How I will tackle flooding – Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has spoken about how he plans to fix the flooding crisis ravaging the country, if elected president in 2023.

Obi paid solidary visits to flood victims in Benue and Bayelsa States over the weekend, after he had urged political parties to suspend campaigns for the 2023 general elections.

He advocated that all efforts should be concentrated on helping flood victims in parts of the country find their feet.

Featuring on Arise Television on Monday, Obi noted that the flooding crisis could be avoided by predicting the calculation of rainfall and dredging major rivers to hold the water.

He said: “What will I do to curb this flooding? There’s a combination of things that I need to do. There is the issue of Lagdo Dam but even the minister said the rainfall caused the flooding and not the dam. But if you take the average rainfall in the past 20 years — since 2001 — it remains the same, which means it is predictable.

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“But the issue is that we have refused to dredge some rivers. We need to dredge the River Benue and Niger from Baro, Niger state down to the Atlantic Ocean. But there’s currently no ability to hold this drainage, and tributaries are also part of what is causing this problem. The rivers are no longer contributing to our economic growth as they should be.

“These are the things we should do to be able to contain this”, he said.

Most part of Nigeria is currently battling with flooding, with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund saying that 34 out of the 36 states have been affected and 1.3 million people displaced.

Over 600 people have reportedly lost their lives, and more than 200,000 houses have either been partially or fully damaged.

Last week, the Federal Government announced the approval of emergency management plans to mitigate the impact of the flood nationwide.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo told reporters that the government is prepared to make sure that places and communities not affected also get some relief materials.

Sani-Gwarzo explained that the release of the water led to increase in volume of water that Nigeria was taken in.

He added that the release of the water resulted to the flooding, stressing that by the grace of God, the impact would be reduced to the bearest minimum, saying more lives would be saved.