Mixed feelings as Jalingo records first rain in 2023

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The first rain in 2023 in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba State on Friday recorded a sigh of mixed feelings.

The heavy downpour, which lasted for about an hour, was observed to have gone a long way to reduce the intensive heat that had in the past few weeks enveloped the city and its environs.

Some residents expressed delight over the early rainfall recorded, stating that it would encourage early farming activities in the state.

But the residents would want the state government to put in place relevant measures that would halt any form of flood disasters in the state.

They recalled that last year when many houses and farmlands were submerged by floods because of heavy rain.

They insisted that the government must put in place early preventive measures, which will go a long way to assist farmers from losing their farm products to floods this year.

A farmer said some his colleagues were already warming up to cultivate their farmlands following the early rain, calling on the government to go the extra miles to block all flood leakages in the state.

“Personally, I am glad that we have recorded our first rain in Jalingo, and I pray it should continue like this so that at the end of the year we farmers will record bumper harvests.

“But our major fears now are the flood that the rains often come along with. So, it is my earnest belief that the government has the capacity to prevent floods from washing away our farms and houses.

“All we need now, is for our government to take the bull by the horns by assisting us to put drainages where they are needed so that floods will not come close to our farms and houses this year,” he said.

Similarly, motorists, especially commercial drivers, are as well not keeping mute over the absence of motorable roads in Jalingo metropolis.

Citing how they always find it difficult to access many parts of the state capital during the rainy season, grading such roads before the commencement of rain, they said, will assist in reducing the hardship they often encounter during the rainy season.

Roads which the drivers said are in dire need of attention within the state capital, are the Angwa-Kasa, Lassandi, TSBS/Deeper Life Church roads, among others.