The city of Jos and its environs is endowed with an abundance of rocks, both above and below the earth’s surface. Many residents have taken advantage of this natural resource to earn a living by breaking, crushing and selling off rocks to builders and other construction workers. In this report, Daily Trust Saturday delves into the lives of Jos men and women eking a life through stone crushing.
Sitting on a heap of gravel, wearing rainboots and a pair of protective goggles, Baba Yilkat uses a metal hammer to break a large stone that has just shattered into pieces before him. He separates the stone pieces and repeats the process again. It was on that heap, looking unassuming that Daily Trust Saturday approached him, at an abandoned quarry site in Dadin Kowa community of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.
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As a retired civil servant, Baba Yilkat says his pension of N7,000 monthly can barely cater for his family’s weekly feeding. But at the quarry, the 72-year-old transfers what is left of his remaining energy into a sledge hammer which he says could earn him between N30,000 and N40,000.00 monthly. “Because of my age, I can’t do much, but the little I can do has been helping me financially. For those of us that are old and have no power, we hire younger men to break the mass rocks into medium sizes and from there, I use my hammer to break them into smaller sizes,” he said.
The septuagenarian is just one among thousands of men and women who have made the stone crushing business their sole source of income and could be seen at various quarry sites daily, from morning to night. There are young women and men, married and unmarried, who rely on the business of breaking stones, then packing them in bags to sell to ready customers, but often, the stone crushers are in their mid ages or younger.
Like Baba Yilkat, 47-year-old Mama Ruth Pam says she left her food business to join stone crushing because her business ran aground due to customers who failed to offset their credits. “So, I decided to come here and sell stones,” she told our correspondent, adding that, “If you make a tipper load of the stone, you will get N23,000.00, but you have to spend about half of that amount before you get a tipper load.” She explained that because the quarry belongs to a private company, rock crushers are mandated to pay N4,000.00 to the company. “Then we used to hire some boys to break the huge rocks for us, and they normally collect N6,000.00. At the end of the day, you go home with about N10,000 or N13,000.00,” she said.
Daily Trust Saturday reports that rocks are the most visible feature in Jos and other parts of the northern senatorial district of Plateau State. Because of this, rocks have since been used as a natural resource needed for building and civil engineering works in the state. As one drives through the city and surrounding environs, it is common to see bags of stones and gravel, carefully laid out along the road to attract interested buyers. These bagged stones are solely the products of manual stone crushing activities of men and women like Baba Yilkat and Mama Ruth Pam who labour day and night to make ends meet.
Many of the stone crushers, especially women, have erected makeshift shelters that serve as sun shade over their head, as they get busy with their manual job. Hammers, rods and diggers in hand, the rock crushers sweat it out all day long and when they gather a reasonable heap of the stones, they bag them in used cement bags and display them by the road side. Before they are sold however, stone crushers often sort the stone pieces after the crushing process. Rocks of similar sizes are packed together before they are bagged and displayed for interested buyers.
There is no doubt that manual stone crushing is a tasking job and Dauda Bature says despite being an energy sapping occupation, it has been a blessing to him. “My family and I were in a rented house but I made up my mind to do this work using my energy. I did it for two years and I used the savings to build my own house. I know the job is very hard, but I have no option,” he said.
Like Bature, Joseph Bot, a Sociology graduate said instead of waiting for white collar job which has not been forthcoming, he decided to use his energy for manual labour. “It is work that requires energy because we don’t have the mechanised tools to use, we have to use our hands to do it but it is better than staying idle,” he said.
The graduate said one can earn between N50,000.00 and N100,000 monthly through hard work. “If you can gather stones to fill a ten-tire Tipper truck, that will earn you N65,000.00. If it is the six-tire Tipper, it will earn you between N20,000 and N23,000.00. As for me, I am able to produce two trucks in a month,” he said.
Some of the stone crushers told our correspondent that the business thrives more during the dry season which lasts between the months of October and May when people prefer to do construction works in the state capital. “As soon as major rain sets in from June, it distorts the work and the aged cannot risk the cold and other health challenges associated with the rain. Moreover, there is less construction work during the rainy season and so the demands for stones are less,” said one of the stone crushers.
Our correspondent observed that most of the stone crushers were above 50 years and, in some cases, an entire family is seen at the quarry site, breaking stones to make a living. However, despite its comparative advantage in Jos, the state has no single stone quarry company. The only quarry company owned by late Evangelist Paul Gindiri, located in Dadin Kowa, closed down more than 15 years ago. This is why many stone crushers like Baba Yilkat and Mama Ruth Pam have taken over the quarry site, scavenging for stones to break and sell for a living.
The immediate past Commissioner for Commerce and Industry in Plateau State, Hon Abbey Aku, confirmed the lack of an established stone quarry in the state, saying though such a company had existed in the past. “But the raw materials are here, so construction companies who have contracts to execute in the state do come with their own quarry machines and as soon as they are through with the job, they go with their machines,” he said.
For the likes of 35-year-old Jessica Mato, who was seen crushing stones at the quarry site, her latest occupation is a temporary solution to save enough money to buy a sewing machine and rent a shop for her tailoring business. Having started stone crushing this year, she said, “I am only doing this so I can raise about N200,000 which will be enough for me to open my shop. I’m saving my money and I hope to raise the money this year. If I can raise the money this year, you will not see me here next year, because this is not a woman’s job,” she said.
But many at the quarry wish the Plateau State Government will assist them with the necessary tools. Choji Bitrus and Shedrach Tomap, who were seen at the quarry site, said with the right working tools, many youths will jump at the opportunity. “The tools to dig the rocks and break them is the problem, these rocks are very hard to break into smaller sizes. Normally, machines should do this work but we are doing it manually,” said Bitrus.
Tomap explained that “We are doing this job because we have no option. But the government can help us with the necessary tools to make it easier. I can tell you that if there are tools for this work, thousands of Plateau youths will find jobs here. The rocks are available in almost all the 17 local government areas of the state, they are in all these hills and mountains that surround the state,” he said.
By Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos
