Baruten and Kaiama are two local government areas in Kwara, where Nigeria shares a long international boundary with the Republic of Benin. These two councils that are communities that are made up of the Baatonum/Boko-Baru communities however believe that they are short-changed and neglected in the stream of development in the state and Nigeria, due to the poor state of infrastructures in the area.

The chairman of the Baruten Unit of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mallam Sulaiman Yaru-Yite decried the state of roads in the area, saying that the deplorable situation of the roads is hampering the socio-economic development of the border area. Yaru-Yite stressed the need for an immediate government's intervention in fixing the infrastructure decay to ameliorate the suffering of the inhabitants of the border town .

Findings have shown that aside the Ilesha-Baruba/Kosubosu/Chikanda road that was constructed by the last administration in the state, no other road in the area is tiled, making the roads across the area unmotorable. The NURTW boss therefore canvassed for urgent repairs of Ilesha-Baruba/Gwanara/Okuta road in Baruten, Ilesha-Baruba to Ogboro in Oyo state and that of Kosubosu/Kaiama, the road that links the two sister local governments together in order to ease vehicular movement.

Yaru-Yite, who also is the Secretary, Association of Baruten Food Stuff Dealers, claimed that the two local governments produce 80 per cent of agricultural produce consumed in the country particularly grains and yam which is processed into yam flour. He blamed the worrisome state of their roads for the high cost of the produce.

"Our roads are too bad. They are nothing to write home about. It is unfortunate that our customers, who come from far and near to transact business here, travel on bad roads.

"We receive customers from across the country; Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Abuja and even from Benin Republic among others, to buy yam flour and other farm produce.

"We appeal to government to rehabilitate the existing roads in this area and open up new ones where necessary", he said.

He also advocates for location of more banks in the area, noting that the present single bank in the whole of Baruten could no longer serve the commercial activities going on in the area.

He said that lack of adequate banks poses a serious security threat to their customers, who come from various parts of the country, by carry cash of between five to N10 million while on transit.

Another official of the union, who plies Kosubosu-Kaiama road, revealed how a supposed journey of less than two hours, cost them more than five hours because of the terrible state of Kosubosu/Kaiama road.

Investigations show that it is few of these roads that are owned by the state government, while the larger part are federal roads.

Speaking in the same vein, the chairman of Kaiama local government, Alhaji Hassan Bagudu urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate the bad roads linking the area with other communities. According to the council chief, the major challenge facing people in the area was lack of good access roads.

Bagudu said that the deplorable roads were posing serious security challenges because armed gangs were exploiting the situation to attack people plying the routes. According to him, the terrible state of these roads that are owned by the Federal Government; Kishi-Kaiama, Kaiama-Kosubosu and Kaiama-Wara have cut off these communities from other part of the state.

"The worrisome state of these roads is not only affecting our health, but also hampering our security and the socio-economic development of this area," he said.

He noted that it was always difficult for the affected communities to engage in socio- economic activities with neighbouring Niger and Oyo States for fear of robberies, vehicle maintenance and high cost of transportation. Bagudu added that his people would forever be grateful to government if the roads were constructed.

Similarly, the Emir of Kaiama said the poor state of the roads in the area had cut off the area from other parts of the state. "What could have been the closest communities take us hours to get there because of this situation," he said.

The member of the House of Representatives representing Baruten/Kaiama, Alhaji Zakari Mohammed also expressed concern over the situation of roads in his constituency. He noted that all his effort to get some roads fixed had defied honoured solution. Mohammed explained how Kosubosu-Kaiama road project was captured in the 2011 and 2012 budget, but could not later see the light of the day due to poor implementation of those years' budget.

The spokesman of the House of Representatives urged federal government to address the challenge to ensure free movement of farm produce in his area, whose people are mostly farmers.

Another aspect that these border towns seek government's attention include provision of health care facilities, stable and steady power supply and siting of higher institutions of learning as this area remains the only part in the state that could not boast of a tertiary institution.

A resident in Baruten local government area of the state, Mallam Ali Yusuf, who explained how they travel to Paraku and Nikki in Benin Republic to access quality health care service, bemoaned lack of a standard hospital in the whole border communities. He added that it would take them up to five hours before getting to Ilorin in case of emergency, hence the need for government to either locate a standard General Hospital in the area or to upgrade and remodel the one in Okuta to address the health and medical needs of the people.

The Emir of Okuta in the Baruten local government, Alhaji Abubakar Idris makes case for a timely take off of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Kwara state University, which its campus is planned to be built in the area.

The monarch seeks an immediate work to commence on the site or another higher institution to be established for socio-economic development and to ease the educational advancement of their people.

He also laments the outrageous blackout in the area, where he said they hardly enjoyed 24 hour power supply in six months.

He queried why the area could not boast of stable power supply, when the next village in Benin Republic, a country that a state in Nigeria is richer than, enjoys steady and uninterrupted electricity.