Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), especially rural communities in the satellite towns of the six area councils have continued to lament the poor state of their road network which connects them to the urban areas.
Gudugbe community, a suburb of Kuje area council of the FCT is one of the communities that has decried the lack of basic amenities in the area for a very long time.
A resident of the community, Friday Garma, told LEADERSHIP that members of the community deserve a better life and the right to be treated fairly, irrespective of where the community is located in the territory.
“Our community has been neglected over the years, although we have consistently been involved in active civic responsibility during elections. After every election cycle, we only watch our leaders on TV, hear their voices on radio or stand by as they drive in their convoys with motorcades.
“Our community, which they all troop into during campaigns for the elections, has long been forgotten. Now that elections are over, we are here as a people in unity of voice to send a reminder to our leaders in the area council and the authorities concerned that we deserve a better life,” he said.
He said getting medical care has been a huge challenge for many of the residents, since the community does not have any primary healthcare centre, lamenting that they travel several kilometers to neighbouring communities to access healthcare services.
Gudugbe community is one among the rural communities across the six area councils of the territory that do not have access to good road network, and even where some of these roads are awarded by the government or area councils, such road projects end up being abandoned by the contractors.
Hassan Usman, a native of Ebagi community in Abaji area council of the FCT, also lamented the poor state of the road from Ebagi to Pandagi in the council, saying that the poor state of the road has not only caused untold hardship to residents of the community but also the neighbouring villages in the area.
Usman, said the deplorable state of the road has forced many of the residents to seek for alternative means of transporting their crops to the city.
“At present, if you want to convey farm produce from Ebagi to Abaji town, a pickup van will charge at a very high rate, because of the poor state of the road. The only alternative would be to pass through Mawogi village, then board a canoe to cross River Gurara to Abaji market,” he said.
He said the Ebagi-Pandagi Road, which is about 13 kilometres stretch to Abaji town, was awarded over 13 years ago by the FCT administration under the supervision of the Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA), but has remained uncompleted.
While speaking on the challenges, an elder statesman in the FCT, Danjuma Tanko, appealed to the FCT minister to encourage the area councils’ chairmen, by increasing their allocations to be able to impact on the lives of people at the grassroots.
“We have noticed that the developmental stride of the minister is concentrated on the urban areas, while the rural areas are left for the council chairmen to attend to and ensure that they make it livable for communal residents.
“So, we are also appealing to the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, to support the council chairmen by increasing their monthly allocations, so that they can impact positively on the lives of people at the grassroots, because they are closer to the grassroots than the minister of FCT,” he said.
fThe public relations officer of the Satellite Towns Development Department of the FCT (STDD), Meme Felicia, explained that it is not that the satellite towns and rural communities are not developed the way they are supposed to be, but that the present administration is new.