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Written by Rana Bayok
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Many rural communities in Nigeria are living in horrifying condition arising from lack of basic amenities like hospitals, schools, roads and portable drinking water. Gunji, a village in Amper District, Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau state, appears to be one of such communities that are worst off.
The people of the area live in ignorance and abject poverty. Like other communities, farming is the only preoccupation of the people. Their condition is even worsening by the fact that the area is located in a very rocky area that is not too conducive for serious agricultural activities.
The only thing they produce in their farms is Guinea Corn and “Khas”, a type of grain that is very common in the area. But this is only possible with fertilizer, a commodity that is well beyond the reach of the people.
 Their condition is further worsened by the fact that there is no any hospital or even a dispensary in the area. The people are therefore left with the option of taking their sick ones to places like Chika, Kabwir and Pankshin during serious emergencies but at a cost which they cannot afford.
Majority of the people are so poor that in times of emergencies, even the transport money to go to the hospital is a different ball game all together, talk more of the hospital charges. Because of this, many of them have resorted to patronizing native doctors who often associated common sicknesses like malaria or typhoid to witch craft. Quiet a number of people have died because they cannot afford even N500 to go to the hospital.
Like several Nigerian villages, Gunji does not have portable drinking water. The people shared the water from the stream with animals. This may be responsible for the various diseases afflicting the people. The only borehole in the area was constructed by Buba Marwa some years back when he was nursing an ambition for the presidency. But it is located far away from other members of the community who had no choice than to go to the stream because of the distance. They are worst hit by lack of water during the dry season when the streams dry off.
There are only two primary schools in the area. One was built with mud by the community while the other was built several years back by the government. Both schools are at the verge of collapse. Indeed they are inhabitable. The schools operate under trees and during raining seasons like this, the schools are hardly in session.
“Music is our heritage” – that is the slogan of Gunji Community. This is true of the community whose local musicians like Dantala and Richard Doyo ( now a councilor representing Gunji Ward) has made the village popular. There is no important occasion in Plateau and Kaduna states that Dantala and Group or Richard and group will not be invited to perform, but this has not contributed in improving the situation of things in the community.
Even the popular Gunji Day which is always celebrated 26th December of every year is one of the popular festivals that attract very important people including sons and daughters of Gunji in Diaspora to see the local musicians perform. But this has not positively affected the community.
It is only recently that a Motorable road was constructed through to Gunji by the administration of governor Jonah Jang.
The story of Gunji is better told by Mr. Timothy Gotan Gongung, a resident of the area who spoke an interview with our reporter.
Said he: “We are lacking so many things in this village, we don’t have drinking water, we don’t have hospital, and we are going through a lot of hardship. We are not making any progress here. We are mainly subsistence farmers and we depend solely on fertilizer to farm, but it is beyond our reach.
“Our land cannot produce anything without fertilizer because of its rocky nature. It will only take the grace of God for us to survive this year because, last year there was no sufficient rain and we had no fertilizer. We did not harvest anything reasonable. The reason why there is so much poverty and ignorance here is that our farms are in rocky places and cannot produce anything without fertilizer.
“Our major problem in this village is lack of hospital, the only primary school built by government is in a serious dilapidation. We have made several appeals to the local and state governments but because we don’t have any influential person that can lobby for us, we are left to our fate. We are helpless.
“The people in government only come here when it is time for elections. After elections, they don’t remember us again. They used us for their politics and abandoned us when they get what they are looking for.
This road they constructed for us, does courtesy of governor who is God fearing. During his campaign he promised to construct this road for us and he has fulfilled his promise. We are thankful to him. The governor said he will focus attention on rural development that is why he gave us this road.
“You have seen the condition of the only two primary schools here. One was built by the government many years back while the other one was built by the community. Both schools are almost collapsing. We have made several appeals to the local government but we are yet to see any action.
“As it is the school buildings are serious threats to the lives of our children so they don’t even seat inside. They seat under the tree to receive their lessons. Once it is raining, they will run home. Even the one that was built through communal effort is in a terrible condition because we cannot maintained it due to the harsh economic condition of our people.
“We had councilors who were elected from here, but we never felt their impact. They did nothing. We had three councilors from here. The first was Tuesday Tokyom. He did nothing for the community. After him, we had Lepji Gowap as councilor. He too, did nothing for the community. Elisha Gofwan was also our councilor but he did nothing for the community.
“Presently we have Richard Doyo as our councilor and we are beginning to see his efforts in addressing some of these problems. He has started tackling the problem of water by sinking wells spread across the community. He has dug wells in Buwan, Shakto and Kurum. He is planning to sink more wells in Yilbem and other places. So I think that is very commendable.
“Those who brought Christianity to this community did not open our eyes to things that will improve on our living condition. Things like trading, business and some vocational skills. They came with the gospel and preached that we should repent for the kingdom of God is near, man shall not live by bread alone…so nobody took interest in business or acquiring some vocational skills.
“When they came with the gospel, people thought that Jesus Christ was going to come immediately, so nobody bothered about earthly things. Now that the reality has dawn on us, it is becoming too late for us. We are beginning to get awareness, but our greatest problem is poverty.
“If you fall sick today, you cannot go to the hospital because nobody will attend to you if you go without money. As I am now, I don’t have even five naira; there are many people like that in this community. So if you fall sick, even the transport money to carry you to the hospital in Pankshin is something else since we don’t have a hospital here. Because of this many people patronise herbalists who give them roots to take for sicknesses they cannot diagnose. Many people have died as a result of this.
“We are appealing to the state and local governments to come to our aid by addressing these problems. I want to passionately call on the chairman of Kanke local government and governor Jonah Jang to help us. Hunger will kill us if we have no fertilizer to farm this year. We need a hospital; we want our schools to be rehabilitated so that our children can go to school.”
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