The Managing Director of Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC), Abubakar Yelwa has called on relevant authorities to legislate a law that will make it mandatory for boat passengers across the country to always wear life jackets.

Yelwa, equally called for a law to restrain boat operators from operating at night.

The HYPPADEC’s boss spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, North Central Nigeria during the flag-off of the inauguration of the 2023 HYPPADEC subsidised fertilisers for 5, 795 farmers in the State.

The Commission’s boss blamed the high fatality recorded in Monday’s boat mishap in Patigi on the failure of the victims to use life jackets.

Yelwa lamented that the N1.6 billion life jackets that HYPPADEC procured last year for the use of boat passengers were not utilised.

Represented by the Director of Community in the agency, Dr Mahmud Umar, Yelwa said: “The fatality recorded in the unfortunate boat mishap in Patigi on Monday, this week was due to failure of the boat passengers to use life jackets. HYPPADEC spent N1.6bn on the procurement of life jackets for boat passengers last year.

“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,“ he lamented.

On the flag-off of the distribution of subsidised fertilisers, Yelwa said:” 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 fertility of 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.”

According to him, when the commission started the fertilizer distribution programme last year, it distributed over 50,000 bags of fertilizers to thousands of beneficiaries across the member states.

Yelwa also revealed that 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.

He disclosed further that 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).

According to him, 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, the State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said his administration would redouble efforts at ensuring the dredging of River Niger as a last solution to flooding in the riverine areas in the state.

Represented by the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Yakubu Salihu-Danladi, the governor thanked HYPPADEC for its interest in adequate food production in its catchment area.