FROM SUNDAY MATTHEW TAGGAH, Kaduna
Exactly one year after six schoolchildren tragically drowned in the Ribang River of Kauru Local Government Area, Kaduna State, the Ribang (Mbang) community is still mourning, but this time with a louder call for action.
In a solemn remembrance statement issued on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer of the Ribang Community Development Association, Comrade Simon Ishaku Chinge, described the grief that still grips the community and the lingering frustration over unfulfilled promises.
“With heavy hearts, the people of Ribang mark the one-year anniversary of a heartbreaking tragedy that forever changed our lives, on a fateful day in June 2024, six promising students lost their lives in the Ribang River. They were returning home after writing their Junior WAEC exams, full of hope and dreams for the future.”
Comrade Chinge stressed that the tragedy did not only take lives, it laid bare the stark realities of infrastructural neglect. He pointed to the absence of basic amenities, including bridges, roads, and healthcare services, as contributing factors to the disaster.
“That incident exposed how years of abandonment and infrastructural decay have endangered our people,” he said. “Leaders came, they cried with us, they made promises, to build a bridge, construct roads, provide schools and health centres. But one year on, not a single promise has materialised.”
However, a flicker of hope emerged recently. Just three weeks ago, officials from the Kaduna State Ministry of Works visited Ribang on the orders of Governor Uba Sani to conduct a preliminary survey of the river and the surrounding road network. The community welcomed the visit but remains cautiously optimistic.
“Though long overdue, we recognize this as a critical first step. We thank Governor Uba Sani for finally responding. But our people are still anxious. The rains are back, the river is swelling again, and our children still have to cross it to go to school. The fear is real, and it haunts us.”
The statement made a passionate appeal to elected representatives, government institutions, and development partners to step in urgently.
The community called on: Senator Sunday Marshall Katung (Southern Kaduna Senatorial District), Hon. Mukhtar Zakari Chawai (Kauru Federal Constituency), Hon. Barnabas Danmaigona (Kauru/Chawai State Constituency), Hon. Bashir Tanko Dawaki (Chairman, Kauru LGA) and NGOs, civil society groups, and humanitarian organisations to come to the rescue of Ribang, a rural community still waiting for basic infrastructure in 2025.
“We are in desperate need of a bridge across the Ribang River, motorable roads, a functioning primary healthcare centre, and standard schools. Our pregnant women are dying, our children are missing out on education,we cannot continue like this.”
The statement paid heartfelt tribute to the six drowned students, describing them as young heroes whose untimely deaths should awaken the nation to the plight of forgotten communities.
“We will never forget them. They were not just students, they were our future. Their lives were full of promise, and their deaths must not be in vain. No community should be left behind in a country that claims to pursue unity and progress.”
Comrade Chinge ended the statement by thanking those who had stood with Ribang in prayer, solidarity, and visits over the past year, but he made it clear: the time for promises is over.
“We appreciate the sympathy, but now we need action. It’s time to turn good intentions into concrete development.”
As another rainy season begins, Ribang waits, hopeful, haunted, and determined that the lives lost will finally stir lasting change.