… build link road cut-off for 47 years in Cross River
Sometime in 2016, at about midnight, Elizabeth Sunday, 28, was in severe labor pains at her home in Ukpagada. She did not anticipate it. Her family needed to take her to the nearest health center to be delivered of her baby. But tried as they could, they could not make it out of Ukpagada. Reason: Ukpagada Bridge, the only link with the outside had been destroyed for nearly half a century. Since then, no vehicle had ever made it to the community. The family had to resort to an unscientific method to save her. She was made to deliver in the house with the bare hands of family members. Lucky enough, she survived – so too her child. But many like Elizabeth in need of urgent medical attention never lived to tell their stories.
Ukpagada is a very remote agrarian community, far removed from development. The community is tucked inside the womb of Ogoja forests in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State. The bridge which connects them with nearby communities like Bakor and Nkum was destroyed during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 – 1970. Since Elizabeth couldn’t be taken to the health center, the expectant mother had to deliver at home.
“It was a harrowing experience, and I could have died if not for providence,” she said. For her, although she survived during the cause of giving birth, she said: “Some other pregnant women were not lucky because our community is cut-off from the rest of the world.”
Their ordeal
For a very long time, Ukpagada people have been living in clear isolation. They have been sentenced to a life of misery. It is not their fault. It’s evidently an act of sheer neglect and abandonment by the government. Successive administrations in the state were said to have only made fleeting promises, of rebuilding the Ukpagada Bridge in Ogoja LGA. Nothing seemed to have happened ever since. The people’s misery continues, with apparently no hope of early intervention.
The Ukpagada Bridge was built by the British in the cause of colonialism, the people said. But it was bombed by Nigerian troupes during the Civil War of 1967 – 1970. Since then, the people have only known neglect, poverty, environmental degradation, a threat to life, etc.
For Ray Ugba Murphy, it is only a stony heart that would refuse to bleed, as Ukpagada local people trot daily amid want and absence of the most basic infrastructure. “We’re so detached from the rest of the world since our link bridge was bombed,” some community folks narrated.
John Obo, an entrepreneur, says their experience re-echoes in neighboring local government areas like Obudu, Yala, Ikom, Etung, Boki, Abi and Biase, all in the northern and central senatorial districts of Cross River. Obo said businesses have hardly thrived in Ukpagada; while human rights are trampled on because of the absence of the bridge.
He said their community had been suffering from years of neglect by government, which he said had resulted in untoward flooding, which also occurred last year. The incident damaged many of the villages because there’s hardly any proper drainage constructed in the community.
For sure, in October 2016, seven local government areas in the state were wrecked by a flood, rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless, and over two hundred farmlands washed away. Peter Jonas, a village head in Ukpagada said farmlands affected include rice, yams, cassava, cocoa, cucumber, palms, vegetables and others were mostly affected by the flooding.
When John Inaku, director-general of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), evaluated the situation, he only told the people that Climate Change was responsible for the flood that destroyed their means of livelihood. “The disaster was as a result of Climate Change, as envisaged by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET),” Inaku was quoted as saying.
But some residents of the community nonetheless, feared that the flooding was as a result of government’s neglect of the overflowed bank of Aya River that crisscrossed the northern part of the state. Inaku, like other government officials often do, gave the people hope that government was making sure that the victims were going to be taken care of. But that has not come their way.
Succor at last as an indigene intervenes
Succor appears to be coming the way of Ukpagada folks. And it’s coming through one of their own, Ray Ugba Murphy, a public-spirited individual who hails from Ogoja, takes it upon himself to rebuild the broken Ukpagada Bridge. He is joined by his sister, Paulina Murphy-Fogg, who lives in the United Kingdom with her husband.
Apparently moved by the tales of woes of Ukpagada community, Murphy, a former special adviser on Strategy and National Contact to Governor Ben Ayade, has taken the bull by the horns. On January 12, 2017, he offered to renovate the bridge with his personal resources.
“I decided to reconstruct the Ukpagada Bridge, given its chronological archives, no matter the cost. It is not about showing off that I am wealthy. It is about knowing the true meaning of essence,” he said.
“I learned that the Bridge was built by the British in the course of colonialism in Nigeria. But the bridge was bombed by the Nigerian troupes fighting on the Biafran side during the 1960 – 1970 war in the country.
“While that project has been taken, all well-meaning sons of Ogoja, and indeed those of Bakor extraction, should know that we still require to put a grader on that road that has been reduced to just a motor-bike highway for over 47 years due to government neglect.”
Murphy, who last year quit his job as Governor Ben Ayade’s special adviser, Strategy and National Contact, due to what he described as “pressing differences,” had on January 29, this year, announced that an Ogoja daughter and member of the Murphy royal family were joining him (Ugba Murphy) to reconstruct the Ukpagada Bridge.
“I am delighted to inform all those concerned that an Ogoja daughter in the United Kingdom (UK) and a member of the royal Murphy family, Mrs. Paulina Murphy-Fogg, and her dear husband, Eric Fogg, have both decided to follow the pathway set by their brother (me) to undertake the construction of the second mini bridge to push further the connectivity between Ukpagada and the rest of the world,” he said.
He said the project is set to commence in the next two weeks, as all necessary logistics shall be carried out to ensure a smooth take-off.
If that is done, the likes of Elizabeth Sunday would not have to go through a harrowing experience during child delivery. Neither would they be forced to deliver their babies in the bush, as there would be prospects of motor vehicles conveying them to health facilities. Also, the economic life of Ukpagada might just come alive, courtesy of the kind gesture of Ray Ugba Murphy.
