By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Federal lawmaker representing Niger East Senatorial district, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa has called for the completion of Kafara Dam project if the federal government’s pursuit of food security in the country is to be realized.
Senator Musa who reminded that the border closure is in force today because we want to be self- reliant in terms of food, disclosed this while explaining that his motion calling for the completion of Kagara Dam in Niger state was not only targeted at the completion of the Dam alone but all other similar abandoned projects scattered in all the states of Nigeria.
Senator Musa made the clarification in an interview with journalists in his office in Abuja on Thursday after the senate plenary.
According to him, “The only way for us to stop food from coming from other countries into our own is to make sure that such projects as Kagara Dam that have been initiated with good intention are allowed to be completed.
“Kagara Dam project was conceived since 1992 and it awarded by Niger State Government to then WRECA, I call it Kano state water cooperation and you cannot believe that this project was to take care of inhabitants, providing them portable water and to also provide irrigation opportunity which was intended to cover over 1000 hectres of land, he said.
“Imagine 1000 hectres of land being cultivated in the dry season; in short it is one very important project that the federal government, Niger state government and every Nigerian that is concerned about food security in this country will see as one of the most important projects. It is an agrarian area. Imagine 1000 hectres being cultivated, imagine if rice is cultivated there or it’s used to cultivate tomato. The inhabitants are there, over 100,000 people, they do not have any source of water today.
He explained that his colleagues overwhelmingly supported his motion, not because it was moved by him, but due to the fact that they shared his sentiments on the wasteful abandonment of projects that would ordinarily impact on the wellbeing of Nigerians if completed on schedule.
He said:
“The kind of support my colleagues gave to motion today is very good, not because I moved the motion, but because of the importance of such projects which are spread all over the country, so many places have similar projects that have been conceived many years back but have all gone moribund.
“The essence of this motion is not only to see to the completion of Kagara water project, but also to call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to as a matter of urgency take stock of all such projects that so much millions of naira has been expended and they are just lying waste.
He regretted that 27 years after the Dam which has the capacity of 100milion gallons of water per day has remained a pipe dream despite the huge millions already expended on the project.
Senator Musa said that Nigeria can only overcome food security if such projects like Kagara water project which would boost food production in the country is made to function.
He reminded Nigerians that the country cannot continue to remain the way the country is currently being run where the sinking of boreholes have become the order of the day. He therefore called on the federal government to create an agency whose sole responsibility will be to monitor the execution of all government projects.
“This is the 21st century, Nigeria has to move like other developed countries, we cannot continue to remain the way we are , boreholes are outdated. So we should move like others, we have all the required resources, the land mass, the population and other endowment,” he added..
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