Living on the edge: Nigerian community threatened by extinction

Residents of Agwagune community in Cross River State are currently in dire straits. Faced with a natural disaster that could consume them, they lack the resources to even escape and seek better life elsewhere. ANTHONY UBONG, Calabar reports.

 

IT is certainly not the best of times for the people of Agwagune community in Biase local government area of Cross River State. The community, located about 150 kilometres from Calabar, the state capital, is currently going through perilous times. Residents are currently living on the edge. Owing to the devastating landslide which recently occured in the area their community is at the risk of extinction. Their tale of woes is enough to draw tears from the most hard-hearted.

Agwagune community is bedeviled by the twin disaster of landslide and flooding on a yearly basis.  Apart from being ravaged by natural disasters, the agrarian community has no trappings of modernity.  They have no access to basic amenities like pipe-borne water, electricity, health care, roads and the like.

There is no tarred road to the community. Cars can only access the community at the peak of the dry season. During the rainy season, only canoes ferry people from New Agwagune, which is on a higher ground.

Also, about 90 per cent of the people live in mud houses. Some of these houses were built many years ago.

The people of the area are mostly fishermen and farmers of yams, rice vegetables and tree crops.

According to Sunday Tribune findings, the Agwagune people traded in palm oil, and other farm produce in the 16th and 17th centuries and were taken into slavery by  Europeans.

The slave trade offered the people ample opportunity to have contact with Europeans, as evident in the availability of artifacts such as canons in the community. Unfortunately, the people are still living like outcasts in their land, due to the lack of government presence.

However, the devastating landslide which hit the community on January 7, 2017 left it in complete ruins. Over 2,000 houses are on the verge of collapse forcing the residents to flee the community in large numbers. In fact, the development has created an atmosphere of morbid fear as most residents, especially landlords are living in the fear of losing their properties.

When Sunday Tribune visited the community recently, most of the residents were seen moving in droves to neighbouring communities for fear of losing their lives to the impending natural disaster.

Sunday Tribune spotted about 500 residents ferrying their belongings by boat across the river to nearby villages.

Unfortunately, some residents, mostly tenants, who desire to relocate, are constrained by lack of funds to hire new apartments elsewhere owing to hard times occasioned by the economic recession. Such residents and landlords flayed both the state and federal governments for alleged insensitivity, and negligence. A resident, Mr. Linus Egbe, whose house has been half consumed by the landslide, lamented the state government of neglect. He claimed that on several occasions, members of the community had written to the state House of Assembly over the threat posed by the landslide, but help was not forthcoming.

“We are being neglected by both the state and federal governments because the menace of landslide and flooding has been there for so many years. Though they are building some houses on a higher ground for us, those houses are not enough. Even the ones built are being taken over by politicians who give them to their relations.

“It is a terrible thing because right now, the house that I laboured to build is almost consumed by the landslide. That was why I moved my family to my brother’s place in Biase town. I don’t really know what to do. Government should, please, come to our aid,” he said.

Another victim, Mrs. Irene Ilem, a widow, who was in tears as she spoke to Sunday Tribune, said since she lost her husband four years ago, life had been unbearable as she could no longer fend for her five children,

She said her only source of livelihood was a two-room apartment, which she gave out on rent, lamenting that the landslide had affected the house, prompting her tenants to pack out.

“My husband built a two-room apartment which we gave out on rent. I used the rent to feed my children since my husband died and the house has been destroyed. I am left with nothing to survive on,” she told Sunday Tribune.

Also, a farmer, Etaba Ikpi, lamented that the landslide consumed his farm, which according to him, is his only means of livelihood.

He said he was lucky to have survived the incident, because he was working on the farm when he noticed cracks on the floor. “I discovered the ground was breaking while I was working, so I had to run for my life,” he said.

Immediate past Director-General of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Mr Vincent Aquah, an indigene of the community, described the incident as unfornate and commended the federal and state governments for their effort towards the establishment of rehabilitation sites in the area while calling for more commitment to ensure speedy completion.

On what the state government was doing to address the menace, current Director-General of SEMA, Mr. John Inaku said the government had dispatched a team of experts to the community to bring the situation under control. He said officials from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had also visited the community to carry out a survey, with a view to relocating residents to a safer place.

Inaku, however, appealed to the Federal Government and the United Nations to come to the aid of the government. He said due to paucity of funds, the state alone could not cater for the large number of people affected by the landslide.

“We need to provide at least 3, 000 housing units for the people and we cannot do it alone because of lack of funds. Presently, we are evacuating and putting materials together to relocate them and because the houses there were not properly finished, we had to make camps for them on higher grounds.

“We have to equally provide them with food, medicals, and other necessities like toiletries and all that. We equally have a tanker that will provide them water, so we really want the Federal Government to come to our aid and we have even written a letter to the vice-president [Professor Yemi Osinbajo]. We need assistance.’’

But right now, the people hope and wait on God and government to come to their aid. According to them, even if they had the desire to relocate, they are too poor to afford such an important undertaking.