High Chief Peter Ameh fielding questions from Journalists at the media parley in Lokoja.
By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The Nigerian Governnent has been urged to see the current devasting effect of flood ravaging some states in the country as a clarion call to create artificial dams to absorb water from Lagdo dam in Cameron and elsewhere, for agrcultural activities and boost food security.
High Chief Peter Ameh,the Labour Party candidate for
Ankpa/Omala/ Olamaboro Federal Constituency in Kogi State, gave the advice on Monday when he appeared in the Media parley, organised for National Assembly candidates warming to electíon in 2023.
Ameh, the first of such candidates to appear in the programme organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Kogi State Council,said that the creation of such dams would also creat jobs opportunity for the youth roaming streets aimlessly.
He asked” Why not channel this water to places where it can used for irrigation system. During this time,we can even store the water in artificial dams and it will provide job for our people and enhance their social and economic life.”
Commenting on the effect of flood in kogi state, particularly his Constituency, Ameh,a Journalist by training and activist, expressed concern over the development.
“It is affecting manpower, the health of people,the business climate and as such, drawing the state backward.
“If it is something that kogi state and federal government should collaborate,it is important that they should have done that.
“The state government should complete the alternative route it started before it was abandoned so that people can have alternative route to pass anytime flood occurs,” he added.
The candidate called on the state legistors to factor in activism into their oversight function,”walk into ecological fund and places responsible for these floods and work there up to four times” to get to the root of the matter for lasting solution.
According to him, the problem with the legislators is that, they feel that if they do that, they will offend somebody because they belong to the same party.
“So they are waiting for when God will put in the mind of the executive to come and do it,” he explained.
He promised to make it a must legislative duty to contribute to any legislation in House of Representatives that would safe the country from flood and its effect on the people.
Ameh also promised to create viable and effective Constituency offices, where he would interact with his people,collate their demands and know their problems with a view to finding lasting solutions to them among others efforts,if elected.
Earlier in his address of welcome, the Chairman of NUJ in the state, Alhaji Adeiza Momohjimoh, said the union organised the programme for candidates of the National Assembly for them to tell the people what they would do for them, if given the mandate to represent them at the National Assembly.
According to him, whatever promise the candidates made during the programme and published for public consumption would be a yardstick upon which the electorate would use to measure the success or otherwise of their representatives given mandate to represent in the legislative arm of governnent.
He promised those that would feature in the programme of adequate publicity and urged members to give the programme the attention it deserved.
Meanwhile, hundreds of families living at the bank of River Niger and Benue in Lokoja and its environs have have continued to desert their houses as flood surges the state capital, unabated, as at Monday.
The popular Ganaja road in Lokoja, blocked by flood, among other consequences of the natural disaster in the state capital.
