09. WATER LOGS CLEARANCE

The construction of Shiroro, Kainji and Jebba dams by the Federal Government so many years ago has made it compulsory for the relocation of communities on the banks of Rivers Niger and Kaduna from their ancestral homeland to pave way for the operations of the dams.

People of the affected communities were provided with alternative places to live in, but these places were not as conducive and befitting for people who have made such a huge sacrifice for national development. They were exposed to ecological and socioeconomic challenges, better described as a struggle to earn means of livelihood from the waters without commiserate infrastructure and social safety net to accommodate their emerging needs in the face of absolute uncertainty. They were promised development and hoped and aspire for it instead they were made to experience untold hardship due to lack of basic necessities of life. Ecological menace, loss of lives farmlands, and properties were the order of the day as a result of persistent flooding.

These and other challenges slated above necessitated the need for the establishment of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, with a view to reducing hardship experienced by communities living upstream and downstream of the Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro dams within the commission’s area of operations. In the year 2000, executive Governors of Niger, Kogi, Kwara, and other stakeholders became committed towards the eventual take-off of the commission in order to address these challenges arising from the operations of the hydroelectric dams in Nigeria. However, after a decade of struggle in the year 2010, the HYPPADEC bill was signed into law.