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Here is a personal account of a
journey by Danlami Nmodu-executive editor Insider
weekly that doubles as the editor in chief of
Newsdiary online -who had a terrifying experience along
with fellow tavellers as the
engine
propelling a wooden boat conveying him, Alhaji
Abdullahi Aliyu and 37 others died in
the middle of River Niger.The heart -stopping experience
occurred during a trip across the river
from Katcha ,Niger State to Kinami in Kogi state
on Friday 2nd January 2009.
The stranded boat(left) being rescued by another
(right) ( pix by Danlami Nmodu)
(Friday January 2, 2009)Prior to this
fateful day I had not visited Mami, the village of
my birth for eight years.I looked forward to
meeting my mom ,step mom , brothers ,sisters and
uncles and all .I longed to once again reach home
and drink the water from Ebunza.The stream
called Ebunza has remained the only
reliable source of drinking water for the people ever
since and everyone born and bred as we say,
in Mami can effectively be said to have the spirit
of Ebunza flowing within. At everytime you long
to either see the stream or drink from it.It is always a
refreshing gulp of water, especially if it has been
stored in the local pot which cools or
refrigerates the water from ebunza.There has never
been NEPA or PHCN light in my village.Of late, those who
can afford it use generators.We are still waiting
for government to extend light to Mami and every part of
Kupa.Lack of portable water and reliable source of power
have held kupa back.It is compounded by low level
of educational development and seemingly endless
lack of good roads.Even the GSM services celebrated in
other parts of Nigeria appear to have simply reached
Kupa by accident.The network in most parts of the land
comes and goes, never reliable.But the seemingly excited
people are grateful that somehow, their land is
being linked with other parts of the country and the
world.Truth is that Kupa has not being effectivey
linked with Nigeria.It is an entire land delinked from
the nation,its people remain the land
-tilling agrarian mass, poor and backward
;endlessly used by politicians who seek votes when
needed and sucessive governments that keep receiving
taxes from the days of yore.But the land and the
people remain a sorry sight.And the promises of the good
things that will uplift the people and open up the
land have yet to be fulfilled.
Oh sorry! The journey .It began from
Kaduna along with Alhaji Abdullahi Aliyu. We had a near
two -hour stop over in Suleja in order to convey Hajia
Habu and Alhaji Maliki along with us to Katcha.The
Hajia and Alhaji Maliki had just returned from Haj in
Saudi Arabia.After bidding farewell to his son ,Ibrahim
Saba and his family, Hajia Habu and Maliki enventually
became co -travelers with us in what turned out to be a
bumpy ride to Katcha.
The trip from Suleja to Lapai
and later to Agaie in Niger state was rather so -so as
the bad road could be said to be passable, Nigerian
style.But the journey from Agaie to Katcha by road was
like a trip to hell.The road was simply bumpy, dusty ,
impassable and full of pot holes.The coal tar on most
parts of the roal had been swept away.It is sickening to
see a road which had been tarred at some point years ago
degenarate to this dusty state.And government amazingly
seems to be watching this busy route just die
further.Yes,it is a dying route.Go to Agaie and
experience the ride to katcha in order to have a feel of
how a road dies.At most points the coal tar had
disappeared.The bumpy ride forced one of the occupants
in the car to say it is clear the people of the area
will remain unhappy with former Governor Abdulkadir Kure
of Niger State for abandoning that stretch of the
road.There is no evidence that any rehabilitation of the
road took place throughout the eight years of the Kure
regime.But it is not enough to blame Kure like
Governor Babangida who likes being called
the chief servant is doing, he needs to swiftly
rehabilitate the Agaie-katcha road to ease the pains of
the people.That road and as you will see soon,
needs the urgent service of Babangida.
If the trip from Agaie to Katcha was
bumpy rough and painful, the trip across river
Niger was heart- stopping.There were warning
signals but no one seemed to heed them.As the boat was
being loaded with the goods the travelers- including
local business men and women -had bought from the
Katcha market, I observed that the cover of the boat`s
engine had been removed;an indication that the mechanics
or local repairers had worked on it to put the engine
in order.No one made an issue out of this as
everyone seemed very eager to just dump valuables
including bags, shoes and all into the boat.The 38
passengers and their valuables including two motorcycles
and some mattresses and sugarcanes simply folded their
trousers as the men did just as the women rolled up
their wrappers as they walked into the river and climbed
into the boat for the trip to Kinami.No one expected
what befell us later.
In deed the boat began the trip
quite well, meandered through the relatively
shallow tributary as it`s engine roared
toward the heart of River Niger proper.Passengers who
had not seen some old friends exchanged pleasantries as
they sighted one another in the boat. Old time tales
were recounted as they paid the N200 fair each.The only
cause of little unease was the failure of the boat boy
to dutifully empty the boat of water which
regularly seeped from under into the boat.But that was
not a major problem.
If anyone saw the boat boy`s
lackadaisical approach to his duty a problem, what
befell the travelers as the boat reached the
deepest part of the River left everyone initially
speechless.In the middle of River Niger, the
engine of the boat conveying us suddenly stopped
rumbling.The engined died.And on the left,
right side we could only immediatey see the vast expanse
of the flowing river.We looked forward and backward too,
it was just the cold expanse of the river on whose
flowing silence our boat floated .From very far
off ,we saw the foliage of the forest on the banks
of the river.But we were nowhere near the banks on both
sides.We were simply helpless as the boat floated
according to the dictates of the river.Soon ,it was like
we were just circling in the middle of the river.The
situation was worsened by the fact that the riders of
our boat did not have a paddle with which the boat could
have been guided perhaps slowly to safety.None of us had
life jackets.Many,perhaps like myself cannot swim to
safety if the unexpected happened.Don`t forget the two
haj returnees from Saudi Arabia were also among
the helpless co travelers Thank Good , help came
from two good samaritans.
After the initial shock and
bewilderment rolled into one ,co-travellers began to
talk, querying why the owner of the boat would set
sail without a spare plug .One anxious man generally
referred to as Bororo, a Fulani man complained loudly
wondering why there was no plug .But the problem was not
the plug.The entire engine just stopped working.Yet at
that point one woman who was anxious to say her prayers
courageously began to bend forward to perform her
ablution just as the boat floated helplessly.That
ablution scene added to the tension but no one dared to
ask her to stop performing ablution which seemed to tilt
the boat dangerously.But she completed her ablution and
proceeded to say her prayers any way.After all, we all
were left praying albeit silently for Allah to
intervene.Some who could utter words said they hoped an
empty boat will emerge to rescues us.Amazingly, that was
what followed after nearly ten minutes
during which we were stranded in the middle of the
river.I chose to take pictures with my Samsung
phone as the camera came in handy
Like a dream come true, a virtually
empy boat powered by its engine and the boat rider and
his assistant emerged from a far corner.All of a sudden
several hands were up, beckoning on the rider
to head in our direction.Fortunately the young man
heeded the distress call, came towards the
stranded boat.But there was yet another moment of unease
as there seemed to be an unwillingness to render help
because the two boys in the boat seemed in a hurry to
reach their destination.After some spirited
appeal, the boys caved in and offered to help.They at
last chose to be the good samaritans.And we were
grateful and largely relieved as the
rescuing boat turned and moved closer to our stranded
boat.I watched as a thick iron chain at
the tip of the rescue boat was extended across to
the stranded boat .The the two boats were eventually
tied together at the tip.
After that ,the rescuing boat rumbled
on and our boat which had been floating according to the
ebb and flow of the river suddenly found it rythmn
and began to move on towards the other half of the river
.As moments passed by, we got closer to Kinami.And
about twenty minutes after, our ordeal was over.We
disembanked, grateful to God and the young boys who
eventually accepted to rescue us from the helpless
middle of River Niger.
At Kinami, many lamented the lack of
a ferry to convey regular travelers.There have been
talks for years of a bridge across the river from either
Kinami or Eggan to Katcha But nothing has been done.The
fate of the bridge is similar to the failure of repeated
governments to construct a tarred road from Jamata to
Mami and Eggan .In like manner, every promise by the
federal government to tar the road from Aiyetoro
-Gbede to Abugi and Eggan remains yet to be fully
fulfilled.All these failed roads make every trip
to and out of Kupa a harrowing experience.It is the
Governor Ibrahim Idris regime in Kogi State that
has taken the most visible step of building critical
bridges along the Jamata-Budon,Mami- Eggan road.But the
road remains untarred.In fact ,it is becoming
increasingly clear that the openning up of Kupa will
require the joint efforts of Niger and Kogi States
as well as the Federal government.
Back to Kinami.After saying my
prayers along with others, I chose the fastest means of
transportation home:okada,yes, okada.The
motorcycle remains the fastest means of transportation
between Kinami and all the towns and villages in
Kupa-land of Lokoja Local Government of Kogi
State.Though there were rickety Land Cruisers and a
Mercedes benz 190 serving as commercial vehicles,
none of these can equal the speed of okada along
the untarred, bumpy roads away from Kinami into the
heartland of Kupa.
From Kinami, Mami was my
destination.But I stopped over at Abugi as I have always
done on every trip along same route.This time, I had a
more compelling reason:I had a duty to visit the family
of late Mohammed Ibrahim Saba,the former speaker of Kogi
State House of Assembly who died suddenly about two
years ago.Mohammed and I were like brothers as we
grew up together. I felt obliged to stopover in Abugi
and condole with his family and others before proceeding
home.I prayed that his gentle and good soul rest
in peace.And I proceeded home.
Yes, my safe arrival at my
destination about 7:30PM made me simply forget
the near tragic encounter, as I got
home, sweet home.Fortunately the journey
back to Katcha from Kinami in another boat on Sunday
January 4th ,2009 was relatively smooth and
devoid of the suspense and terrifying experience
of Friday.
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