Friday night dinner was the best I have had here. Chicken with small potatoes, rice with peas and sweet corn, and a coleslaw salad with baked beans (it’s a British thing). We had dinner at Retired Governor & Ambassador Juta’s new home (N09.26062, E012.47293). He has been working on this home for many years. It could be as long as a decade. But while he was still working he made little progress. He continued to live in his family compound inside of Jimeta as he was active with politics. He finally, retired from politics and a little more work was done on the house. Then he had a fire at his compound last August. Much of his compound was burned. He decided to take a sleeping mat and move into the house and w
ork on it. His wife stayed at the burned compound living in the parlor, which had escaped the fire. By October he had made enough progress that his wife moved to the new house. He continues to work on the house. At this point he is working on furnishings, and what we would call the punch list of items to fix or finish. We toured the downstairs (office, meeting rooms, parlors, guest rooms) and the outside gardens, basketball and squash court, swimming pool and chapel. The top floor of the house is the family living quarters.
ork on it. His wife stayed at the burned compound living in the parlor, which had escaped the fire. By October he had made enough progress that his wife moved to the new house. He continues to work on the house. At this point he is working on furnishings, and what we would call the punch list of items to fix or finish. We toured the downstairs (office, meeting rooms, parlors, guest rooms) and the outside gardens, basketball and squash court, swimming pool and chapel. The top floor of the house is the family living quarters. 
I met Juta during our 2006 trip when he hosted a party for Gary Sande and again in 2007 when the public health team went to his old compound for dinner. Gary is the Nigeria coordinator for Global Health Ministries and was a missionary teacher here in Nigeria. I think Juta was one of his students and later became the principal of the same school where Gary was the principal.
When Elisabeth was teaching at TCNN in Jos she met Juta a young man that was just returned for 6 years of studying in the US. Later he would be the Governor of Gongola State (which has now been split into Adamawa and Taraba States). After being Governer he became the Ambassabor to Zimbabwe. Recently, he had been working with development in the Delta region where the oil companies are getting the oil and the people are not. Elisabeth was also a teaching missionary in Nigeria and Juta became the principal of the Hong Secondary School that Gary had started earlier.
We had a long talk about water in Nigeria. His last posting had him working with the Delta Development Authority. They were trying to help the people of the Delta with development projects as a means to calm down the fighting in the Delta Oil region. He said they would come to a town a build a modern water system with boreholes, towers, and distribution systems then hand it over to the Local Government to operate and maintain. They would return in a few months and it was broken and parts of it were missing. I told that these were the kinds of problems we were trying to avoid. The give a person a fish approach does not last long. We discussed community ownership and how the community has to feel they own the system. They need to be involved in the planning, the financing and the construction before they will want to spend the time and money to operate it and maintain it. He was of the opinion that most villages would not spend their own money to build a water source. It is the duty of the government to use the tax money to build the system. The church should not have to contribute. The church should work with the government but the government should use the tax money to 
pay for the projects. This discussion was held on the terrace above his swimming pool. Being a wealthy person who pays a lot of taxes he wants his tax money spent in his community. At his point I commented that the communities had no “skin in the game”, why would they want to have to spend the money to operate and maintain the system that the government put in. If the government wants them to have the system they seem to think that the government should keep it working. I side stepped the tax issue. I do not think the poor subsistence farmer cares about taxes. They have no income so they pay no taxes. They cannot read or write so how will they fill out a tax form. I was a bit surprised. This was the first mention of taxes in the four years I have working on this program. This is the first time that I have discussed the program with someone of his position.
pay for the projects. This discussion was held on the terrace above his swimming pool. Being a wealthy person who pays a lot of taxes he wants his tax money spent in his community. At his point I commented that the communities had no “skin in the game”, why would they want to have to spend the money to operate and maintain the system that the government put in. If the government wants them to have the system they seem to think that the government should keep it working. I side stepped the tax issue. I do not think the poor subsistence farmer cares about taxes. They have no income so they pay no taxes. They cannot read or write so how will they fill out a tax form. I was a bit surprised. This was the first mention of taxes in the four years I have working on this program. This is the first time that I have discussed the program with someone of his position. 
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