BY GABRIEL EWEPU

Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, is one of Africa’s respected cities and acclaimed to  be one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It has since become a haven for tourists, investors and sellers.

Yet, Abuja has a  huge number of villages left to their fate. One of such villages is Zamani, settled along the access road to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

*A people without education

Zamani has not been a beneficiary any tangible project or programme of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA.  The community has no government  primary and secondary schools,  as well as primary health care facility, water supply, police post, road, and other infrastructures despite its strategic location along the expressway to the Abuja  airport.

Zamani residents live a life of poverty and frustration. The situation of  the Gbagys in Zamani cause cold blood to run down the spine as the people seems not to be part of the FCT.

Zamani, as a community in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, has continued to suffer gross neglect by the area council. One of the chiefs in the community, Al- Hassan Zamani, said the community had not benefited from basic infrastructures that would have raised the standard of living of his people.

Zamani said: “We go to Air Force  Clinic when we need medical attention for our children. We do not have another place that is why we go to Air Force Base. There have also been cases where we lost many children to different diseases due to the distance from the hospitals in town and around us. We plead with government to give us primary health care facility.

“We have been talking to those representing us in government, especially, AMAC Chairman and our senator; yet no solution to our problems.

“Well, AMAC provided a  bole-hole to enable us have potable water, unfortunately it  got spoilt. Before that bole-hole, we were getting water from the nearby stream and it is so dirty after fetching it. We had to  purify it for us to drink; even with that, our children are still infected with cholera and die. We have made complaints to him (Chairman) that the bole-hole is spoilt, but no response yet, although we are making effort to repair it.

“We do not have educational facilities here. I had my western education in Zuba, FCT, and we used to trek from Zamani to school in Zuba, many kilometres away. The situation remains the same.”

A civil servant, Mr. Sunday Okah, narrated his ordeal living in the community, “I have lived in Zamani for a year and seven months now. I chose to live here because it is very close to my working place. I work at the airport.
“We have serious challenge of potable water supply. Thank God that we have a well  in my compound. Before we got this well, we used to spend a lot of money on water. We don’t have good water around here. Even this water that we have here, we are better than our neighbours.”

Another resident, Mrs. Grace Sunday, lamented the lack of health care facility in the community and the pain they pass through to access  health care service.

“It is not an easy task, especially going by the risk on the road, but we still thank God for everything. I take my children to the hospital at Bassa. The only consolation is that we are well attended to by the health officers there, but the truth is that we are not treated like human beings in Zamani as government has not included us in its plan,” Sunday stated.

In the midst of this disheartening and hopeless situation, a non-governmental organisation, Refocusing Nigerians Talents Organisation, RENITO, came to the rescue of the Zamani people.

In 2011, this humanitarian organisation, led by its President, Dr. Abanka Musa, deemed it necessary to fill the vacuum of socio-economic infrastructure created by the government over the years, and to positively impact and empower the people of Zamani.

Musa was the Head of Operations, Dangote Group, and resigned December 2011 to supervise the daily running of RENITO, which commenced operations in April 1996 with an oversight on a range of outfits in content and context.

Musa said: “From 2011 till now, we have empowered over 6, 000 people through over 200 products, including liquid soap, bathing soap, air-fresheners, disinfectant, bleach, pomade, shampoo, hair cream, perfume, and among others.

*Medical facilities are lacking

“We also train and empower the people through Information Communication Technology, ICT, and now we have acquired 15 brand new computers to train minimum of forty people every three months. We have big farmers we train people in agriculture.”

Musa said RENITO had taken the bull by the horn to tackle the health challenges of the people through strong partnership with relevant corporate organisations such as the Life Savers, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and others.

“Every month we organise medical treatment here in Zamani because there is no hospital and most people here don’t have money to go to good hospitals for medical attention.
“We are in collaboration with Federal Airports  Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, which gives us their medical team, and we are in partnership with the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, health services, Life Savers, whom we give money to buy drugs, and they render free health services to the people.

“These organisations come to Zamani every month to render free health services, we are doing all this to save the lives of the people because pregnant women die here a lot, and child mortality is very high”.
According to Musa, no government had given them assistance to really boost their efforts to pull the Zamani people out of abject poverty.

“We are yet to receive assistance from  government. In fact, we appeal to the government to give us land, canopies to enable us train over 300 people in one week based on the trade they want.
“We want support on chemical and credit facilities for those we have empowered. This people can start their businesses with N10, 000, and it will go a long way to reduce crime in the society,” he added.

Since 2012, in Zamani alone, RENITO had transformed the lives of   5, 816, 000, while in health care it had treated over 7, 000 patients, and, in sports promotion, it had unified the people irrespective of religion and tribe as the NGO has also established a community football team for the youths.