Auchi Sons and Daughters as Catalysts for the Development of Nigeria

Auchi Sons and Daughters as Catalysts for the Development of Nigeria

Episode01: A peep at the Benin Owena River Basin Authority and the Role of an Auchi Son in the Agency’s Activities.

 

By: Jeremiah Enaholo Kadiri

auchiblog@gmail.com

jeremiahkadiri@gmail.com

+234 806 9055 018

Preamble:

The Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority BORBDA is a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources with the mandate to bring water and water facilities closer to people at the grassroots. It is meant to engender the provision portable water for consumption, water for hydro power supply as well as provision of water facilities for irrigation to facilitate agricultural activities for food sustainability. The interest in on maximizing the potential of using water for developmental purposes.

BORBDA covers four states although it is not the only River Basin in Nigeria. There is the Sokoto River River Basin, Hadija-jama River Basin, Chad River Basin, the Upper Niger River Basin, the Lower Niger River Basin, the Upper Benue River Basin, the Lower Benue River Basin, Cross-River Development Authority, Osun River Basin, the Niger-Delta River Basin and the Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority _BORBDA.

The Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority is one of the River Basins there are in Nigeria with catchment areas across four states. Three states are fully captured in BORBDA together with 1/3rd of the last state. The three full states are Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and the Northern Senatorial District of Delta state. In all, there are ten Senatorial Districts covered by BORBDA (three from Edo, Ondo, Ekiti states while one is in Delta State.)

Though created in 1976 under the Gen. Obasanjo’s First Regime with attendant drawbacks in relations to political will, it was created with the intent to bring development to the grass-roots and help the federal government implement its policies proximity wise to the people. Then the Agency was under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and was later moved to Water Resources which was later combined together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It is however now fully under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources with the mandate to employ the use of water to facilitate development by bringing water and water facilities closer to the people at the grass-roots bearing on the 21st Century Goal of making sure no community is left out of the reach of portable water supply for consumption, agricultural purposes and for hydro electrification.

Activities:

BORBDA has water facilities scattered all over Edo State as well as across other states within her jurisdiction. Some of these were commissioned during the last World Water Day. Among these are  Boreholes which were commissioned on the 2nd of March 2020 in Okpe Community, Akoko-Edo and another at Uguoke to mention a few. BORBDA’s activities are visible in Auchi Sacred Kingdom with the creation of water facilities erosion control works, construction of roads and drainages as well as an integrated farm which is under construction along Igarra Road.

The Agency has created irrigation facilities across its coverage areas for all year round agricultural activities, it has established small hydro-power stations in Ondo and Edo coverage areas with a proposal to install more along sides other facilities all over the four states within her coverage. The Auchi Regional Water Scheme is under way to take care of Etsako with a dam already proposed for same purpose in collaboration with the Edo state government to revive the moribund Edo State Waterboard Services.

Aside the ongoing works being done to set up her permanent site in Auchi Sacred Kingdom, recent activities of BORBDA in the areas of erosion control and road works are the erosion control project at Suleman Momoh Street off Ekhei Girls Secondary School road and the road construction opposite Ministry of Education’s office in Auchi.

The establishment of Integrated Farms where nothing goes to waste is one of her recent addition. Here organic products devoid of the use of fertilizers are produced. This is in view of providing natural food and forestalling the dangers of chemically engineered farm produce that cause cancer amongst other adverse effects on consumers on the long run. In conceiving this novel business-oriented idea, the Porte-novo Sunghai Farm Model was employed for maximizing output. Here, Poultry droppings serve as manure. These together with peelings from plantain, cassava, yam and all (other organic materials) are used to produce biogas that act as fuel for the provision of electricity. One of such is the fully established integrated farms in the Benin Area Office of Edo state where plant and livestock are grown, processed and marketed to end users. The facility also serves academic institutions as an avenue for research.

To expand the reach of her activities, the Sunghai Farm Model is being replicated in Auchi Sacred Kingdom along Igarra road on an expanse of land (50 hectares) provided by the Auchi Community. Here the Agency’s administrative office, staff residential area, farm land for both plants and livestock growing as well as factories for table water, juice  making and vegetable oil milling are being constructed and may become operational before the end of 2020. To add to this, a 100 hectare land each has also been sourced at Okpe and Unemenekhua for same purpose to fully establish the presence of BORBDA across its catchment areas.

Currently, cassava and groundnut are being cultivated on a total of 15 hectares land in view of using the latter to serve the vegetable factory being constructed.

Engagement with locals:

BORBDA helps farmers to facilitate agricultural activities by providing Agric Extension Services and also engages people of her host community by way of employment. This and many other factors have engendered a robust relationship between the agency and her host communities. The Otaru of Auchi Sacred Kingdom in his wisdom and proclivity towards bringing development down to his people has provided aid to make easy the workings of BORBDA by giving the agency a temporary place as administrative office to kick-off from and again provided her with a 5,000 hectare of land.

In collaboration with NIRSAL, BORBDA has been able to make agricultural activities easy for farmers to engage in. they have helped farmers to clear and plough their lands to allow for easy planting and also help to harvest products on behalf of the farmers as well as bring in off-takers who pay for these products and give the monies to farmers. This is currently going on in Delta state and Benin city while plans are ongoing to replicate the act in Auchi and by extension Edo North.

BORBDA's Permanent Site in Auchi under construction

 

BORBDA vs COVID-19

Socio-Economic activities have in no small measure slowed down as a result of the many restrictions placed on movement through lockdown that was proposed and implemented by the federal and state governments given the severity and reality of the ravaging adverse effect of the corona virus pandemic. In view of this, BORBDA has had to put the health and safety of her staff first in the cadre of priority to ensure that no one falls prey to the ravaging viral infection that has claimed and still claiming lives. Although the social distancing precautionary measure entrenched by WHO may have posed as a problem to the smooth and effective running of most agencies, BORBDA took nothing for granted as before covid-19 measures of safety had already been installed. All that is needed to curtail the infection at all human interaction points of BORBDA’s service areas are in place. Hand sanitizers, water and soap facilities for hand washing, thermostats for temperature checking, facemasks and disinfectants were provided and installed to forestall any possibility of contracting covid-19. More so, management meetings have gone virtual via zoom and other Google enabled cloud meetings enablers where staff can work from the comfort of their homes. Files are becoming digitized to reduce too much paper work which most times become cumbersome to sort.

Capacity building:

BORBDA has prioritized capacity building for staff in order to add value to the agency’s outputs. The agency makes sure it does her best in ensuring that workers are properly trained in order to operate maximally. Many of her staff have been sponsored to study abroad in order to bring home the standards obtainable in countries that have excelled in Agricultural activities and creation of water facilities so that BORBDA can better perform her mandate under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. Every member of staff is properly positioned to fit in his/her duties for optimum output and this has been achieved firstly by developing the capacity of these staff to perform.

The Agency’s Integrated farms serve as research platforms for academic institutions and provides all the needed resources for learning and practice. Students are also engaged during their Industrial Training attachment to the Agency for hands-on experience and learning of entrepreneurial skills necessary for the current modernity. BORBDA also organizes seminars/workshops to teach farmers modern trends in both livestock rearing and plants cultivation.  

Goal:

Given that BORBDA has already started sourcing raw materials locally, processing and producing, marketing and distributing, created and still creating a lot of water and irrigation facilities, installed and still proposing more small hydro-power dams, expanding her tentacles and establishing her presence in all coverage areas, the agency is poised at helping the Federal Government through the Ministry of Water Resources reach her food sustainability goal and bring water and water facilities closer to those at the grassroots. The Agency is in no doubt living up to its original slogan tagged the food basket of the nation and will in no time consolidate on the current administration’s economic diversification policies to ensure that Nigeria retains her place of pride in Africa and the World.

BORBDA has the potential to help bring about food security through her activities and given the direction is has headed to ensure that water and water facilities are properly channeled to provide clean portable water for consumption, irrigation facilities  for agricultural activities as well as small hydro-power plants, the agency is poised for greatness.

However, why is the Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority on AUCHI BLOGspot’s spotlight this week? The answer is not farfetched. BORBDA is making the aforementioned strides through the administrative, managerial and directorial capacity of Engr. Saliu Osifuemhe Ahmed.

Engr. Saliu O. Ahmed, MD BORBDA

The coming in of Engr. Saliu as MD of BORBDA has ushered in a geometric progression and quantum development in the activities of the Agency. A cursory look at activities of the agency and interaction with staff therein showed that his administration has in no small measure revived BORBDA as a life wire of development through his purpose-driven goal oriented acts of ingenuity in the creation of a business minded system, the procurement of over 7 new tractors, bulldozers for the felling of trees, excavators and more recently the procurement of utility vehicles to facilitate the activities of BORBDA. He has proposed, secured and still sourcing more areas for the establishment of BORBDA’s presence, and what more is that as a son of the soil from Auchi Sacred Kingdom, he is an asset to the overall development of the world’s most populous Black Nation.