VOICES DOWN THE DAMMED RIVER: A CASE STUDY OF THE
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE JERE RICE FARMERS ASSOCIATION AND
THE BORNO STATE GOVERNMENT OVER THE ALAU DAM PROJECT,
1989-1998
RESEARCH REPORT
Abba Gana Shettima
Submitted to the Centre for Research and Documentation (CRD ), Kano- Nigeria,
March, 2000

1.0 OUTLINE OF THE RESEARCH REPORT
This report is divided into five different sections: section I is a broad introduction to the study including a definition of the research problem; section II presents the methodology adopted in the study. In section III the findings are discussed while some theoretical literature relevant to the study are reviewed with a view to placing the study within its proper context in IV. The major findings of the study are presented in section V.
1.1 Introduction: Background to the study
Lack of water is a major problem confronting the semi-arid region of north-eastern
Nigeria. Annual rainfall varies from 150 to 200mm. The rainfall recharges the underground water systems as well as the inland fresh water of the Lake Chad. In addition to seasonal fluctuations, there are cycles of high and low rainfall years. The water problem affects not only agricultural and rural life where its impact is felt more seriously but also urban and semi urban areas such as Maiduguri. Maiduguri town has depended on underground water for a greater part of its nearly one hundred years history.
The sources of the underground water are the aquifers of the Chad Basin formation.
In recent years, the town has witnessed rapid growth both in terms of physical space and population and with it, more demand for water which in turn has necessitated the sinking of many boreholes into the pressure aquifers, especially the lower aquifer ( Bumba, J., et al, 1991). They further argued that the sinking of so many boreholes within so small an area must have resulted in a great pressure release and created a large cone of depression.
"It is with this problem in mind that the Borno state water board turned to surface water supply as an alternative to underground water supply for Maiduguri township from the
Lake Alau Dam", concluded Bumba et al.( 1991) but others argue that the Alau Dam reservoir was not only meant to supply the water needs of Maiduguri but also the irrigation of crops in the Alau area (Odo and Ijere, 1997 ).
1.2 The Alau dam: Damming the lives of rice farmers
Jere Bowl, located within the greater Maiduguri area and now under the newly created
Jere Local Government, is at the downstream of the River Alau which was dammed in
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the 1980s under a multi- million dollar World Bank Urban Water Supply Project. Jere bowl had been an important rice producing area prior to the construction of the dam. The rice produced in the area is marketed all over Nigeria and contributed greatly to the thriving cross-border trade between Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. In addition, rice production supported a host of secondary occupations including rice milling, trading, and fishing.
Rice cultivation in the area had always depended on the seasonal floods of the Alau River for its success. The seasonal floods had two pronged advantages for rice cultivation: water supply and soil fertility enhancement (Odihi, 1991). Unfortunately, however, since the completion of the dam in 1986 and especially with the installation of the dam gates in
1989, natural inflow of the Ngadda river into the Jere Bowl no longer takes place.
1.3 Statement of the research problem
The vibrant rice farming economy in the Jere Bowl thus started facing stagnation and collapse from 1989. The consequence of this is was that, the erstwhile socioeconomically thriving communities in the depression have changed from areas of food surplus, economic security and net in- migration to those of food deficit, socio-economic insecurity and out- migration (Odihi, 1991; Waziri, 1997). In a graphic account, Watila
(1991) captured the impact of the Alau Dam on the livelihoods of downstream communities in the Jere Bowl:
In the Jere Bowl, the present problems of farming (e.g. lack of water, shrinkage of farm sizes and little income) and problems of society such as divorce and theft are believed to be increasing...people are leaving the area or are contemplating to do so.
Husbands complained about wives leaving them because of foul economic weather.
Women opined that they did not want to be trapped in poverty when they could have better opportunities elsewhere... Interestingly, however, the rice farmers in the Jere Bowl have not been silently watching this collapse of their livelihoods occasioned by the construction of the Alau Dam; as it has been the tradition with other peasant groups in
Nigeria (Beer, 1976; Oculi, 1986). The very formidable Jere Rice Farmers Association
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has been consistently taking up the issue with both the state and federal officials as well as the government agencies directly involved such as the Borno State Water Board and the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA) for the past one decade or so. The association's encounter with the state dates back to 1989 when the dam gates were first closed, thus depriving them of an estimated N200 million worth of rice harvest in that year alone (Jere Rice Farmers Association letter dated 19th March, 1989 to Col. Abdu
One Mohammed, Military Administrator of Borno State).
The farmers started by protesting against the lack of water for rice cultivation and spoke of their problems in placards carried to the media houses in Maiduguri. Subsequently, they have written letters on the issue every year and presented in audience to all the successive Governors of the state.
They have also taken other measures which have not been well researched and documented. Unfortunately, however, though the Rice Farmers Association has been engaging the state and its agencies and conveying their grievances concerning the lack of flood flow to their area for the past one decade, no known study have been conducted to establish the nature, extent, successes and failures of the encounter. This study seeks to investigate the encounter between the Jere Rice Farmers Association and the state over the past one decade since the problem started.
In what specific formal ways has the association sought to secure the group rights of its members, that is, getting the state and its agencies to release water for rice cultivation?
What specific informal ways has the association adopted in confronting state officials over the issue? What are the problems encountered by the association in its encounter with the state? What are the successes and failures it has recorded so far ? How has this decade of encounter with the state built the institutional capacity of the association in raising issues of governance such as articulating group rights of its members? In what ways has the association addressed and fostered broader issues of members' participation and representation in its encounter with the state? This study will attempt to find answers to these and related research questions.
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1.4 Objectives of the study
The study has the following general and specific objectives in view:
The general objective of the study is to examine the encounter between the Jere Rice
Farmers Association and the state over the Alau Dam in order to identify and discuss the governance issues involved.
Specifically, the study has the following objectives in view:
1.
To document the nature of the encounter between the association and the state.
2.
To investigate the formal and informal means adopted by the association in securing the group rights of its members.
3.
To document the successes and failures recorded by the association in its encounter with the state to secure the group rights of its members.
4.
To establish the extent to which the association has built institutional capacity in raising issues of governance.
5.
To study the nature of group representation and participation fostered by the association.
6.
To document the constraints and opportunities for the good management of the Alau
Dam in order to alleviate its impact on the livelihoods of the Jere bowl downstream rice farmers.
7.
To recommend policy measures to the association, the state and other appropriate agencies on the basis of the findings.
1.5 Significance of the study and the importance of the governance issue involved.
This study has significant implications for both knowledge and policy. First, the study will give us an insight into the nature of the problem especially from the point of view of
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the downstream farmers in the Jere Bowl and their attempts to find solutions to it. An outcome of this study will contribute to the literature on civil society and governance especially from this part of the country which is regarded in popular circles as politically docile. In addition, it is expected that we will have a clear understanding of the organizational strengths and weaknesses of civil associations such as the Jere Rice
Farmers Association.
Secondly, from the perspective of its contribution to policy, we expect to come up with possible policy measures to alleviate the plight of the downstream farmers. A proper intellectual grasp of the institutional capacity of the association will enable us to offer constructive and viable suggestions to make it confront governance issues in a much better and result-oriented manner. The governance issue raised by the association, namely, engaging the state and its agencies to release water for rice cultivation by its members is important for several reasons. For a predominantly agricultural economy, nothing can be more important than water. Timely and adequate accessibility to flood water is at the very core of the peoples' livelihoods and thus it has social, political and economic implications.
The association, by demanding for the release of water, is demanding for the group rights of its members and since such rights border directly on their livelihoods, the association can be considered to be confronting a very important governance issue. The governance issue the association is addressing is also important because it is indirectly questioning the urban-bias in development policies which has characterized a greater part of Nigeria's history.
Finally, by coming together and aggregating its group interest, the association is gaining a political voice-perhaps in a bid to heed Zack- Williams's (1990) admonition: Only if
African farmers have a political voice will their needs be properly addressed by governments (emphasis mine).
2. 0 METHODOLOGY
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This section presents the research methodology adopted in the study. It is sub-divided into the following: background to the study area, occupation, sources of data, study population, sample and sampling procedure, instruments of data collection and data analysis.
2.1 The study area
The study area is located between latitudes 11.40N and 120.05N and longitudes 13.05E and 13.20E. The area is made up of two segments: Alau and Jere Bowl. Both segments belong to a single geological system with the river Ngadda being central to the whole system and constitutes the life line of both systems (Emplan Group, 1993). In the predam period, the whole area below the 305m contour line in the Jere Bowl depression used to be flooded. Jere Bowl covers an area of about 22,000ha; out of which a gross area of
15, 850ha was identified as suitable for irrigated agriculture from the results of an agricultural soil survey. However, a much larger area was under flooded rice cultivation in the pre-dam period.
2.2 Occupation
The predominant occupation of the people is farming. Major crops and vegetables grown specially in the pre-dam period include: rice, sorghum, millet, wheat, cowpea, groundnut, maize, okra, onions, tomato, potatoes, sorrel, cassava etc. Fishing and trading also formed important sources of income. At present, however, the people are mainly engaged in rain fed agricultural production.
2.3 Sources of data
Data for the study was generated from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected through interviews with officials and members of the Jere Rice Farmers
Association and officials of the Chad Basin Development Authority, the Borno state water board and other relevant agents and agencies of the state. Secondary data was generated from official documents from the association, correspondences, government documents, previous studies etc.
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2.4 Study population, sample and sampling procedure
The study population was defined as "all the members of the Jere Rice Farmers
Association".
2.5 Instruments of data collection
A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guide and an unstructured interview schedule were developed based on the specific objectives of the study. Four different sessions of Focus
Group Discussion (FGD) were conducted: 1) young women; 2) young men; 3) old women and 4) old men. The FGD sessions were focused around the community livelihood and how the construction of the dam had impacted on their overall social and economic lives. My objective was to map out clearly the differential impact of the dam on the various groups in the community. In addition to the FGD sessions, I also conducted interviews with twenty-one key informants in the community including some leaders of the farmers' association and elderly people. Through the interviews, I was able to document the history of the community with particular reference to changes and continuities in economic activities.
2.6 Data Analysis
Data collected for the study was analyzed qualitatively
3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Theoretical issues on civil society
Most of the theoretical literature on civil society reviewed indicates a clear dichotomy between the state and civil society. Civil society is presented as more or less an autonomous entity; an organised group or loose collectivities set up to challenge "human rights abuses" in its widest sense. The literature seems to suggest that civil society could mean any group-registered or not; with or without a formal structure but certainly not a part of the state apparatus. Shivji, I.G., (1989) attempts to reconceptualise the concept of human rights ideology in the African continent with primacy accorded to the working people of Africa. He transcended the human rights debate from its purely legalistic and
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philosophical approach to locate it within social scientific and jurisprudential debates on democratic struggles in Africa.
It is within this paradigm that he considered the right to organise as an essential element of the human rights debate. In the present conjecture of the democratic struggle, the demand /struggle for the right to organise becomes very significant as the people have to reclaim their organisational initiative and rebuild their organisational capacity independent from and without interference of the state. (And here we are referring to all kinds of civil organisations from peasant associations, through trade unions to political parties).
This theoretical dichotomy between the state and civil society on the one hand, and the primary role accorded to civil society in challenging the excesses of the state on the other, is actually the core issue in the study of civil society. Robinson (1998) buttressed this point when she argued that, in the contemporary period, there are more wars, internal conflicts and consequently, more refugees and displaced persons. There are more states and greater disparity between their resources; there is more poverty-but less agreement about the role of the state in addressing it; in short, more challenges to peace and the realisation of human rights. One important and increasing asset in addressing these challenges is the robust and continued debate-including vigorous criticism-from civil society concerning human rights abuses by both state and corporate entities(emphasis mine).
Human rights encompass a broad range of rights and governance issues including cultural and economic rights or more fundamentally `the right to development'. It is within the context of these rights that we shall examine the Jere rice farmers civil society movement whose broad objective is to enforce the water rights of its members. Given the importance of water to a farming community, water right is treated as synonymous with what Mooney (1996) referred to as `the right to food'. He contends that:
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The Right to Food is being interpreted in a variety of ways that would seem to be compatible. Some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) stress the consumers' right to available, adequate, affordable, culturally appropriate food. Others see the Right to Food as also the right of the producers (small farmers, fisherfolk, and foresters) to the security of production resources and equitable markets. The security of resources for production must of necessity include access to water that is the basis of all agricultural production and indeed livelihood.
3.2 Civil society response to the construction of dams
Dams are usually constructed to achieve single or multiple developmental objectives including flood control, electricity generation, irrigation, and municipal water supply among others. Beginning with the Tennessee Valley Project in North America in the
1930s to the present, many dams have been constructed all over the world.
One can, in fairness, say that some of these dams have recorded positive benefits to human society particularly in the area of electricity generation and flood control. As important as these dams might be, however, they have far-reaching and often drastic negative changes in the ecology and management of flood plains.
They have the tendency of reducing or even eliminating down stream flooding cycles, altering water chemistry, the stream, discharge and sediment behaviour (Mamza, 1995).
This change or upset in hydrological regime is best demonstrated in the case of the
Aswan Dam in Egypt. The dam altered the hydrological regime of the Nile valley so much so that over 900 kilometers of the delta dried up, thus reducing the flow of water down stream (Gunther, 1985). Generally, there is an overwhelming evidence, as will be shown in the following perusal of the literature, that dams lead to the displacement of thousands of people, increase social misery and disease, produce massive ecological damage and even induce floods and earthquakes. Writing in relation to the role of dams in the devastating degradation of the ecological system in Thailand, Usher (1992) argues in a remarkably suggestive article that:
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Perhaps the most absolute, and therefore the most violent, destruction of forests that affects local communities is that caused by the big dams. As the river is blocked behind massive concrete structures, the downstream ecosystem is altered by irregular and often polluted water supplies, while the reservoir and much of the surrounding areas are changed beyond recognition. People living in the flood zone are forced to move away.
They are frequently pushed into forestland in the high hills around the new lake-and those below the dam sometimes also find it difficult to stay.
Throughout Thailand, communities that once lived in lush lowland valleys have been displaced in this way by dozens of large dams that have been constructed over the last three decades.
Another very interesting case is provided by a brief review of the effects of the Tiga and
Challawa Dams on downstream communities of the Hadejia-Jama'are-Yobe Basin.
Particularly, the Tiga Dam is estimated to have reduced Yobe River flow at Gashua bridge by 23 per cent and Challawa Gorge Dam is certain to increase the percentage reduction substantially. Thus, water availability in the lower Yobe, the region with the severest water scarcity in the basin, has been reduced with serious social and economic consequences (Aminu-Kano, 1995). Generally in the Hadejia-Jama'are- Yobe Basin, argued Goes (1997):
The livelihoods of 1.5 million downstream inhabitants of the basin, who are dependent on the floods and flows in the channels, are collapsing before their eyes. Their vision of what has gone wrong is blurred by the losses they are suffering.
The affected communities have engaged the state and or its agencies at various levels to secure water rights for the people of the downstream areas. Goes (1997) goes further to show how the various communities affected by this scenario have awakened to this problem in uncoordinated and potentially conflicting ways.
In the Hadejia- Nguru Wetlands alone, for example, there were about 20 water users associations 14 of which were registered as at December 1993. Their objectives include abstraction of water for irrigation, mainly through the construction of canals and dykes.
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The associations also serve as platforms for securing farm inputs like fertilizer from government. One association, with broader concerns on water rights, is the Committee for the Survival of the River Yobe Basin made up of civil servants, opinion leaders, farmers, herders, fishermen and traditional rulers who originate or live downstream of the wetlands. This association is a pressure group which is concerned with ensuring that water is made available for the use of downstream communities through advocacy and the execution of physical works (Bdliya, 1997). It has, for instance, played a significant role in halting the completion of the Kafin-Zaki Dam.
In discussing the impact of the Alau Dam on the downstream farmers in the Jere Bowl, it is pertinent to place it within a proper analytical framework. Since the dam is a World
Bank project, the study must examine the Bank's policy in the third world and how it impacts on the poor and other vulnerable groups. Mooney (1996) contends that 'if a tree falls in the forest, it will probably fall on somebody using it.
'The starting point for all work and policy is the poor'. In the same vein, we shall argue that if a river is dammed, it will probably damn the life of somebody using it and such a person is the poor vulnerable peasant farmer who is given no consideration in the Bank's policy in the third world. The Bank supports capitalist agriculture and capitalist agriculture, as Omvedt (1992) so forcefully argued:
Would like to abolish the peasants or farmers themselves: to create either a totally mechanized agriculture with no human producers, or turn peasants into labourers in large scale farms, carrying out tasks totally set from above, with no more relation to the land than factory workers have to raw materials.
3.3 Encounter between civil society and the state over the construction of dams
An illustration of the encounter between civil society and the state over dam construction is offered by the Narmada Bachao Andolan's encounter with the state in India. According to a 1996 Newsletter of the civil movement, the Bargi dam, 40 kms from Jabalpur, was the first large-scale dam to be constructed on the Narmada river. There was no policy or
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plan for the resettlement of the people from 162 villages displaced. The construction of the dam was completed in 1990.
Most had no place to go and just settled on the rim of the reservoir, having lost all their land, houses and property. In response, the communities started to get organised under name of Bargi Bardh Visthapit Aur Prabhavit Sangh a sister organisation of the Narmada
Bachao Andolan. Since the dam had already been constructed before the organisation was formed, the issue of total opposition to the dam did not exist. The organisation however started fighting for the resettlement of the affected people and a very intense struggle was launched in 1991. After three years of the struggle by the civil society organisations, the Chief Minister agreed that in a meeting that the organisation that the resettlement had not been done and constituted a joint committee of officials and representatives of the organisations and independent experts. After years of failed promises and frustrations, the organisations started a protest by building huts on the banks of the reservoir at 418m level. They declared that they would stay there and not allow the level to be raised beyond this. If the government insisted in filling the water above this, they would ready to drown.
The government did insist on this and water started rising and the protesters were arrested in brutal police action. The organisations were so determined to fight against the dam and displacement and for their rights and lives. One important outcome of their struggle as at
1996 was their ability to get a supreme court injunction issuing a stay on the construction of the dam.
All over the world, the destructive effects of dams are more or less a replication of this sad story. In Nigeria, the most illustrative case of the destructive effects of dams especially from the point of view of exploring the encounter between civil society and the state was the Bakalori Dam. When the dam was completed in 1977 and the area flooded for irrigation, the first burden of the project fell upon the people of Maradun. The farming lives of not less than 60,000 well established farmers at Talata Mafara were destroyed. In old Maradun, an estimated 13-15,000 people lost their town, homes, farms and trees to the dam site but received no compensation in return.
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Indeed, for three cropping seasons from 1977 to 1980, the peasants of Maradun could not cultivate any crop and water supply to 20,000 hectares of land which was traditionally under river-bed irrigation or fadama downstream from Talata Mafara to Argungu was disrupted (Oculi, 1986; Koehn, (1986). This directly undermined the livelihoods of thousands of peasants who protested to demand for their rights only to be violently repressed and massacred by the brutal state machinery. A total of 386 people were known to have died from the crisis (Odeyemi, 1982) in addition to the hundreds of livestock and houses burnt.
4.O MAJOR FINDINGS
This section is divided into two sub-sections. The first part presents general background information on the study area. In the second section, episodes of the encounter between the Jere Rice Farmers and the state are presented and discussed.
4.1.1 A brief history of the Zabarmari Rice Farmers in the Jere Bowl
Zabarmari is a village about 15 kilometres west of Maiduguri the capital of Borno state.
The people are Hausa mixed with some Kanuri. Oral tradition says that the forefathers of the present inhabitants of the village were on Pilgrimage to the land of Makka from
Sokoto their original home. On their way they became tired and stopped at Zabarmari to have a rest before completing their journey to Makka.
Eventually not all of them continued the journey and of those who finally made it to the
Makkaa, a substantial number stopped and settled at Zabarmari on their way back without ever returning back to Sokoto. The original main attraction of the settlers was the fact that the area was a low land which did not give away its water after rainfall. This was a quality which made it possible for dry season agriculture which the settlers believed would enable them make enough money every season to assist them on their Pilgrimage programme. Oral tradition however confirmed that the settlers got the blessings of the then Shehu of Borno before embarking on their settlement. According to Alhaji Namadi, who is popularly regarded as an authority and the custodian of oral tradition of the
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Zabarmari people, the Shehu of Borno granted the request of the settlers to occupy the land on 3rd March, 1932.
4.1.2 Pre- construction of Alau -Dam
The proliferation of large-scale water resources development in Africa began in the
1950s. At this time improvements in engineering technology and materials enabled the construction of large dams in order to fulfil the perceived need for hydro-electric power and irrigated agriculture (Beadle 1974). Numerous similar projects quickly followed in various parts of the continent the most notable in West Africa being the construction of
Asokombo Dam on the Volter River in Ghana and the Kainji Dam on the Niger. In
Nigeria with the rapid economic expansion of Nigeria during the 1960s and 1970s, several large-scale irrigation projects were developed in the northern states; the major ones being the Kano River project (Kano State) the Bakalori irrigation project (Sokoto state) and the South Chad irrigation project (Borno State).
In addition, numerous dams have been constructed both for hydro-electricity (e.g. Kainji,
Jebba and Dadin Kowa) and water supply and irrigation (e.g. Tiga, Bakalori Gari).
Recent periods of drought in the 1970s and 1980s have highlighted the unreliability of rainfall in the northern states and a number of possibilities are being considered to ensure that surface water resources can be depended upon in these regions. Among these are various "water schemes" which entails the construction of Canals, tunnels and dams to link major perennial river systems such as the Gongola to seasonal water excess flow from perennial rivers to previously water deprived areas, and open new extensive lands for irrigated Agriculture.
4.1.3 The historical origin of the Alau Dam.
The inflow of water into Alau and Jere Bowl depends mainly on the natural inflow of the
Ngadda, which is seasonal, and to a less extent on runoff from the immediate surroundings. River Yedzeram also contributes some inflow into the Ngadda via a tenuous connection in the Sambisa swamps. However, in years of low rainfall, this contribution is not much. Based on fourteen years records (1964-1978) the average
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annual inflow into Lake Alau was put at 239 million cubic metres of water (Msheliza,
1986).
In every lean rainfall year, there is usually zero inflow. The construction of the dam was first started on 1st August 1984 and completed in 1986 and gates finally installed in 1989.
It was initially constructed because of downstream farming but as a result of shortage of water in Maiduguri township, the dam's water was diverted to Maiduguri town for domestic and industrial use. Since the completion of the dam, natural inflow of the
Ngadda into Jere Bowl no longer takes places. However, at the peak of rainfall in
August, there is usually a flow within the channel flooded. These local floods are inadequate for paddy rice cultivation in the depression. It was only in October 1992 that
Alau-Dam reached its maximum shortage level of 329m. In fact there was spillage due to excess water above the normal retention water level of 329m which flowed down stream into the Jere Bowl. Also the rainy season of 1992 witnessed the inflow of water in
Ngadda Bul, a tributary of river Ngadda downstream of the dam which flowed into the
Jere Bowl. However, according to officials of the Borno State Water Corporation, there has not been substantial runoff in the river channel of the Ngadda-Bul for the past 8 years or so.
The implications of this inflow into the Jere -Bowl are yet to be fully appraised. It is however, doubtful if the inflows will be able to support rice cultivation in the Jere depressions. Zabarmari has the largest paddy rice land in Jere Bowl, but because of its high population man-land ratio, the land is not enough for the farming community. In the
Jere Bowl mainly Kanauris have title to land, the Hausas who make up to 90% of its population used to go to other areas for farming. This land tenure system has only compounded the negative effects of the dam and has led to a tremendous decline in the social and economic condition of the majority of the people in the community leading to social discontent and massive out migration from the area.
4.1.4 Zabarmari: The major rice producing community in the Jere Bowl
Zabarmari and other settlements started experiencing problems in rice production as far back as 1989. According to field survey in 1992 by Emplan group it was found the
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farmers no longer grow rice because the Ngadda no longer floods its section of the flood plain. Farmers now turn to dry season cultivation of vegetables in the former rice land where soil and water conditions are favourable. There are hundreds of wash borehole and wells in the Zabarmari section of the depression which are used for dry season irrigation of vegetables. This was not the case in the pre-dam period.
Zabarmari was the marketing centre of all the rice produced in Jere Bowl, this primate position to a large extent has been retained despite the fact that rice production is no longer feasible in the area. Rice is now brought to Zabarmari from outside Jere to avail of services in Jere such as rice traders. It is not surprising for one to see out hundreds of bags of rice being transported in and out of Zabarmari market thereby giving the false impression that the rice comes from the Jere Bowl.
There is only a market and this is at Zabarmari. The markets nearby no longer hold because of lack of patronage occasioned by decrease in agricultural productivity.
Consequently farmers in all the other settlements have to take their products to Zabarmari or Maiduguri. Nearly all the settlements in Jere depend on open well for their water supply. There are only two exceptions. One is Dusuman where there is a functioning hand pump about fifty metres outside the village.
The borehole stopped functioning three years ago. Many people still draw water from wells because of their proximity. The other exception is Amaramati where solar energy borehole was installed and is functioning. The rest of the settlements have open wells whose water quarterly is poor and is therefore a health hazard. In settlements like
Zabarmari water hawking is common. This water is obtained from open shallow wells drugged by the hawkers.
The roads in Jere are mere tracks. Farmers should reach other settlements from their settlements via the shortest possible route along a road tracks. This is generally not the case in Jere Bowl area. This is because most of the tracks crossing the flood plains are difficult to traverse in the rainy season, transport fares doubled during the period. In some cases settlements are cut off for some weeks. In some cases, even feeder roads are no where to be seen. One occasionally sees the culverts often overgrown with bushes.
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4.1.5 Conflict between water users
There were no conflicts in the pre-dam period between Jere Bowl rice/vegetable cultivation, Alau irrigation and Maiduguri water supply. Floods came naturally to the
Bowl and the higher the rainfall the greater the flood. This changed with the impoundment of the dam which started in 1988. Water was stopped from flowing downstream to Jere Bowl in order to build up the water level in the reservoir. This adversely affected rice and vegetable production in Jere Bowl. The farmers attributed all their misfortune to the dam.
People are also adversely affected because of the recorded fall in the water table throughout Jere Bowl depression. This has affected not only water supply for domestic use in the settlements but also irrigation; washbores and wells for irrigation have failed in some parts of the flood plain. If inflow from Ngadda is not released, dry season cultivation of vegetable throughout the flood plain will cease. Therefore people in Jere
Bowl have been made victims of this development project. Already out migration is common in all the settlements. This is bound to increase in the future.
4.1.6 Fisheries
Before the creation of a dam upstream on the Ngadda river, there was traditional fishing industry at the Jere Bowl area. During a survey research carried out by Emplan group and also buttressed by this study, several residents remembered this, according to them, fish was caught and sold immediately in large villages like Zabarmari and Koshebe. Any excess was processed by sundrying and smoke curing. Presently, very limited fishing is carried out and this is usually towards the end of each rainy season in years when most of the river channels and natural ponds are filled with water. It is pertinent to note that on account of the creation of the dam on Ngadda river the most important requirement for viable fisheries project which is continuous supply of water is lacking at Jere Bowl. A viable fisheries project requires adequate and regular water supply.
4.1.7 Vegetation
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Thick growths of vegetation, consisting of either farm crops or seeds surrounded all and sometimes deeply penetrated some of the settlements. When, not on their farms, groups of men seemed to spend entire days lounging in the shade. Thick vegetation growth is likely to encourage breeding of biting arthropods while the high shade provided by the trees could also provide ideal oviposition site for cloisonne sp. Major crops grown during rainy and dry season at the Jere Bowl include, among others, the following:
Rainfed (June to October) Millet, Sorghum, cowpea, Maize, Bambara nut, Rice and
Okro. Dry season Irrigated (October to February) Tomatoes, Pepper, Okro, Onion,
Garden egg, Wheat, Gorongo, Sorrel, Potatoes, Vegetables and Cassava while Rained and Dry season comprises all of the above.
4.1.8 Common Agricultural Practices
Since the Ngadda river no longer floods the Jere Bowl, the respondents according
Emplan group were asked if they still cultivated irrigated crops during the dry season.
Only 10.2% said they still did; the rest said they only planted rained crops because water was too scarce even for domestic use during the dry season.
4.1.9 Gender dimensions of the Dam
Before the construction of the dam, most of the women were employed in rice business, some of them were directly engaged in its cultivation. Others were involved in parboiling and milling rice. There were also women who engaged in buying and selling rice. According to a research carried out by Emplan group (1993) 76.7% of the respondents were engaged in rain fed agriculture, 3.3% were in arts and craft 67% were in trading, while 13.3% were unemployed. Most women reported that their husbands were employed in the agricultural sector before the Ngadda river was channeled. Most of the women were employed in rice business. However, they now cultivate mainly rainfed grains such as Sorghum, Maize, Millet, groundnuts and beans. According the respondents in my Focus Group Discussions, the construction of the dam has brought serious social problems to the community generally and at the level of the family in particular. For instance, respondents argued that cases of divorce and marital breakdown has increased
19

over the years. Many able bodied people particularly men have migrated out of the community leaving behind their wives as 'widows' of the crisis.
4.1.10 Range of crops cultivated by women
It has been mentioned that before the construction of Alau-dam, the major crop cultivated in Jere Bowl was rice. But since then, they had to shift emphasis to rain crops such as
Sorghum Maize, Millet, groundnuts, beans, cucumber, okro, sorrel and bambaranuts, pepper, resole, Gorongo and mangoes. The water for domestic use was mostly obtained from cement wells, boreholes and ordinary wells. Though women's income was not certain, however, most of them did say that before the construction of Alau dam they had sizeable incomes. Some of them made hundred of naira in a week from the sale of vegetables, fruits and rice business. The economic situation was generally more buoyant before the construction of the dam.
4.2. Episodes of Encounter between the Rice Farmers Association and the state
The preliminary background information in the preceding section was presented to make it possible for me to discuss, understand and analytically explain the response to the construction of the dam by the farmers' association. Through the FGDs, I also mapped out the major occupational groupings, the crops grown and the general social life of the community. I found out that the Hausa rice farming community settled in the area as far back as 1932 and has been living more or less prosperously until the construction of the
Alau dam gates in 1989. Though the formation of the farmers' association predated the construction of the dam, its activities became more intensified and clearly focused on water rights after the construction of the dam. Members of the association not only became united as a result of their common problem but they also became more enlightened, more aware and ready to confront the state on other wider issues affecting its membership. According to the key informants, the association is now the central rallying point for all members of the community.
4.2.1 The association
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The formation of the association predates the construction of the dam. It started more or less as a farmers' agricultural co-operatives organised around the common interest of its members. The key interest in the initial formation of the association was the marketing of agricultural products including rice. The association was and is still concerned with, securing fertilizer and tractor services for its members among other things. It also aims at promoting and protecting the general interest of its members. Such 'interests' are often agricultural but sometimes include wider political interests such as those pertaining to representation also surface.
4.2.2 The issue
The central issue that brought the association into a clear focus was the construction of the Alau Dam. When the dam gates were installed in 1989 and the usual annual floods to the Jere Bowl stopped, it became clear to the association that something has to be done to secure the water rights of it members. The main issue involves the annual, timely release of water to the area. The Maiduguri water supply project depends on the Alau Dam and the release of water to the downstream Jere Bowl would mean shortfall in water supply to the metropolis especially during the hot, dry season. The rice farmers in the Jere Bowl depend on the release of the water for three months (see appendix I below). It was this conflict of interest between urban water supply demands on the one hand, and the water needs of the farmers for agricultural production on the other, which became the issue around which the association rallied round. Little of the association was heard or known before this issue brought it into focus.
4.2.3 The encounter
The encounter of the Jere Rice Farmers Association started in 1989. The rice farmers protested against the lack of water for rice cultivation. They carried placards to television houses around Maiduguri. Their protest brought their association and the issue to focus.
In the same year they also wrote letters of petition to the then Governor of the state Col.
Abdu One Mohammed and presented it in audience to him. The letter (reproduced in this report as appendix I) has been presented in audience to almost all the subsequent
Governors of the state as 'reminders'. Besides this letter and other letters written to
21

relevant federal agencies, the association has also used other informal means to get timely annual release of water for rice cultivation. They argued that they have 'seen relevant officials in private'- whatever that is interpreted to mean.
4.2.4 The outcome
Despite the years of struggle, the association has not succeeded in getting water released on time for rice cultivation. One major reason for the apparent lack of success on the part of the association has to do with its powerlessness in influencing policy. The water supply project is not only a state issue but in relation to the Jere rice farmers, the urban residents of Maiduguri are more powerful politically and economically. One important explanatory factor for this failure is the fact most of the encounter with the state was during periods of military rule. Under military regimes, the right to organise is not recognised and thus, attempts to organise and confront the state on issues of governance.
This might have reduced the ability of the association to influence the state. With new democratic dispensation, their chances of success may be higher.
This study has shown the nature and extent of the problems confronting the rice farmers in the Jere Bowl and the response of the Jere Farmers Association over the past ten years.
It was found that contrary to the consistent demands for the timely and adequate release of water, state officials have responded only with disdain and at best only with false promises and deceit. The most significant finding of this study is in the area of capacity building. After years of encounter with the state, the Jere Rice Farmers Association has gained the necessary institutional capacity to articulate and raise broad issues of governance.
The repression of their economic rights and the deprivation occasioned by it has made members of the association to be more politically conscious and assertive. Members of the Jere Rice Farmers Association-individually and collectively-have now a better understanding of the workings of government and its officials. In a related way, members of the association have established some informal methods of dealing with state officials developed by the association out of necessity.
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Part of the problem that explains the failure of the association to make its voice heard despite the years of struggle could be found in its organisational structure. The association is mainly organised around its overall leader who appears to be major driving force behind its activities. Coupled with this centralisation is the fact that it is mainly seen as an ethnic rather than an interest group by the others especially the none Hausas.
One can therefore say that the association is not well embedded in civil society. Despite this problem, however, it is clear that in its encounter with the state, the association has learnt to be more organised to promote other wider interests of its members. When it found its voice drawn in the dam, it found an exit through migration and cross border rice trade with Cameroun. Also, the association has become influential in the politics of the local government by way of determining in many ways who becomes the Chairperson of the council.
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APPENDIX I
The Jere (Zabarmari) Rice farmers' Association has written several letters of Petition to all the successive state Governors since 1989 when the dam gates were first closed. The letters all have the same content with the subsequent ones serving as reminders to the first one written in 1989 and reproduced here below:
"Reminder application for commissioning of Dam and opening Alau Dam for three months period every year from 27th of August to 27th November during raining season and over four years of Damage of rice farmland and vegetable".
We the entire members of the above named Association in a bid to contribute our quota to National Development; coupled with the recent policies of Babangidas Administration on economic recovery and Self reliance particularly with regards to food production invested all materials and human resources at our disposal to see to the realisation of those noble objectives.
We will at this juncture wish to briefly intimate you on the rice production at the Jere
Rice, Bowl village unit, of Maiduguri metropolitan council rice production from time immemorial at this bowl is dependant on water supplied from the Jere River which empties into the bowl irrigation. Apart from rice production we are equally engaged in the production of wheat, onion tomatoes to mention but few which sustained the exploding production of the state particularly Maiduguri and sits environment. The rice bowl encompasses some village unit's comprising of over one hundred and fifty thousand
(150,000) hectares of available land. This, teaming population depend solely on the farming activities around the bowl for their means of livelihood.
Your Excellency, Sir, we would crave your indulgence to further acquaint you with the sympathetic conditions of the Jere Rice Bowl dwellers. An individual along engaged the services of the state ministry of Agriculture through the tractor service unit amount to over fifty thousand (N50,000) naira for ploughing only. It is the breakdown of the investment and the projected harvest for this season.
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INVESTMENT
Total area cultivated - 37900 hectares
Amount Invested per hectares - N860,000.00
Total amount invested i.e. covering ploughing, spraying, labour and fertilizer is N82,505 thousand, projected harvest total N2,505 million, total number of bags per N250 hectares
26.
The projected harvest is put at N200 million presently the state sole sources of water supply river which is the water from the Alau-Dam the tradition the past making the cultivation of the available land possible.
The various Governors to whom this letter was presented in audience were:
1. His Excellency, Col. Abdu one Mohammed, Military Administrator of Borno
State, March 19th, 1989.
2.
3.
Lt. Col. Mohammed Buba Marwa, The Military Governor of Borno State,
September 25th, 1990.
His Excellency, The Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Maina Ma'aji Lawan, July
17th, 1992.
4.
5.
His Excellency, Military Administrator of Borno State, July 11th, 1994.
The Military Administrator, Group Captain Ibrahim Dada, August 28th 1996.
A letter was also addressed to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Water
Resources, Abuja, On March, 25th 1991 another letter was also addressed to Engr. Wakil
Bukar Chairman Management Committee (CMC), Chad Basin Development Authority on 28th August, 1996.
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APPENDIX II:
11/11/96
His Excellency,
Col. Victor A. Ozodinobe
The Military Administrator of Borno State.
Jere: Farmers Development Association Grains for Sale.
We are pleased to inform you that the underlisted items of foodstuffs are available in our stores. If you intend to buy some of the items for present or future use, this is the time to buy as we are now harvesting new food crops. We promise to sell to the Borno State
Government at cheapest rate.
5.
6.
7.
8.
1.
2.
3.
4.
100kg Rice
100kg Beans
100kg Maize
100kg Millet
-
-
-
-
100kg Rice par boil -
50kg rice parboil -
100kg of Wheat -
50kg groundnuts -
9. 100kg dry pepper -
10. 100kg dry tomatoes -
11. Sheep and goats
12. Cattle.
-
N2,750.00
N5,300.00
N1,850.00
N1,735.00
N5,700.00
N5,700.00
N3,953.00
N3,930.00
N3,850.00
N3,850.00
We should be very happy indeed for your response before we could sell them to other states of the Federation in need of foodstuffs.
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