Few months ago, I traveled to Oporoama community in the Asari-Toru Local Government Area to attend the funeral rites of the mother of my close political associate. Oporoama is a coastal town in the Kalabari kingdom. The town has been in an existence for over a century. The primary occupation of the people of the community is fishing.
As I arrived, I moved round the village and what I observed was pitiable, eyesore and irritating.
The community has no portable drinking water, effective power supply, no access road and absence of developmental facilities. Oporoma community is not only a rural town that is in a pitiable situation. Several local areas are far from modern civilization and development.
The bulk of Nigeria population is residing in the rural areas. And besides this rural communities produce at least ninety (90) percent of the Nigeria’s resources. The local populace toil and labour through farming and fishing to feed the country. The local farmers and fishermen use crude implement to do their work thereby exerting more energy or their primary occupation.
The poverty rate in the villages across the nation cannot be quantified, beyond measure and unimaginable. In the 21st century government is still struggling to erect electric poles, building dispensaries and other facilities that will make life meaningful and interesting.
Due to the non-availability of social amenities in the local communities, rural-urban drift is on increase. Everyone needs the goodies of life, thus searching for greener pastures is higher.
It is high time governments at all levels provided infrastructure in the rural communities that will stimulate development. The rural dwellers are in need of loans to facilitate their business to boost domestic economy. The importance of access roads in the agricultural development cannot be over emphasized. Hence government should construct access roads to aid rural farmers to transport their products to the urban centres. The rural populace needs better life, therefore relevant government agencies should initiate programmes that will ignite unprecedented development in the rural areas. ###
Damiete West
08037502931
wdamiete@yahoo.com
