Mishigi, Nigeria – Most residents of Mishigi villages [Hayin Kogi-Mishigi] located in Igabi local government area of Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria, are subsistence farmers living by a riverbank that separates them from other communities. Despite thriving in agriculture, the people of Mishigi lack social amenities such as primary healthcare center, schools, and good roads.
With sparse road network, exporting farm produce from the community to markets in the state has been a significant challenge for the people. While they depend on Canoe as a major means of transportation, accessing health facilities also pose a threat to livelihoods.
Pregnant women from Mishigi village trek long distance to get a boat to cross the river to attend antenatal service in neighboring communities. There have been women who lost their lives trying to cross the river by canoe.
A resident of Mishigi, Samsudeen Abdulmudallib, explained to Rural reporters how he lost his wife during childbirth.
“She died inside a canoe as we tried to rush her to a clinic not far away from our community,” he recounted.
“A friend, helped me to get her into the canoe because she was bleeding [severely] and by the time we arrived the hospital she was dead,” he said.
Some other men living in the community also have similar stories to share.
“Most times, women start their labor around midnight and because we have no accessible road or bridge, [we use a canoe] the only alternative to town,” Abdulmudallib said.
The canoe drivers may have gone home by that time of the night making it more difficult to get the women to the hospital.
“Sometimes, we have no choice but to take them back home,” he said.
Abdulmudallib added that some of the women returned home are lucky to deliver at home while others are not as they either die or lose the baby before morning.
Dan Auta, another resident, said his wife was almost due to deliver when he decided to take her to his family across the river to be close to a primary healthcare clinic.
”As you can see, I’m taking her out of the village until she gives birth because no serious man will allow his wife to die in this abandoned community,” he said.
Dan Auta said the people in the community have been appealing to Kaduna State Government to provide a Primary Healthcare Centre and a bridge across the river. Their appeal is yet to yield a positive result.
A constructed bridge across the river linking the community with others will ease transportation problem in the area and will also boost economic activities in the community, Auta explained.
“The bridge will help our farmers to transport our farm produce to markets in the city which means it will improve our income,” he said.
For now, there is nothing in Mishigi to show that government exists.