The Gaube town, a key farming community in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has urged the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, and the federal government to come to their aid to reverse the backwardness the community has suffered due to years of neglect, insecurity and other challenges.
The community made the call when receiving a delegation of a non-governmental organisation, the Movement for the Transformation of Nigeria (MOTiON), who paid an advocacy and community engagement visit to the community over their plights.
Speaking at the meeting, a councillorship aspirant under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for Gaube Ward, Hon. Chiamatu Terkula, described the situation in Gaube as dire, saying the community, though comprises over 46 villages, yet fewer than five of the villages are accessible even by motorable roads.
His words: “Most communities are inaccessible, especially during the rainy season. Rivers without bridges cut off entire villages. Farmers can’t transport their produce, and this has crippled the local economy. Lack of development has placed immense strain on both education and healthcare.
“Our health centres are in shambles, no equipment, no oxygen, and no medical personnel. Youths are dropping out of school due to lack of support, and even graduates are unemployed. Many are being pushed into crime out of frustration.”
Terkula urged the government to establish designated grazing areas for herders to prevent recurring conflicts with farmers.
He noted that the FCT alone can feed the nation, but without proper land demarcation, herders would continue to destroy farmlands, thus the need for a lasting solution to the perennial farmers-herders clashes, leading to food shortage.
Danladi Muhammed, Stephen Haruna, Blessing Enoch, Hon, Chiya Mathew, Faisal Yusuf, Dania Bako Akawu and Christiana Waziri among others, who listed several challenges facing the community, called for collective actions to reverse the ‘backwardness’ of the town, despite being located in the seat of the President of the Federal Republic and also having an ‘action’ Minister (Wike).
A member of the MOTiON, Abdullahi Bilal described Gaube’s condition as one of the worst the organisation has seen in its grassroots engagements across the FCT.
While expressing concern over the lack of basic amenities, including poor road networks, dilapidated healthcare facilities, inadequate schools, and worsening farmer-herder conflicts, all of which threaten food production and community wellbeing, he called for urgent government interventions.
“The primary health centre here is nothing more than a consulting room. Residents travel several kilometres to Kuje for proper medical treatment, and many don’t survive the journey. One school has been closed for over a year. This is Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. If such conditions exist here, what then is the fate of remote areas across the country?” Bilal said.
He also said that MOTiON will launch a citizens’ engagement platform on October 17 this year to increase citizen participation and government accountability.
According to him, The platform is designed to allow residents to report local issues, demand solutions, and continually ‘speak truth to power’.