It is 9am and Ndagi is set to go make ends meet with his new job.
Although a fisherman, Ndagi’s new job is away from the net. It is to cross people in his wooden canoe across the flooded roads to their houses or camps. as he paddles through, each trip takes him through flooded houses rendered uninhabitable by the flood.
Deep in the heart of the water is an Oasis where some locals have made camp. With makeshift thatch huts, they have created a small community of campers as they await the rage of the water to calm from their village.
As the River Niger and Benue gives way to the water, the confluence city, Lokoja is bathed in this large pool of raging water with Shops and business places soaking in the water. But The flood that has created a new source of livelihood for Ndagi is the same flood that has taken the source of livelihood of so many more and left them frustrated.
Apart from those displaced from their homes by the flood, more than 20 kilometers away from Lokoja, the flood wrecks more havoc. Here the flood takes over the road, leaving many stranded. This road leads to Abuja and is the access route through Kogi state to several states in the south east, south west, south south and the North. But these people are held in a gridlock. They have been on the road for days.
Some have been held up here for 3days, others 4days and some have been on the road for 7days on journeys that usually would take a maximum of 24hours.
They’re tired, frustrated and some even broke having spent all they had.
So high has the water come that it has covered nearly 80% of the height of the concrete pillars of this bridge; The Murtala Muhammed Bridge, known to the locals as Jamata Bridge.
As over 1000 trucks queue up in this gridlock, it becomes clear, that intervention must be far reaching.
If the water has come to this level on this bridge, caution warns that since natural disasters are unpredictable, chances are that some day, flood could cover the bridge. This makes a strong case for a visionary intervention by the Federal Government that’ll forestall any such from happening.
If water crossing the road has caused this much damage, now imagine what damage it’ll cause if it sweeps over the bridge.
This is important not to the people of Kogi state per se but to Nigeria considering the economic value Kogi state has to Nigeria being the link between the north and the south, connecting more states than any other state in Nigeria.
#flood #kogistate #disaster
