A Think Tank of Ijaw Professionals in the Diaspora focused on development, Izon Egberi Organisation, is setting an example for how small funding support can impact the lives of members of rural communities in the Niger Delta, reports Preye Okah who visited one of the beneficiary communities, Toru Angiama, Delta State recently. However, huge challenges including the dearth of basic infrastructure by way of roads, decent water transport systems,better funding for health care and support to encourage teachers and other community staff to remain and work require the attention of the local and state governments.
There is no gainsaying the fact that access to health care is one of the most important requirements in life, especially in the Niger Delta where life expectancy has dropped to 41 years, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS and for the women, a lot of heath challenges confronting them in this part of the country coupled with the rate of maternal and infant mortality are issues requiring urgent attention.
For anybody especially those living in the rural communities like Toru Angiama in Delta State, having access to good health care is a critical necessity. For that community, their challenges of access to basic amenities, is compounded because apart from lack of access to good hospitals, there are no roads.
For this reporter who traced the community in Delta state, where an organization of development advocates including a Diaspora son from the community who initiated a health outreach is contributing his quota towards ensuring good health care delivery to his kinsmen, it was not an easy movement.
Getting there was a herculean task because one had to pass through the other side of Toru Angiama in Sagbama of Bayelsa state to the Toru Angiama of Delta state, through a river that just separates them.
From this side of Bayelsa State, Delta state can be seen. While there is a bit of development on the side of Bayelsa state, there is absolute poverty on the side of Delta because of lack of government presence.
It was learnt also that for every movement from that community to either Bayesa state or Delta state, you have to pass through the river and National Point also learnt that if you miss a boat at any time, you will have to wait for another three hours to get another one, mostly a wooden boat, not a speed boat. This is the reason why almost everything in that community is at a standstill
Getting to the health center called Toru Angiama Primary Health Center, the place appeared deserted, apart from the two young men working there.The environment was serene but, looking at the place, you can smell insecurity because the gate is rickety, with the place being surrounded by bush. Although a new security house has been built, it is not even safe for anybody to sleep there.
One of the men who works at the health center, Uzere Ebenezer 34, from the community said “The primary health care center was built by the government and just some few years ago, the past local government chairman renovated it and built this new present one. We were using the old one, so the place is not good and the local government chairman now built this present one. Because of the environment, the place is not accessible to the main road, it is not motorable and it is very difficult. “Ordinarily, the government runs it but, an indigene of Toru Angiama who knows what we are passing through, by name Binaebi Oguoko came in.
“Here some of the challenges we are passing through. Sometimes, there will be an outbreaks of diarrhea, so when he came and saw that people were suffering, he decided to support the people working here because there was lack of manpower.
“So, he now said that we that are indigenes that are on ground, should support the workers so that he will be giving us stipend to motivate us to work with them.
“Our madam stays at Patani. She comes and goes back or sometimes stays until the weekends. We are the ones on ground now handling the health center.
Challenges
“There is no water at the health center, there was a solar system we were using before but, it is now damaged, so there is no water. As of now, we go to the river to fetch water and I believe that it is the cause of the diarrhea. After the renovation of the house there is no light but we use generator. After the renovation of the health center they brought generator.
More pressing challenges confront Toru Angiama Community members according to Ebenezer.
“Another thing is that for example the building there, we want to renovate it. The government wanted to do it but, you know the Nigerian government normally takes long time to act, so that our staff and some of us who are supposed to be sleeping here at night in the case of child delivery cases, will have a place to stay.
“Two of us do delivery with our madam. And anytime she is not around, we do it.
His colleague Ayaye Ebi 35, who said he studied community health at the School of Health narrated “We need the renovation of that collapsed building so that when patients come we can handle it there. So that when we want to immunize the children, there won’t be distraction. We have taken two deliveries this month and some will soon be due for delivery. If there are complicated cases, we refer them to Patani General Hospital. We also have the doctor’s number. If we have some serious cases we can call and he will tell us what to do. If the directive is difficult for us, we refer them. Since two years we are working, we have delivered over twenty children. You know this is village and other TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) are still delivering kids. But, we try to convince them to come to the health center instead of going to traditional birth attendants because here we give them health talk.
The government also provides free ante-natal drugs for them. When they come to take those ante-natal, drugs we educate them on the benefit of coming to the health center. Most times, we speak our language to communicate with them. We tell them that if they start having contractions they should come. Just this month alone we already have two diarrhea cases, one of them is a year and five months, the other one that we were handling before you came, is two years old. Normally, if we find out that diarrhea is severe, we give them normal saline and give other diarrhea drugs.
He added that, “Luckily, God is handling everything, we don’t have any death case. When the case is bad we refer. We don’t do surgery here.
“Recently, there was this solar fridge that we use to preserve our vaccines, they came and broke the window and removed the burglary but when they entered into the place, they couldn’t carry it.
Normally we don’t sleep here so when there is any case we come down. But during the day, we will be here till evening. And if our madam is around we use to stay. We also have somebody working with us that is sleeping there. He calls us, even most of them know our houses, and they will call.
“We handle only primary health care issues. We normally treat malaria, diarrhea and immunization and carry out deliveries. That is mainly what we do here.
Giving insight into the recent intervention by Izon Egberi Organisation through one of its members, who is based in the United Kingdom, Ebi disclosed that, “The philanthropist that we are working with is in London. He comes every six months, and he came last month. He sends us stipends to motivate us. He is the only one doing this. He is doing this because this is his community. When he came and saw what was happening, he felt bad. One day he said he wanted to see the health center and he came and that was how he engaged us. We just told him to be giving us anything so that we contribute our quota because we know the job. That was how he engaged us. He just pays us stipends for our services”.
“The Delta state government is providing the drugs that we use but, they are not enough. The state focuses on immunizable diseases and they believe that every other case should be taken to the General hospital. But the people always go to the chemist to take care of themselves.
Speaking with Madam Sinebe Alaere on phone, who is the senior official in charge of the facility, she said, “The major problem there is insecurity and it is as a result of road network. There is no road to the community. There was a day the herdsmen came to kill two people in the community. So because of that, people are afraid of staying in that community and I’m a woman, I’m also afraid. Because of insecurity, the new generator that was given to us, is not kept there. There was a day they came to steal the solar fridge that is in the health center. They broke the burglar proof and entered but, they couldn’t lift the fridge so they left”.
Deepening Insecurity
Alaere also drew attention to the deep security challenges faced by staff of the facility and community persons saying, “We have also built a security post but one person cannot stay there because he can be killed. The place is so lonely, sometimes we see strange faces and we are always afraid.
“We don’t have any infant mortality rate because God has been faithful to the children and they eat nutritious food. If they have any little malaria, they come and some drugs will be given to them and they be healed.
Child delivery is one of the tasks the staff have to deal with, “We have at least two deliveries every month and we have not had any death. The ones we can’t handle we refer them to Patani. The government should get the community secured so that we can be save and stay. We don’t sleep there because of insecurity.
“For immunization, we do it perfectly well, in the case of delivery emergency or surgery, we refer them to Patani.
Bino Oguoko the councilor representing the community informed this reporter that, “One of the challenges we have in my community is the road network. There is no road to the community and the community really needs that road. The water side too, is a problem then light. Those are major issues. People are getting personal boreholes Almost everybody is going on their personal borehole so, I don’t count on pipe borne water like that on government to come and do it .
Dire need for access road and educational facilities
Oguoko said,“The major thing is that road getting to Toru Angiama community. The waterside own is not what Delta state government must come and do but, it is something that the community needs. But the major thing is the road and light before we talk of education. On education the system is bad. If a governor sends teachers to a particular school, the teacher is not supposed to run. But now, government will send them to the school, they run and government won’t take action, they will say that one is my brother please allow him to go. The education system is not like before that if you send a teacher to a particular school, he will go there with his family, open his mind to teach, it is not like that again. Once there is a road, the issue of insecurity will go down and the community will be developed. Although those things may happen but it will not be as bad as it is now”.
Other areas where urgent government intervention is needed, include, “The solar light, government supposed to have changed them and the community decided that for boys not to destroy and steal them at a point, the community sold only the panels because they were being taken away by some bad boys and before then the lights were no lighting again so the community gathered to sell them. It was the decision of the community. There is nothing like insecurity at the health center. If you signed to do work as a health official and you are receiving your salary, you are going you to stay there although the whole thing is the road. If there is road, the person can stay till weekend and she will go and visit her family and come back. When the road is there, even the community system will change. You will see that different life style will come in. Business will boom, people will like to spend time in the community.0nce a road passes through, life will be easier and other things will come in.
At the only primary school in the community, before 12.00pm that this reporter got there, the pupils had already left. According to Ebenezer the tour guide, who took this reporter around the community, he said that some private schools are no cropping up in the community because of lack of teachers in the government primary school.
Michael Oguoko one of the teachers in the school and native of the community who was called upon to return to the school said “The pupils left on time today because we did little labor. We have five teachers plus the head master and we have six classes. The community sometimes provides school teachers and we augment and we are supposed have at least six teachers plus the headmaster seven.
“The students are up to 400 pupils and the academic activities of the pupils are compromised. We are critically understaffed and any teacher that comes will run away. We need the government to bring in qualified and certified teachers.
The last teacher that was transferred here is the teacher that made them five and two of our teachers were transferred out to other schools. There was a time we had a complete set of teachers but, when the transfer time came, the teachers that were transferred here decided not to stay here and we complained to the secretary on several occasions but, there was no response. He is not doing anything about it. There are private schools in the community but they were was closed down by the community. The community couldn’t keep it closed and it is affecting our schools seeing as we are understaffed. The flood also affected us the last time it was here. If the government can bring in excavators to work on the front and to dig it very high the water from the flood will not come into the community and the school environment”, he added.
Giving further explanation for the dire learning conditions in the school brought on by the scarcity of teaching staff, Oguoko noted that, “The headmaster is also not staying here, he comes from somewhere else, and that makes some of the teachers lazy. There are a few that are dedicated but those few cannot take care of the students alone. There is no supervision and even when there is a supervisor on the way, information will get to the teachers and they will come and act like they are actually working. We have four classrooms because we turned one into an office, it was originally supposed to be five”.
