In August 2024, Tracka team’s capital project tracking took us to a serene agrarian settlement with a population of approximately 2,000 people in the heart of Ughelli South LGA, Delta State. Obi Ayagha is a welcoming community with bold people, but with noticeable needs like most other locations in Nigeria.
We intended to locate the construction of one block of three Classrooms and the construction of the Primary Health Centre allocated to this community in the 2024 budget. These two projects were worth N198.7m, with N50m allocated to the former and N148.7m to the latter.
Neither project was found, nor were the community members expecting any project in that regard, meaning they were not aware of the project. Hence, in our usual manner, in a townhall meeting organized together with the community residents, we broke down the message in the simplest form for the people to understand. “You have two projects with the federal government, and you need to follow up to get the projects delivered, to avert possible cases of diversion or funds mismanagement.
A town hall meeting session with the community
Mrs Onome Meshac, one of the community residents who narrated the ordeal of the dwellers said “the inadequate learning infrastructure in the school is responsible for the reason why some of the children have to trek about 5 km to the nearest community with adequate classrooms to accommodate them, And our health centre is nothing to talk about, as we do not currently have any, the only one we use now is carved out of the community townhall and it is not befitting”.
President General of the community, Barr. Pius Oshoture said, “the current make-shift health centre does not have the capacity to take care of any serious health challenge, and in cases of emergencies, patients will be transferred on a bike for 40 minutes to either Warri or Ughelli for proper medical attention. And on the school issue, the inadequate space for learning is already leading to a noticeable reduction in attendance, as most students who do not want to go through the rigour of trekking the 45-minute distance to Oginigbo community, now prefer to join their parents at the farm.
The community, now empowered with data, resolved to pursue the projects on all fronts. The president general took initiatives like posting the information on different social media platforms, where their representative for Ughelli South/North/Udu Federal Constituency – Hon. Francis Waive, who facilitated the projects, can see it. He, in the company of some of the community residents, also paid a courtesy visit to Hon. Francis with the allocated provisions in the 2024 budget and appealed for the project to be prioritized.
The persistence of this community eventually paid off, and in January 2025, the contractor for the secondary school project, Fonapple Integrated Services Ltd was mobilized to the site, and the project is now completed and currently in use, with improved attendance in the school.
And at about the same time the school project started, the health centre work, handled by Ashfard Nigeria LTD, also began, and work has also been completed. It was gathered that the centre when fully operational, will serve as an Outpost for Federal Medical Centre, Ovwian.
And as though these are not enough, after the completion of the block of three classrooms, another SDG project of a block of 7 classrooms with furniture has been delivered to the school.
The excitement at Obi-Ayagha when we revisited cannot be contained, and in the appreciative words of Barr. Pius, he said “Knowledge is power, the knowledge that such mighty projects are due for us was channelled to the right quarters without rancour but in humility. It became a gentle pressure that translated to rapid action by those who should take action. BudgIT empowered us to know that those things are not gifts but things the federal government has budgeted for us through our representative. We appreciate BudgIT for caring for our welfare.
Story by: Osiyemi Joshua and Okocha Pius
