Dailyreporters24

For residents of the cluster of villages that make up Kuku, Kunchi Local Government Area of Kano State, daily survival is strictly structured around well-defined choices.

For the children of this settlement, which is just about an hour’s drive from Kano metropolis, the choice is either to go in search of water or starve throughout the day; while for the adult males, the choice is either to go to the farm or assist the children in search of water. For adult females, it is about coming up with formulas on how to share the limited water that the children and/or their fathers are able to bring back home.

“I went out last night by 3am to get water, I did not come back until 5am just when we were about to get late for ‘Suhr’ (start fasting). Now, I am out again with my child who will assist me. Maybe by 5pm, we can get it and come back. I can’t bring it home myself,” Inusa Madugu, one of the residents, told Dailyreporters24 around 12noon on Tuesday.

“Our children have stopped going to school majorly because they have to join us in searching for water. Even our animals like the donkeys we use in fetching the water sometimes show frustration due to insufficient water for them too by either throwing the rider on the floor and biting them or just collapsing on the ground and refusing to move further,” he added.

According to Goal 6 of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform the world, access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being, but the residents of Kuku villages like Madugu have no access to this basic human need and have to travel at least 10 kilometres from their villages to fetch water from a stream because the only well they hitherto depended on can no longer cater for all of them.

The well at Kuku Unguwar Liman was built over 37 years ago by Alaramma Abdu Mai Wake together with another one at Jodade, a village some kilometres away from the cluster of settlements that make up Kuku.

It remains the only well that residents of Kuku Dagere, Kuku Gidan Malamai, Kargo, Gwadama, Tofawa and others have to share with residents of Kuku Unguwar Liman.

Alaramma Abdu Mai Wake recalled that before he teamed up with three of his friends to build the well, “We travel at least 10 kilometers five times a day to get enough water for daily use. It takes me one hour of moving fast just to get there. Even my children who were going to school then had to stop so that they can assist me.”

Thirty-seven years later, because of the increase in population and climate change, the well no longer produces enough water to serve the people and their animals.

“I can’t estimate the number of dependents on this well, both humans and animals. All the villages around here; Gwadama, Tofawa, Jodade, Kargo among others all came here to get water,” Alaramma Abdu Mai Wake, who is in his 80s added.

It takes 31 yards of rope to bring out water from the well, Daily Trust observed, even as it was revealed that after fetching five 25-litrres of jerricans, the well has to be left alone for five hours for it to be able to produce more volumes of water.

Dailyreporters24 gathered that because of this, children wake up as early as 4am to go and fetch water and return by 10am, only to return to the stream by 1pm and return by 6pm, spending the entire day in search of water.

This challenge has further complicated the rural-urban migration challenges as residents of the village said there is no household in the villages that has not lost at least one person to migration occasioned by the water scarcity, with many households completely relocating to nearby towns.

“Our biggest nightmare is this lack of water and you have seen it for yourself. This is 12noon; so we will open the well again since the last time we fetched water from it was around 4am,” Haruna Ahmad.

“Most of us here have food to eat, but because there is no water, most of the time one cannot cook, therefore, the family has to wait in hunger because there is no water. We have about 6000 to 7000 people living around this neighbourhood and all of us and our animals either depend on this well or travel a long distance for an alternative,” he added.

For Haruna Magaji, the village head of Kargo, the impact of water scarcity in the area has cost the people more than can be quantified.

“Sometimes we lose our children when they go out to fetch water. In the last four years, at least, eight children have died as a result of falling into the well while trying to fetch water,” he said.

With less than two months to the expiration of this administration, Dailyreporters24 reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to fulfil his major campaign promises on lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty and creating 3 million jobs annually.

Available data from relevant institutions showed that more Nigerians have lost their jobs while others became poorer under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration compared to how the situations were in 2015.

However, some observers noted that the President Buhari administration ought to have done better, but added that job losses and increased poverty were not limited to Nigeria.

They said that three major events that took the Buhari administration unawares included slump in oil prices from 2014 to 2017, which significantly reduced government revenues, leading to recession in 2016.

One of the president’s key campaign promises in 2015 was to tackle high unemployment rate and poverty in the country, partly by creating 3million jobs annually.

Assuming he has achieved this, the president would have created 24million jobs by now.

However, the current unemployment data and poverty level in the country have clearly shown that the government has failed to fulfill these two fundamental promises.

In his 2015 inauguration speech, the president said, “Unemployment, notably youth unemployment, features strongly in our party’s manifesto. We intend to attack the problem frontally through the revival of agriculture, solid minerals and mining, as well as credit to small and medium-size businesses to kick-start these enterprises.”

A yet-to-be-identified man was on Friday evening carried off an Abuja to Lagos flight.

The middle-aged lone protester was said to have announced that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, must never be sworn in as President on May 29.

In the video obtained by our correspondent, it took the efforts of no fewer than six airport security officers to evacuate him after holding up the aircraft for more than an hour, as the 6pm flight had yet to move as of 7pm.

In the video, the man could be heard shouting, as he was being carried off the aisle, “Obidients you’re here. They are doing this to me. Obidients you’re here, I am naked. Obidients you’re here, I am going naked.”

However, no one could come near as officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and Ibom Air surrounded him.

The PUNCH reported on Thursday that the Department of State Services had identified some unnamed key players planning for an interim government in the country.

Describing the plan as an aberration, the DSS said such would undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.

This was contained in a statement by the spokesperson for the service, Peter Afunanya.

However, the 36 state governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Friday requested the DSS to as a matter of urgency arrest and prosecute those involved in the plot to put in place an interim government as a replacement for the nation’s democratic system.

The NGF also warned the DSS against issuing statements without arrest, noting that such could lead to heating up the polity.

This was disclosed in a statement released by the forum’s Chairman and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, on Friday.

Ward executive members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ketembere, Shelleng local government area of Adamawa State have suspended a former senator representing Adamawa South and director general of the Binani Campaign Organisation, Senator Ahmed Hassan Barata, over alleged anti-party activities.

Barata’s suspension was signed by the chairman and secretary of the party alongside all other members.

“With due regards to all relevant sections of Article 21 of the APC Constitution 2022 as amended which as well empowers the ward executive committee to take disciplinary measures against any erring members irrespective of his or her status, we the exco members of this ward therefore have resolved in our 27 March, 2023 meeting to suspend you,” the letter said.

Barata was alleged to be involved in  anti-party activities in the March 18 governorship and House of Assembly elections.

A superintendent with the Nigeria Correctional Service, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Mr Eyimoga Moses, has been arraigned before Justice Abdul Dogo of the Federal High Court, Makurdi, for job racketeering.

Moses was arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on one count of corruption.

He was alleged to have collected N800,000 from a couple for two vacant slots at the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State.

Counsel for the anti-graft agency, Bako Alonge, said the offence was contrary to Section 1(1) of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The spokesperson for the ICPC, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, in a statement on Friday, said the defendant was admitted to bail and ordered to be remanded until he met the bail conditions.

The case was adjourned till June 20, 2023, for trial.

By Nasir Ahmadu Bello.

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for the establishment of 10 new National Parks.

This is sequel to the adoption of a motion by Reps. Ado Doguwa, the Majority Leader of the House of Reps at the plenary in Abuja.

The upper chamber of the assembly had earlier approved the request for the parks on Tuesday.

Mr Doguwa said Mr Buhari had on Nov. 16, 2022 signed a declaration order for 10 parks across Nigeria as national parks.

He said in consonance with the provisions of Section 18 of the National Park Service Act, the President, in writing requested the concurrence of the House on 10 New National Parks.

“Subject to this Act, the President with the concurrence of the National Assembly will publish in the gazette, declaring such areas in the federation as national parks,’’ he said.

This, according to him, shall be subject to the provisions of the Act; or, an order made under Subsection (i) of this section shall set out the situation limits of each National Park.

He added that it specifies the intern management policy for the National Park, and specifies the classification of the National Park.

He said: “aware that the declaration Order, 2022 set out; the declaration of new National Parks; name, situation and limits of the new National Park; and constitution of the National Parks Management Committee.”

The 10 new National Parks declared in the Order are: Allawa Game Reserve, Niger, Apoi Forest Reserve, Bayelsa, and Edumenum Reserve, Bayelsa.

Others include: Falgore Game Reserve, Kano State, Baturiya Wetland game Reserve, Jigawa, Kampe Forest Reserve, Kwara, Kogo Forest Reserve, Katsina State, and Marhai Forest Reserve, Nasarawa State

Also in the lists are; Oba Hill Forest Reserve, Osun and Pandam Forest Reserve, Plateau State.