In Opoo, a remote community at the outskirts of Okaka in Itesiwaju
Local Government Area of Oyo State, life is a different mix for Abiola
Bankole and her two little siblings – Yemi and Ibukun.
Their school, Community Primary School Opoo, boasts only three
classrooms with no basic facilities to support any meaningful academic
exercise. Two out of the three classrooms have their roof completely
blown off by the wind while the only surviving one shared by the entire
school of about 150 pupils is half way from finally caving.
More than half of the schools population wear mufti to classes
because their parents cannot afford uniforms. Many of the children carry
their books to school in sacks or with their bare hands.
Not only that,
pupils drink water mixed with cattle urine and faeces as the only
source of water in community is shared by both animals and human begins.
For the three siblings and dozens of their little colleagues in this
tiny agrarian community, there is nothing to dream about in the future.
The harsh environment they live in and the terrible condition under
which they learn at this dilapidated school building rob them of the
frills that come along with formative years.
“We have encountered a lot of
problems in this place especially on the bad condition of the school,”
Ojelabi David Abioye, headmaster of the school, explained to our
correspondent. “We have taken a lot of pictures to the local government
and written several letters yet nothing has been done about this. They
have promised us several times to do something about the situation but
it is still the same.
“Last week, we were also at the local
government office to complain to them because there is almost nowhere
left for the pupils to learn. The only classroom the entire school is
managing at the moment is gradually being taken over by termites and
other dangerous animals that are destroying the entire building and the
little furniture in it. Whenever there is heavy wind and storm, we can’t
stay in the classroom because the remaining roof might collapse on us,”
he said.
Abioye, who became head-teacher of the school about 17 years ago,
told Saturday PUNCH that the present situation is making learning almost
impossible for the children of Opoo and surrounding settlements who are
serviced only by the school.
Giving an insight into how bad things
really are, Abioye revealed that himself and one other teacher, Julius
Solola, are the only ones teaching the entire school of around 150
pupils because government has refused to post in more hands to assist
them. The workload, he says, is neck-breaking.
“Government has not employed teachers
for a long time and that is why the situation is very bad at the
moment. The other teacher (Solola) joined me here nine years ago and we
have been doing the job of about 10 people alone. We used to be three
here but one person was transferred to another school outside this
locality.
“Personally, I have lodged several
complaints at the local government office but all they tell me is that
the government has not taken a stand on our case, that until that is
done, nothing will happen.
“This is really affecting the pupils
because the environment is not conducive for any form of learning. In
fact, most times we have to bring out benches and desks for some pupils
to be taught under a tree outside the school building while the others
manage to learn in the only classroom. There is no library or any modern
equipment with which to teach the pupils.
“Once it starts raining, we ask all
the children to go home because the roof is very bad. For that day, that
will be the end of studies,” he said.
The size of each of the classroom is only a few yards larger than the
space inside most commercial buses in Lagos and other major Nigerian
cities, our correspondent observed during the visit. Pupils squeeze
themselves into less than 15 desks in the only surviving classroom while
several others watch the teacher from the corridor, leaving a sizable
number to sit on the bare floor under the orange tree outside the school
building, waiting for their turns to be taught in the classroom.
While teaching was going on, two pupils from Basic One engaged in a
scuffle, attracting the attention of the headmaster who whipped them
lightly for distracting the rest of the class. Shortly, pupils from
Basic One and Two who had been sharing the only one class at the same
time were asked to move out for their seniors in Basic Five to come in
for their turn. On other days, the three categories are taught at the
same time crammed into different rows inside the same classroom.
The
commotion of having at least 100 pupils in this tiny room at the same
time on such days can best be imagined. Screaming, crying and
distraction of all forms are always the situation. The pupils can hardly
concentrate in a classroom whose temperature is far below normal,
leaving many of them drenched in sweat while the two teachers attend to
them the best way they can.
Following the jam-packed nature of the class when Saturday PUNCH
correspondent visited, many of the pupils looked worn out and very
stressed by the time they came out of the classroom. The situation is
not peculiar to this particular day; it is a familiar scenario which now
threatens the academic and wellbeing of the young pupils.
Also, the once vibrant and well-stocked health centre established
only in 2007 now lays prostrate. Overgrown by weeds and taken over by
insects and dangerous reptiles, it is a pale shadow of its former self.
Expectant mothers on the verge of delivery are either rushed to hospital
on motorcycle, if it’s available, or escorted on foot to the nearest
town seven kilometers away. Some mothers have not been able to survive
this tough test, community leaders told Saturday PUNCH. The babies had
come too quickly along the bumpy and narrow road leading into the
settlement just before their mothers got to the nearest hospital or
received any medical help.
It is a similar experience for sick indigenes of the area that have
mostly relied on local herbal concoctions or had to make the long trip
outside Opoo to get medical help.
“One of our pregnant women almost
died recently while we were taking her to the hospital in the next
town,” Orimatanmi Aderounmu, head of Opoo community told our
correspondent. “It was late in the evening and we could not get a
motorcycle on time to rush her down, so she delivered along the road.
Thank God one of our women had little experience in this aspect; she was
the one who assisted in the delivery of the child before a nurse came
in the following day to look at her and the child.
“We are really suffering. The lack of
a functional health centre or hospital is really affecting us. Whatever
happens to us here, we have to go all the way to Okaka to get medical
attention.
“Personally I have been to the local
government office several times to let them know what we are passing
through but nobody seems concerned with our situation. I let them know
that we are too many in this settlement not to have a good health
facility with drugs and doctors to attend to our medical needs. But
nobody is ready to listen to our cries.
“The health centre we have here has
been closed down since last October. Before that time, the doctor and
other medical staff used to be on ground on regular basis and the
hospital was regularly supplied with drugs. But since that time, we have
been left to suffer,” he said.
Chronic typhoid fever, constant stomach upset and rheumatism are
among the major sicknesses prevalent here. But the lack of potable water
in the entire community now leaves many residents and especially
children at the mercy of an even more dangerous disease. They are at
risk of cholera and an epidemic outbreak.
Opoo’s only water source is a shallow hole that springs forth dirty
water. It is shared by both humans and cattle. The pupils wait for
cattles to drink, urinate and pass out their faces before they take same
water to drink. When our correspondent visited the site, Fulani women
were seen washing dirty clothes directly into the water source just
moments before children from the settlement arrived to fetch water. It
is a practice that has gone on for a long time but now puts many
households in this locality in grave danger.
“If you see the water we drink, then
you will understand why there are so many sicknesses in this community,”
Aderounmu cuts in. “We are suffering from typhoid and many of the
children are always complaining of stomach pains.
“The Fulanis take their cattles to
the only source of water we are managing to drink here. In the process,
the cattles urinate and defecate inside the water. But because we don’t
have a choice, we wait for them to finish before fetching water from the
place. The water is not good at all but since government has refused to
help us, we have to keep managing it like that.”
Like many tiny agrarian communities tucked away in remote parts of
the country, Opoo and neighbouring settlements are yet to taste
electricity supply. The people rely on a few transistor radios for
latest information in the country. Mobile phones are mostly out of reach
as a result of drained batteries.
“Only one person has generator in
this place. It is only when he has petrol to put it on that we can
charge our phones, if not we give anybody going to Okaka to charge for
us. This is how we have been surviving over the years,” Aderounmu told
our correspondent.
Indeed, life in this tiny Oyo settlement is a mix of pains,
sufferings and neglect. It is a case of flagrant deprivation in the face
of crushing and widespread poverty. Predominantly farmers with little
or no education, many adults have grown up the hard and tortuous way.
The community’s only school established in 1997 to connect their
children to a world of limitless opportunities which education offers is
now a thin line away from total collapse while the hospital in the
centre of the town is a distant contrast from what it used to be. Unless
relevant authorities and corporate organisations quickly rise to the
occasion, little children like Abiola and Yemi might watch their dreams
fizzle into thin air while sick residents could be swallowed by an
impending epidemic hovering upon Opoo.
Posts
