rainy season

By Usman Muhammad Salihu 

As the rainy season sets in over Jos, the Plateau State capital, residents are cautiously optimistic about relief from the persistent water scarcity that has plagued the city for months. The onset of the rainy season brings a glimmer of hope for the residents of Jos, replenishing parched earth and depleted water sources and offering a reprieve from the relentless struggle for access to clean water.

For many in Jos, the arrival of the rainy season symbolises the prospect of a brighter future. With each drop of rain, the reservoirs begin to fill, easing the burden on communities that have long been forced to endure rationing and scarcity. However, while the rains offer respite, they also underscore the need for sustainable solutions to Jos’s water woes.

The city’s infrastructure must be fortified to harness and manage this precious resource effectively. Investments in water treatment facilities, storage infrastructure, and distribution networks are imperative to ensure every resident can access safe and reliable water year-round.

Moreover, Jos’s challenges are not unique; they reflect broader issues of water scarcity and management that affect communities worldwide. As climate change intensifies, erratic weather patterns and dwindling water supplies pose increasingly urgent threats to global populations. The lessons learned from Jos’s struggle are pertinent not only for Nigeria but for all nations grappling with the repercussions of environmental degradation and resource depletion.

The resilience and resourcefulness of the people of Jos shine through in the face of adversity. Communities come together, sharing resources and supporting one another in times of need. This spirit of solidarity will propel Jos forward towards a future where access to clean water is no longer a luxury but a fundamental human right.

As the rain continues to fall over Jos, let us remember the lessons of the past and the challenges that lie ahead. Let us seize this opportunity to build a more sustainable and equitable future where every individual can thrive, nourished by the life-giving waters that sustain us all.

Usman Muhammad Salihu writes from Jos, Plateau state. He can be reached via muhammadu5363@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

No fewer than 350 houses and food items were destroyed by the flood at three communities in the Tangaza Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

The incident that occurred over the weekend rendered many people homeless and washed away food items.

Abubakar Ghani, the spokesman for the state emergency management agency, confirmed the development Monday.

Ghani stated that the villages affected include Shiyar Ajiya, Makers and Runji, but said no life was lost during the disaster.

The Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Tambuwal symphatized with the people of the area.

He also assured them that the state government would provide relief materials to them as soon as possible.

The Daily Reality recalls heavy downpour has wreaked havoc in Jigawa communities, leading to the destruction of many houses, shops and prosperities worth millions of naira in the areas.

The Daily Reality reported that the communities affected included; Hadejia, Kafin Hausa, Kiri-Kasamma and some parts of Garun-Gabas, Tandanu and Bulangu of Jigawa state respectively.

Professionals have argued that there would be more flood in Nigeria in the next two months because of the climate change.

The Director General/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof Mansur Bako Matazu, has warned Nigerians to brace up for more rains in the next two months.

By Muhammad Aminu

Jigawa State Government has said it would release over 1, 700, 000 bags of fertiliser for sale to farmers in the state to support this year’s rainy season farming.

This was stated by the Deputy Governor of the state, Alh Umar Namadi who assured that Jigawa State Agricultural Supply Company (JASCO) has already been ordered to commence the sale to the farmers across the state.

Alh Namadi who made the announcement when he received the emir of Dutse, Dr Nuhu Muhammadu Sanusi at the Government House said that the state government is committed to ensuring that farmers got the fertiliser on time and at affordable price this rainy season.

According to him, the agricultural sector has been active as a result of various programmes and policies introduced by the government which has resulted to poverty reduction, jobs creation and food security in the state.

The JASCO’s Managing Director, Alhaji Rabiu Khalid Maigatari, said a bag of NPK 20.10.10 would be sold at N15,000. He revealed that the company has already received the delivery of over 160 trucks which is equivalent to 4,500 metric tonnes of the commodities and distributed to over 45 stores across 27 LGAs in the State.

Farmers in the State had earlier complained of unavailability of fertiliser due to exorbitant prices in the market but find succour in the Government subsidised fertiliser for their farming activities.

By Aliyu Muhammad Aliyu

Water affects people’s livelihood every year during the rainy season, forcing them to find an immediate solution just to be repeated in the subsequent year as in the previous one.

People should consider the effect of mounding granite, debris of demolished buildings or black and smelly sand removed after gutter clearing in undulating places that collected water on the ground in front of houses, hoping to level the ground surface so that rainwater runoff to the gutters. Instead, the water moved to the new undulated spot created by the mound next to the existing one when only levelling the ground to flatten the surface was all needed. The process was continuously repeated without success, ironically without thinking of an alternative way that might work better. With time, houses became lower than outside ground level, necessitating raising the gutter level that caused water from homes to remain inside.

The common lazy practice of leaving behind the excess soil dug up when excavating building foundations, constructing gutters, soakaways, wells and what have you instead of taking it away to fill unwanted ponds and eroded places causes many more problems. Local government authorities and philanthropists contributed at the largest scale; several truckloads of granite are mounded in town lanes as a quarter of developmental projects. People requested it and appreciated it despite the harm it caused that they couldn’t realize when a grader levelled the topsoil and removed it when in excess was the only requirement. That practice inconvenience lives, especially during the rainy season; one should either manually remove the water from their house using containers and pour it outside or enter their rooms, destroy properties, and erode the house gradually until it finally collapses.

To the middle class and civil servants, their savings and retirement benefit were used to renovate the house instead of using it for other better purposes. To the poor, the house must be sold and moved to less developed areas, which consequences had a direct link to poverty.

Please don’t allow anyone to dump whatever in front of their house; elsewhere, they could be influenced as a short-term solution. They can use local tools such as hoes and shovels to level the surface, making rainwater runoff. The long-term solution is for rich and local and state governments to interlock every lane in the cities so that there is no need for such practice in the future. Major drainages must be constructed in the major roads linking the state to the state from all cardinal points to immediately drain the water after the heavy downpour in the ever-expanding city of Kano.   

Aliyu Muhammad Aliyu wrote via amabaffa@yahoo.com.

By Muhammad Aminu

Subsistent farmers in Kano have decried the soaring prices of agro-inputs particularly fertiliser and herbicides as the farmers commence this year’s rainy season farming activities.

In an interview with The Daily Reality, some farmers said that prices of fertiliser and herbicides have skyrocketed to over 100% increase in some cases which would consequently affect their financial strength to afford the products necessary for better agricultural production.

The farmers lament that the inflationary nature of the prices would have adverse effects on their farming capacity amid tough economic situation in Nigeria.

A survey of Bata Market where fertiliser and other agro-allied products are sold in Kano by The Daily Reality revealed that Urea and NPK brands of fertiliser have recorded above 100% increase compared to their prices the previous season.

A 50kg of Urea and NPK fertiliser that sold at between N9, 000. 00 – N13, 000.00 in the previous rainy season now cost between N19, 000.00 – N 25, 000.00. To be precise, a 50kg of Indorama Urea fertiliser costs N22, 000. 00 against N11, 000. 00 last year; Dangote Urea sells at N19, 000.00 more than twofold of previous year’s value of N9, 000.00; Waraka Urea was sold N16, 000.00 in 2021 and now stands at N25,000.00 per 50kg bag.

For the NPK fertiliser, 15:15:15 Nagari and Golden Penny brands currently cost N25, 000. 00 each unlike last season’s N12, 000.00 and N13, 000.00 respectively while Kasco 20: 10: 10 brand now sells N15, 000.00 against N10, 000.00 last year.

The story remains the same for herbicides especially popular brands such as Vinash, Glycil, Paraforce, Dragon, and Bushfire among others. In 2021, their prices did not exceed N1, 800.00 at the extreme against current range of N2, 500.00 –N3, 000.00 per litre.

A marketer, Alh. Mustapha Zakari, said the price rise becomes inevitable because they also supply the products at exorbitant prices. “It is not our fault. We get the product at very expensive price and we have to get some profits for our effort. We are only middlemen. When we get it cheap, we sell cheap but when we get it expensive, we sell at high price too.”

Like most Nigerian states, Kano has significant number of rural folks whose primary means of production and earning a living is agricultural. Thus, both the rural and urban people are directly or indirectly connected to agriculture.

With the sharp changes in prices of agricultural inputs in 2022, many farming communities are finding it extremely difficult to afford fertiliser and herbicide which are very crucial in their agricultural activities that are being threatened by desert encroachment, deforestation and climate change.

Consequently, many farmers are now seeking for alternates to fertiliser in organic manure through use of refuse, human excrement, cow pats, chicken droppings, goat and sheep dungs in their farms.

According to Malam Musa Adamu, a subsistent farmer in Gano, Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area, “even the organic manure is now difficult to obtain.” He told The Star that “last year by this time, I purchased 15 bags of both NPK and urea fertiliser. But this year, when I went to the market with similar amount of money, I returned home with only six bags.” He wanted to have respite in organic manure but it also seems hard to collect in large quantity and convey it to the farm.

For Bala Sani, farming is becoming disenchanted to him despite his enthusiasm for agriculture. “I bought a litre of herbicide between N1, 500.00 to 1,800.00 last year. It now costs between N2, 500.00 to N3, 000.00. In fact, I reduce the size of my farm this year because everything costs more. It is better I farm small area that I can take care of it very well,” he said.

Nasir Ali whose farm in Kura village did not get adequate fertiliser last year, he said Allah’s rain would be sufficient both as water and fertiliser to grow his farm plants. He rhetorically asked “I am battling with how to survive with my family where can I get money for fertiliser?”

Although he did not dismiss the efficacy of fertiliser in farming, his position seems that of a hopeless and hapless farmer that only leans on his faith to the Supreme Being for bumper harvest “Our land isn’t as fertile as it used to be but there is nothing I can do. I would just accept whatever God gives me during the harvest. Even our refuse and animal waste aren’t available; and you have to buy and pay for transporting it to your farm,” he complained.

There are many stories of subsistent farmers whose lives and their entire communities depend on age-old agricultural methods to produce food for the state’s fast exploding population. With virtually absence of support from all the tiers of governments to bona fide farmers who are mostly rural based, food sufficiency or food security would continue to be a tall dream.

According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria requires around 7 million metric tons of fertiliser to adequately cater for the needs of its farmers. Currently, Nigeria does not produce the required quantity and the Russian-Ukraine war has affected importation of both finished fertiliser and some raw materials for domestic plants which ultimately affect the price.

Pundits contend that Russia-Ukraine war portends adverse consequences on Nigeria’s and Africa’s agriculture because they heavily rely on Russia for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in their fertiliser plants which Euro-American sanctions make it inaccessible.

Although Africa’s richest billionaire Aliko Dangote’s 2.5$ billion fertiliser plant is estimated to produce 3million metric tons when completed which, alongside other producers, can serve the entire West African region, price of the product will still be a daunting challenge for rural dwelling farmers living below poverty line to afford the important product necessary for modern agriculture.

Hence, due to population explosion and diminished soil fertility, there is a need for a modernised, mechanised and improved agriculture to expand frontiers of food production to feed the fast expanding Kano population which subsistent farmers are already partners.

Relevant authorities, especially the state government needs to genuinely invest in agriculture; to modernise it and empower its poverty-stricken far bymers for a food-sufficient, job-creating and agro-exporting Kano.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

A heavy downpour accompanied by the wind storm has destroyed many houses and properties worth millions of naira in Maiduguri.

Our correspondent gathered that the heavy downpour lasted for four hours on Tuesday.

The heavy downpour was the first rainfall of this season in the state and started a few minutes after 3 pm on Tuesday. 

Reports from the state disclosed that many people had become homeless as the rainstorm destroyed many mud houses in the state area and some parts of the city centre.

The rainstorm had destroyed the roofs of many houses and uprooted trees in many locations within the state and its environs.

All efforts to get the reaction of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) proved abortive.

Nazifi Umar Alaramma,

This year, 2021, had experienced a late onset of rainfall in Kano and surrounding. Therefore, the onset of rain in Kano and surrounding was computed to be five days with 83 millimetres of rain fall.

83mm is equivalent to 9.2% of the mean annual rainfall of Kano state. However, the duration of the rainy season in Kano is between mid-May to early October. Nevertheless, the rain may delay until June. This means the rainy season could not begin before mid-May in Kano and surrounding. Likewise, it will not extend to November.

As per the climate of Kano, the region falls within 100 rainy days in West Africa. Therefore, rain may fall earliest in mid-May, never before. However, it could delay up to July.

In 2021 the rain had delayed to very late June due to natural and anthropogenic factors. The natural characteristics are the routine of delay rainy seasons that happen to entire Sudano-Sahelian environments, some every five years, like parts of Mali and Ethiopia and some for many years like Kano in Nigeria.

This year could have followed the suit of those who predate it to bring rainy season late. However, it is significant to note that delaying the rainy season and frequency of drought in Kano and surrounding had reduced following the construction of Tiga, Challawa and other more than 30 dams in the state. These dams increased the recharging of clouds. Hence, no frequent drought in Kano and surrounding since the 1970s. However, a delay of the rainy season has not been totally hampered yet. 

The human factor in delaying the rainy season this year may be human-induced climate change. We believe it originates from outside Nigeria. It is linked to the general circulation of the atmosphere, which alters Africa’s condition even if the major polluters are from Europe, America, and Asia.

Nazifi Alaramma is a lecturer at the Department of Geography Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. He can be reached via alaramma12@gmail.com or nazifiumar@nwu.edu.ng.