KPOTO COMMUNITY CRIES OUT FOR GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
Miscarriages and Maternal Death on the Increase owing to lack of feeder road
Zainab Tanimu –Kaduna, NIGERIA
Kpoto Community is in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, North Western Nigeria. This community is located 30 kilometers away from town and is predominantly Gbagi by tribe whose means of lively hood depends on farming and hunting while most of their women are into rearing of animals and sales of firewood as source of income.
According to information gathered, this community with the population of about 500 habitants have for hundreds years co-existed in peace and harmony with their neighboring villages.
Residents of this community have attributed the high rate of infant and maternal death to lack of accessible feeder roads to the village.
Lack of accessibility to good roads is said to be the main militating factor preventing pregnant women from going to hospital for medical-check-up and Anti-natal services.
Mr. samaila Bala Magajin Garin Kpoto was one of the traditional title holders of the community who granted interview to press men on a ‘fact finding’ mission to the area.
“Non- availability of good roads is one of the greatest challenges disturbing the habitants of this community. Also is the fear by pregnant women of going to lose their lives due to lack of health facilities in the village which makes women to be more scared of getting pregnant.”
“The lack of schools, hospitals and other social amenities that could impact positively on the lives of the people is something very worrisome. Indeed, this is a community where there is no single car as most of the settlers here use wheel Barrows ,bicycle and animals as means of transporting all their farm produce and other movable goods from one place to another due to the bad nature of the road’,
Mr sama’ila further said, they have been calling on the government to come to their rescue by building school or hospital so as to save their women and children from dying but as at the time of filing this report, no government official he said has ever thought of visiting to know what their complains are.
Malaria, Typhoid and stomach pain are identified as major sickness disturbing settlers of this community due to the nature of environment
Mrs. Victoria Ayuba age 33 years old, is a house wife that has been living in the community for many years. Narrating her story, she said she lost her child while trying to go to hospital from the community, she said women here are afraid of getting pregnant due to the suffering they usually under-go when passing through the bush to go for anti-natal, adding that there are so many risks that are involved when going to hospital for medical check-up.
Narrating her experience she said.
”I got miscarriage while trying to go to hospital for anti-natal, It was only God that saved me . I lost the baby because of the suffering while trekking in the bush before reaching the major road to take Okada that could take me to hospital.
Many women get miscarriages while trekking this long distance through the bush to access medical services. More so, sometimes in the night when these women are in labour, the local midwives only try to save these women but it’s a fact that in some situation it is above their level”
Mrs. Tabitah Babanjiga is another House wife who had expressed her joy over the presence of the media in their village.
“We have never seen a journalist in the history of this village, and we are happy that God has answered our prayers that is why you came here,
We are going to use you people to appeal to Kaduna state government to remember that they promised us many things during their campaign. We are begging the government to provide us with health facility in all the villages that surrounds us so as to reduce the health challenge confronting the settlers in our communities for our neighboring villages face the same problems too.”
Added is the problem of insecurity and the need for government to provide skill acquisition program for the youth and women in the village.
“We are calling on the state government for a quick intervention. Youth and women here need skill acquisition program as a way of creating for them job opportunity “As a result of the bad road, our people find it extremely difficult to export their farm produce from the rural area to the urban center, as such most of the farm product do usually get wasted due to the use of traditional system of storing food like silage”
