Sokoto’s Bogus Boreholes, by Ike Willie-Nwobu

Sokoto State in Northwest  Nigeria has a unique way of surging into the news and nestling there. For one, it is the seat of the sultanate superintended by the sultan  who leads Muslims in Nigeria. So, arguably, it is the most important state to Nigerian Muslims.

Recently the state has become the scene of  some of the worst atrocities committed in Nigeria’s recent memory. On 12^th May 2022, Deborah Samuel, a 22-year-old student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education Sokoto was lynched by a murderous mob on spurious allegations of blasphemy. It indicts everything Nigeria stands for as a democratic, civilized country that her killers still walk free. Their freedom in a country that supposedly adheres to the rule of law  defiles everything the country holds dear and sacred.

In December 2021, terrorists who continue to terrorize the state reduced a busload of passengers travelling from Sokoto  to Kaduna to ashes.

Just last month, terrorists also seized some vehicles belonging to the Nigerian Army in the state. A triumphant video recorded and shared by the terrorists prompted the Federal Government to ask the Nigeria Army to temporarily relocate some of its structures to the state.

Amid the rumble in one of Nigeria’s most iconic states, the unspoken question has always been what is the government doing.

The Sokoto State Government led by Governor recently attempted to do something. To rapturous applause, the governor recently announced that the sum of 1.2 billion Naira had been earmarked for the repair of the 25 boreholes in the state.

Now, to those unfamiliar with the intricate workings of government, the figure may seem outrageous And for good reasons. But by any measure, the sum of 1.2 billion Naira for the repair of 25 boreholes is outlandish. The figure would be outrageous even if it was for the dredging of new boreholes, as the Chief Press Secretary to the Government has explained in an apparent somersault forced by the flagellating backlash the government has received from Nigerians.

If the commissioner’s explanations were meant to clarify issues, he only succeeded in painting the government he serves as careless at best and incompetent at worst.  Didn’t the governor know what such a humongous amount of money was allocated for before announcing it to the public? Didn’t the governor query the appropriation to ensure its propriety before deploying it to score political points?

It is terrible how public funds are treated in a country where poverty is a national insignia.

In a country where budgets have become bludgeons with which thieving public officers batter their way into the public till, Nigerians are right to raise eyebrows at every government expenditure.

Unfortunately, public officials have over the years refined the art of stealing public funds. So daring and sophisticated have their ways become that it has become almost impossible to detect and deter them.

What will be gushing out of the boreholes in Sokoto State when the government is done with its outrageous expenditure? Milk? Blood? Petrol?

Water is life. Clean and safe water for drinking and other use is indispensable to the health and well-being of people anywhere. That Nigeria continues to struggle to provide safe water for use for its teeming population despite enormous water resources is a national tragedy. That many Nigerians especially those who live in the rural areas remain without clean and safe water indicts Nigeria’s development efforts since independence, and a much celebrated return to democracy in 1999.

The lack of safe drinking water has seen Nigeria continue to fail to meet its Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) objectives to its citizens. This failure in turn continues to turn in a slew of devastating consequences for Nigerians, especially children who are the most vulnerable demographic.  Diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio which are directly linked to unsafe water break out now and then causing death and misery to families.

The waterless situation is especially dire in IDP camps where survivors of terrorism and pastoral conflicts soon find themselves at the mercy of killer diseases.

What is a country that cannot provide enough safe water for its people? How low should be the stock of a government that cleverly hides its misappropriation of public funds in the folds of long-overdue provision of the water to its people?

Water is life and clean and safe water for use is the least every child in Sokoto State should enjoy especially in the rural areas where insecurity continues to collide with poor healthcare, egregious unemployment, poor education and a grueling lack of opportunities to make life unlivable and unbearable.

These days, Nigerians no longer bother to conceal their distrust of those who lead them which is curious because the ballot box which is the portal to power in Nigeria’s democracy should at least guarantee that those who pass through it into public office can be trusted in little things.

In Nigeria, suspicion rather than cooperation is what citizens offer their leaders and for good reason. Colossal corruption which has continued for many years in all levels of government has eroded public trust and inhibited development. The onus is on those who occupy public office to show that they can be trusted with public resources. This they are yet to show.

As long as they prefer darkness to light and opacity to transparency in public affairs, they will remain targets of the suspicion of Nigerians, which sharpened over many years of bad governance is finally ready to draw blood

May it also draw water from everywhere in Sokoto State for the sake of children dying of diseases directly traceable to unsafe water.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Ikewilly9@gmail.com