There are many ancient communities in Nigeria with irresistible natural sites. Buanchor is one of them. It is a chilly but lively community in the eastern axis of Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State. Daily Trust visits the community.
The community is very popular and renowned, yet cut off from the modern world.
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It has a population of over 10,000 inhabitants and made up of three sub-communities with their own local chiefs. They are Mbata, Okuni and Nkanacha.
Constantly, Buanchor attracts increasing number of visitors, especially researchers, foreign and local tourists. They frequently spend days and nights in this community without minding that electricity, communication, water and medical services are completely absent.
Despite the absence of social amenities, inhabitants and natives go about their activities happily. Many have small generating sets that attract crowds of children and other neighbours who gather to watch home videos and charge their radio sets.
Buanchor attracts the attention of tourists as it is in most communities in Boki and some northern parts of the state because it is surrounded by vegetations inside a vast forest. It is also surrounded by the Afi mountains. These combine to make the temperature cold, which persists even beyond midday.
Alongside its increasing population, Buanchor provides natural habitats for numberless species of rainforest animals, including birds, which can be easily sighted.
Local customs do not permit any of these creatures to be killed.
As a result of this, a group of white men obtained an official authority from the federal government and established a monkey ranch, where they have been able to collect together, many of the animals, family by family, over the years. They are located deep inside the Buanchor forests, which have been untouched by human activities, such as wood logging, bush burning for centuries.
Even though the animals are caged by electric fences, they do not feel taken away from their natural homes.
Buanchor is also attractive because of the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary owned by the Cross River State Government, which former Governor Donald Duke modernised. It is a vast animal reserve with beautiful natural scenes, complete with a high canopy walk. Visitors and tourists can stroll on it as if on top of the tall trees to see the beauty of nature.
Visitors can see and play with hundreds of gorrilas, chimpanzees, different species of monkeys and birds. One can actually become friends with them by speaking to them and offering them fruits.
There are quarters for forestry staff and researchers to spend few days or months, depending on the extent of their tasks.
However, one must be well equipped with food that would last him the duration. He should also be well kitted, as well with cardigans, mountain foot-wears, including headgears, to withstand the terrain and weather.
The journey from the lowland of Buanchor to the summit where the sanctuary is can take several hours to meander through tough terrains. The tourist should not think of returning to the base same day.
The village head of Buanchor, HRH Otu Douglass Owan, in an interview said he regularly hosted white tourists, who would park their vehicles in his community for the number of days they would spend up the sanctuary.
“Their vehicles would be untouched. Many of them, including Nigerian scholars, would spend a number of days studying even our leaves. It might interest you to know that we have a number of medicinal plants in Buanchor that have been proven to have cured innumerable diseases, including protracted cancer and the dreaded HIIV/AIDS,’’ he said.
Corroborating his claim, a youth leader, Enu Nandi Peter, who teaches at Saint John Baptist Model School, gave the names of such plants such as ancesto-cladus,, karupesis, primus African, phycus exapirata (or sand paper).
Two environmentalists, one a guide from the state Forestry Commission, Christopher Oned, and Mrs Helen Ndim, a former school principal and conservationist, whose works took her too Germany, described Buanchor as a conservation community.
“We have a Forest Management Committee with volunteer members. We love our forests. We derive oxygen there. There are plenty other benefits. We don’t set fire or kill any animal. And offenders are penalised,’’ she said.
Oned said they received visitors in the community mostly in the dry season.
According to him, “In a month we can receive over 1,000 visitors, local and foreign. They would come in buses. I do take them up the sanctuary. But I usually strongly encourage them to be well kitted.’’
The chairman of the community, however, lamented that despite the influx of visitors, they are bereft of modern amenities, especially power supply, communication signals and hospitals.
“Sometimes I wonder whether we are part of Nigeria. When foreign tourists or researchers come here, they would need to communicate, but they can’t make phone calls because none of the telecommunication providers have any presence here. Yet, Buanchor is renowned as a tourist community.
“We don’t have potable water. Since 2012 when there was a massive volcanic eruption, our sources of water supply from the rocks were affected, including the streams. There’s only one small stream serving over 10,000 inhabitants. You need to see how we queue to fetch drinking water from there,’’ he said.
Helen Ndim, a conservationist and woman leader, also lamented the state of schools and primary health facilities in the community.
According to her, many pregnant women in the community have died due to lack of proper health care facilities, which forces them to go long distances to next towns where such facilities exist.
“The state of the primary health care centre is very pathetic. There are no drugs, no health officers; the building itself is bad. We rely on our herbs and God to heal us,’’ she said.
As a former school principal in the community, she said, “There are 335 pupils and five teachers in the only primary school. There are two government teachers in the only secondary school. There are 12 classes for all and six classroom blocks.’’
Appealing for government presence and investors, the village head, Douglas Owan said they had no report of crimes, and that in the community, smoking in the open is a taboo.
“Our community is as old as two centuries. We are renowned for peace and hospitality, for which reason visitors love to spend time with us. But we have no roads, hospital, power, schools, no industry, no good water to drink,’’ he said.
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