The high death rate in the early Monday morning boat mishap in the Patigi local government area of Kwara state has been blamed on the negative attitude of people of the area toward the use of life jackets whenever they travel by water.
Speaking at the grand inauguration of the 2023 subsidized fertilizers programme by the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) in Ilorin on Wednesday.
The managing director of the commission, Mallam Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, said that the commission spent over N1.6 billion on the distribution of life jackets to dwellers of riverine areas last year.
The HYPPADEC boss, who lamented that use of life jackets was not encouraging among the people, called on the state House of Assembly to enact a law to make it mandatory for dwellers in riverine communities and boat operators to use life jackets whenever they travel on water.
Mallam Yelwa, represented at the event by the Director of Community in the agency, Dr Mahmoud Umar,
said that the law, when enacted and effective, would ensure that no one travels without the use of life jackets “and so that waste of lives is minimized.”
The HYPPADEC boss said that people can float on water for about seven hours with the use of jackets in case of a mishap, adding that the commission distributed the commodity among the people last year.
He also said that the law should restrict night traveling on water, adding that more lives would have been saved if the mishap had happened during day time.
“If the victims had put on the life jackets, the fatality rate would have been very minimal because a life jacket can keep a victim afloat for at least seven hours, and help would have come from villagers within that period.
“I want to call on relevant authorities to legislate a law that will make the use of life jackets compulsory for boat passengers and as well restrain the boat operators from operating at night. If the victims had worn life jackets and the accident occurred in broad daylight, the fatality rate would have been very minimal”, he said.
On the flag off of the distribution of subsidized fertilizers, Yelwa said:Â “Ordinary farmers across local communities in the country have always found it very difficult to get access to efficient and affordable fertilizer, which is one of the reasons why the agricultural sector has degenerated over the years.
“For this reason, the commission decided to intervene by making quality fertilizer available to farmers at a cheaper rate.
This intervention is not just essential but timely because the rate at which the population is rapidly increasing in our local communities demands that farmers are given unhindered access to fertilizer in order to keep the production of food crops at pace with the ongoing population explosion.
Fertilizer helps increase the fertility of the soil and makes plants resilient against harmful plant pathogens, pests, and weeds. It also accelerates plant growth. Its significance to agricultural growth can, therefore, not be overemphasized.
“When we started the fertilizer distribution programme last year, we distributed over 50,000 bags of fertilizers to thousands of beneficiaries across our member states. In each of the over 1,800 communities of the Commission, not less than 30 bags were distributed to ordinary farmers with an astounding 60% discount.
This year, the Commission is set out to distribute 42,328 bags of fertilizer (21,118 bags each for NPK and UREA), to not less than 20 beneficiaries in each community of the Commission at the same 60% discount (N10,000 per each bag). For Kwara State, 5,795 bags of the subsidized fertilizer would be sold to farmers in the affected
areas of the commission.”
In his remarks, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq said his administration would redouble efforts at ensuring the dredging of the River Niger was done by the federal government as a last solution to flooding in the riverine areas in the state.
Represented by the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Engr. Yakubu Salihu-Danladi, the governor thanked HYPPADEC for its interest in adequate food production in its catchment area.
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