Although it is a community largely made up of peasants, Dan Marke village is not exactly in the middle of nowhere. In fact, it is just a few kilometres away from Gusau, the Zamfara state capital, albeit withinRawayya District of Gusau local government.
Founded by nomadic Fulani cattle breeders about a century ago, it is also not without illustrious pedigree despite this humble beginning. To be sure, it is where a former Governor of the old Sokoto State, Dr.GarbaNadama, was born.
How the community came to be so neglected as to pass for some backwaters baffles the imagination. But then the reality today is that despite its proximity to the state capital and producing a former governor, Dan Marke lacks the basic socio-economic facilities one would expect of a 100-year-old community. These include access road, portable water, healthcare, primary education and power.
In fact, Dan Marke appears frozen in primeval times, with poverty and ignorance reigning supreme in the community due to the near absence of local, state or federal presence in the area. Expectedly, infant and maternal mortality rate in the community is abysmal – more than six cases of prenatal and postnatal child deaths per month.
For water, the community depends on dirty ponds and amanually operated borehole sunk byformer governor Na Dama32 thirty-two years ago in the Second Republic.
A community elder, MallamAbdullahi Dan AtuGidanMasau, said Dan Marke has not enjoyed a good access road to it for all of his 60-year existence in the village.
According to Masau, “the one block of two school classrooms we have here was constructed just two years ago and this cannot not even accommodate one-third of the school-age childrenin this community.”
He lamented that “hundreds of our children do not go to school because of neglect by successive governments.”
A JSS IIIpupil from the village, 14-year-oldSaniAmadu, attends school at Rawayya village, some seven kilometres away from Dan Marke, since there is no secondary school in the community.
But the poor education Amadu received in Dan Marke as a primary school pupil was evident in him as he could not even spell his own name! As pupils in Dan Marke, Amadusaid they lacked qualified teachers and a conducive learning environment.
“We were taught under trees or in uncompleted mud buildings that were not conducive for learning,” he said
Even inhis current school at Rawayya villageAmadu said his class “is overcrowded with over 100 students. We learn under very difficult conditions. During the dry season, some of us often suffocate due to lack of fresh air.”
Young Amadu’s dream of becoming a medical doctor is uncertain, to say the least, because of the abject poverty in Dan Marke.
He said: “My hope is to become a medical doctor but I have lost hope now because my parents are too poor to finance my education out of this community where educational facilities are completely lacking.
Another community elder said: “During the rainy season, we often experience partial or complete cut off from the neighbouring communities. You can imagine the difficulties and psychological trauma the community undergoes. Pregnant women who fall into labour and other related health issues are really suffering here.”
Whenever the community complains over its plights, government officials are in the habit of dismissing them, some community elders alleged.“We are almost losing hope of getting any attention from government,” said a resident.
Although a primary healthcare centre was built for the community about three years ago, the people said it has not been functional. It has no drugs and the health officials supposedly detailed to operate the centre are more often absent from work, the people alleged.
Apart from the classroom block and the dormant healthcare centre, there is no other government presence in Dan Marke.
Alhaji Hashimu? Ardo is the head of the community. He had lived all his years in the village as a peasant farmer and cattle breeder.
Ardo said politicians come to Dan Marke only during electioneering campaigns. “We don’t see them any more after the elections.All the past councillors that were said to have been elected on our behalf never did anything to improve our socio-economic condition. They only appear here when they need our votes,” the village head stated.
Ardo said his community was in urgent need of “government attention in the area of building classrooms so that we too as people can also benefit from the advantages of modern education.”
The community leader lamented that hope was not in the horizon for the community in any way but appealed to the three tiers of government to come to their aid.
A Qur’anic teacher in Dan Marke, Mallam Lawali Natofa Gidan Idi, maintains a large number of pupils he teaches daily in morning and afternoon sessions on voluntary basis.
Idi said he does this to buildthe children’s morals and to check their drift away from Dan Marke to urban centres where they often take to street begging.
Although he has been operating the school for many years, Idi said all appeals to the local authorities for assistance to construct a shelter for the children had fallen on deaf ears.
He explained that the children who come to him doso due to lack of space for them in the village’s formal school.
Idi also appealed to the authorities to come to Dan Marke’s aid by designing some immediate intervention programme to improve the socio-economic condition of the people.