Building industry stakeholders have urged the federal government to take action to lessen the effects of flooding in Nigeria.
Chief David Obodoeze, CEO of Denora Investment, said in a recent interview with Property Mart that if the federal government does not dredge the Rivers Niger and Benue, Nigerians, particularly those who live near waterways, will continue to experience flooding.
In addition to human lives lost, he claimed that floods cause enormous losses every year.
Similar to this, the Kwararafa Peoples’ Assembly (KPA), a socio-cultural organization in Benue State, has recently urged the government to dredge the Rivers Niger and Benue to combat the yearly floods that wreak havoc on the north-central states.
The country as a whole and the region would benefit economically from the dredging of the rivers, according to Prof. Emmanuel Oloja-Ejeikwu, Interim National President of KPA.
“If River Benue and River Niger are dredged, the yearly ravaging floods and its effects on the people in Benue, Kogi, Niger, and Taraba states in particular, will be drastically reduced,” he said. He alleged that the emergency relief funds meant to cushion the effects of the flood on the people were usually not judiciously utilized by governments.
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“Note also that if these two rivers are dredged, mini ports can be created to bring development closer to the peoples of Central Nigeria,” he said.
Oloja-Ejeikwu said that the dredging of the rivers would also reduce of bank flow of these rivers yet no consideration is given in this direction.
He said that, in physical land mass, the Kwararafa people occupied central Nigeria and spread across the country from the Northwest through the Northeast and Southeast to the Southwest.
The president said that the Kwararafa people occupy at least 27 of the 36 states in Nigeria, including the FCT, making up a minimum of 25 percent of the population in each state. He said that, in some states, particularly in central Nigeria, the population of Kwararafa people is between 75 to 95 percent.
According to him, the people of Kwararafa are basically farmers, hunters, and fishermen, very industrious and rich in arts and crafts in several solid minerals. He, however, said the people were not able to engage and exploit these natural endowments and recourses in their land because of the activities of some persons.
“As we speak, Dangote Coal Mines Ltd. is busy mining coal in Effa, Ugbokolo, Okpokwu LGA, Benue, polluting the only natural river, rivers Ohimini, and Okpokwu. “These are the rivers available to the local communities as their only source of potable water for drinking and other domestic engagements.’’
Story adapted from The Sun
