have not been collecting stipend and salary from the government. We are totally backward here and we need to be rescued.’’ the Dawodu added.
Residents of Igbon Aran, a village where Amzat Bello, former retired Police Commissioner and Security Adviser to Governor Ahmed hails from also bared their mind on the persistent marginalization of their community in term of infrastructural development. The community leaders in the state urged PDP to intensify effort in subsequent elections so as to defeat the “almighty Saraki’’ who had over the years subjected the state to his private business”
The lamentation of lack, poverty and negligence reign supreme in all the villages visited by the magazine in Asa community. From Afon to Aboto, Balah to Eyenkorin, Pampo, Ogele and Olowokere, residents groaned under the yoke of negligence which has made life more unbearable. They appealed to government to turn its merciful eyes to Afon and prevent the entire community from going into extinction.