The forgotten rural communities

Step Up for Social Development and Empowerment in Nigeria (Step Up Nigeria), is a Non- Governmental Organisation focused on building the bridges between government and citizens to tackle corruption and improve service delivery.  As part of our objectives to improve the delivery of services in local communities, we visited two communities in Kogi and Nasarawa states. In Kogi, we visited Kusa and Kwakwa communities in Gegu-North Ward under the Kogi LGA in Kogi State.   
We observed the following service delivery challenges during our visits to these communities 
1. Access to potable drinking water 
There is no access to potable drinking water. In Kusa, community drinking water is gotten from the stream which is not clean and is usually worse during dry season. The community expressed their interest to have pipe borne water but do not have enough funds to set it up. In Kwakwa community, the major source of drinking water is well. Three different wells were dug by the men in the community, the well were dug one after the other in different location in a bid to ensure that there is adequate water during dry season in the community, however this is not the case, these wells go dry during the dry season. This is as a result of the mountainous topography of the community making getting adequate water for use and for drinking a great challenge. In Guruku, Arusu and Dari city communities, a shared stream is the sole source of water and this stream is the passageway for people and cattle.   “We will be glad if the government can provide borehole for drinking water, we get water from the stream which is usually dry during dry season”- Community member , Kusa community 
“We have dug up to 3 wells in this community and there is hardly water in any of them during dry season”- Community member, Kwakwa community. 
“This water source is dirty and unclean and the purifying process to get drinking water is hard” – Ladi Godwin, Guruku community. 
 
2. Electricity supply 
All communities visited do not have electricity supply. In Kusa community, a transformer and electric poles were erected 5years ago but there is still no electricity till date. Members of the community contribute 50NGN to charge their phone batteries in a neighbouring community. In Kwakwa community, no tangible step has been made by the government to provide electricity. Few households have generating power set but this is usually turned on occasionally as they cannot afford to fuel it often. In Guruku, Arusu and Dari City communities, electric poles have been mounted but have not been wired and these communities have never had electricity. These projects in these communities are likely projects that have been budgeted for but never executed.  
 
We will be glad if this is looked into and appropriate steps are taken to change this narrative