QUEST FOR BETTER LIFE: How youths are deserting Kogi village renowned for traditional medicine

Ofabo, a rural community in Ofu LGA of Kogi state, is predominantly populated by Igala people and is renowned as a home of traditional medicine practitioners. In the past, the community was known for playing host to visitors from neighbouring towns and cities who sought the services of native healers to cure various types of ailments.

But despite the healing proficiency and its importance to humanity, Ofabo is cut off from modern-day realities as it lacks the basic amenities needed by the people to live a decent life. The road leading to the community is almost impassable while a building serving as a primary health centre lacks basic facilities. Residents of the community rely on a stream for water supply, while there are no job opportunities for the youth population.

Because of the absence of healthcare facilities and job opportunities, the youths, who are to inherit the skills from the dwindling aged population, are migrating in large numbers to cities in search of greener pastures, leaving Ofabo’s highly revered potent native medicine skill at risk of extinction.

Already, the elderly are worried about the future of Ofabo culture. Some of those who spoke with TheCable said people who once visited the town to seek native healing are no longer coming because of the bad shape of the road, resulting in a loss of income.

Jacob Ladi, a native doctor, expressed his frustration at the situation.

“All the youths who can help us in bringing the tradition alive have left the community, and as I am now, I’m too old to go to farms and gather those herbs,” he lamented.

“For this reason, the tradition of making native medicine is disappearing; unfortunately, we do not have competent hospitals to run to.”

Jacob said if the roads are fixed, the exposure which the town gained in the past will be renewed, pointing out that it will also help their economy.

“I am frustrated and deeply unsatisfied with the high rate of youth migration from the Ofabo community. Most of our traditional values can only be preserved forever by the younger generation if they are around to inherit them from us,” he added.

Jacob Ogwuche, a community leader, told TheCable that only a few youths choose to remain in Ofabo.

“Our future is no more certain, and there is no one to take care of us with native traditional medicine anymore. There are no more youths in the community to pick what our fathers left us with. People have already stopped coming from other towns for consultation,” he said.

Freddy Apeh, a youth leader in the community, believes that the migration to urban communities would soon make rural communities desolate and deserted. He blamed the government for abandoning the rural communities, which according to him, has led to the extinction of traditional values.

“It seems the government is far from us, and there is no job for us; that is why we are all leaving the community and leaving the older ones behind. Many youths have gone out of here to find jobs,” he said.

“They only come here during December for the yuletide celebration, and after that, they leave. Most of the values we should be spreading are disappearing because the youths have nothing to sustain their stay in the rural communities. They leave and forget the traditional values behind.”

Rural-urban migration, a ripple effect of underdevelopment, is a familiar problem in developing countries across the world, including Nigeria. A United Nations report said Nigeria’s urban population already makes up over 50 percent of its over 200 million people. The figure is expected to rise to 189 million urban dwellers by 2050.

A town left behind

For those who chose to stay put in Ofabo, life is a daily struggle. Women and children walk about five kilometres to the stream before they can get water — and the water is only available during the rainy season.

During the dry season, their quest for water naturally increases and to ensure a steady water supply, some of them have built concrete water reservoirs where they store water collected during the rainy season, but this can only serve them for a few months.

Those who can afford the cost of a regular supply of water resort to paying amounts ranging from N8,000 to N12,000 for a tank of water drawn from a stream that runs in a distant community.

‘My daughter died of typhoid’

When TheCable visited the community, some residents said many of them suffer from water-related diseases as a result of the unhygienic water they consume.

“Despite paying the huge sum for a tank of the stream water, many people complain of sickness associated with water diseases such as dysentery, diarrhoea, and skin rashes,” said JA Ipomu, a native of the community.

Ipomu said he was once rushed to Abuja for treatment when he contracted dysentery. He also told the story of how his daughter died of typhoid.

“Last year, I lost my daughter, doctors said she had typhoid and diarrhoea and that she got it from the water we drank before we took her to the city for treatment,” he said.

“I later had dysentery too, I could have died too if not for my family’s swift response to rush me to the hospital in the city before I was later referred to General Hospital in Abuja.”

Esther Aladi said the lack of money to buy a tank of water from the distributors is a common challenge among the poor residents of Ofabo.

“Some of us cannot even pay the N8,000 for a tank of water, but we do beg some of the vendors to sell to us in smaller measure,” she said.

Health challenges but no healthcare

Despite the prevalent water borne-diseases in Ofabo, the existing healthcare infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. The wards inside the healthcare centre are bereft of mattresses and the windows are without nets, leaving patients at the mercy of the elements.

Residents said the facility, which lacks electricity supply, was jointly built by the community and the government under an agency called Kogi State Agency for Poverty Reduction (KSAPR) many years ago. Due to the sorry state of the primary healthcare centre, residents who can afford the cost are forced to travel to the city for medical care, especially in cases of emergency.

“My son has been sick for the past two days, he frequents the toilet and he is now weak and that is why I brought him to the health centre. I should have taken him to Ayungba city, but I do not have the money to do that,” says Alice, whose son was on admission.

Gabriel Edogbo, a senior officer at the health centre, said the major health medical challenges in the community are diarrhoea, abdominal pain, dysentery and typhoid. According to him, the diseases are caused by the water the indigenes drink. He also lamented that health officers at the facility have limited capacity to care for the residents.

He said: “The main sicknesses the people report are diarrhoea, typhoid, dysentery and abdominal pain.

“No doubt that all these are caused by the water the people are drinking here, this water can obstruct intestinal function which is why they keep reporting similar cases.

“Unfortunately, we do not have full capacity to take care of them whenever they come down with these sicknesses, but anytime it becomes complicated, we do not wait till we have casualties before we refer them to the city where they have better equipment to treat them.”

Monarch: I can’t advise my child to stay here

JA Agada, the Onu of Ofabo, said there has not been any significant growth in the community for years.

The traditional ruler said the community has been forgotten, adding that he can’t allow his children to stay behind.

“I feel we need to start talking about this community from the scratch because there is no aspect which is not suffering. It’s like we’ve been forgotten,” he lamented.

“Looking at unemployment rate, I cannot even advise my biological children to stay here because there are no jobs for the youths.

“Our primary health centre cannot take care of us whenever we are sick until we travel to Ayungba. We do not have access to basic healthcare system; there are no drugs in our health centre as big as it is.”

Hamzat Lawal, chief executive officer of Connected Development (CODE), told TheCable that negligence of rural communities has become a recurring theme in the country.

He urged the rural community members to make documented demands from the politicians especially during the electioneering periods.

“This is a recurring trend in most communities, when governments neglect their responsibilities, many communities do not have basic access to infrastructure,” he said.

“For me, it is just a call to the government to rise to the occasion, and take the mantle of leadership seriously. When you travel across Nigeria, this is just occurring every now and then.

“I believe that when they make budget allocation and appropriation, some of these communities are captured, but when these monies are released, do they get to the communities? Are the communities informed that they have budget allocation? It is just a hard reality in Nigeria, not only in Kogi state but of course Nigeria.”

Council boss: Ofabo situation being addressed

Amodu Ibrahim, the Ofu LG chairman, told TheCable that the developmental challenges in Ofabo are being addressed by the council.

He said the LG council has already written a proposal to the state government for intervention and that once the state approves the budget, it will start working on providing basic amenities and infrastructure.

“As I speak with you, all those amenities that are lacking in Ofabo community are being addressed,” he said.

“By the grace of God, within the shortest time, most of those things we will have to put them in place.

“Before now, local governments have been executing projects on their own, but currently we are doing joint projects in the sense that whatever project that is available in my local government is being replicated in another local government.

“By July this year, project execution will be coming down to Kogi East and Ofabo is the first community we are going to visit in the local government.”

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This report is supported by OSIWA, under the Campus Civic Media Campaign Project of Cable Foundation, in partnership with TheCable