The Director-General of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Clement Nze, says the worst is yet over, as federal agencies and state governments trade blame over flood disaster
JETHRO IBILEKE
Nigeria is one of the countries of the world most hit by the devastating flood that is currently ravaging the entire world, blamed largely on global warming. Although it produces less than one per cent of global warming, Nigeria is categorised as one of the top 10 most vulnerable counties experiencing the effects of climate change in the world, and it experienced one of the worst devastations. Experts described the 2022 flooding as the worst flood disaster ever to hit the country.
As of 14 October 2022, most parts of the27 of the 36 states and the federal capital territory, Abuja, were completely submerged in flood water, which was higher than what occurred on 29 September 2012. The worst hit were Kogi, Delta, and Bayelsa states, in the south-south; Anambra state in the southeast and Niger state in the northwest.
The excess rainfall was compounded by water released from Lagdo Dam across the Niger River in Cameroon.
Nigeria’s national policy document on climate change, published in 2020, states that floods have increased in recent years and that climate change is expected “to increase the frequency and intensity of severe weather events.” Unfortunately, however, relevant authorities at the state level have either failed to heed such forecasts or lack the infrastructure necessary to respond adequately to them.
DEVASTATING EFFECT
The widespread flooding caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighbouring Cameroon has resulted in unquantifiable losses across 27 states of the federation. Statistical figures from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development showed that as of Sunday, 16 October 2022, over 600 deaths had been recorded, over 2 million Nigerians displaced, thousands of others injured, close to a million hectares of farmlands have been submerged and about 59,000 homes damaged.
Also, hundreds of corpses were reportedly swept away from their graves in Bayelsa and Niger states. According to a resident of Mariga town of Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State, Mohammed Aliyu, River Mariga overflowed its banks towards the graveyard in the town, which led to the washing away of the corpses from their graves.
BLAME GAME:
Officials of the federal government agencies and the governments have continued to engage themselves in a blame game. Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State and the Managing Director of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Bashorun Askia Ogieh, accused the federal government of not doing enough to prevent the disaster.
Diri in a statewide broadcast last Tuesday, described the State as currently isolated from the rest of the country and faced with a humanitarian crisis, with food, medical provisions and energy now in short supply, describing the situation as “desperate and getting worse”. He added that critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads, bridges and schools, including the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, have been severely affected.
According to him, “Over the last few days, floods have overwhelmed our communities and severely impacted the lives and livelihood of our people. This is a natural disaster that has affected many other states of the Federation to various degrees. I have been on a tour of several of our communities to see first-hand the extent of the destruction. Our experience has shown that the flood water empties into our State.”
He pleaded with President Mohammadu Buhari to consider special grants to the state from the Stabilization Funds, Ecological Funds and Natural Resources Fund.
While also speaking to journalists last weekend, the DESOPADEC Chairman who noted that flood waters reached alarming heights in various communities affected, while others were completely cut-off, said: “As we speak, no official of the federal government has shown up here”.
Speaking in the same vein, a former federal commissioner for Information and south-south leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has taken a swipe at the federal government, asking it to stop blaming the Cameroonian government for being responsible for the problem. He said a responsible government would have taken steps to prevent the floods by building the Lagdo Dam in Benue State 10 years after the last disastrous flood that ravaged the country in 2012.
Clark noted that the attitude of not caring has reminded him of what happened some time ago when billions of naira were voted to dredge the River Niger, during the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) days and up till today, there is no sign of dredging in Bayelsa and Delta states. Clark who asked President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast in addressing the deplorable conditions of flood victims in the Niger Delta, just as he urged him not to abandon the people of the region, chided the federal government of its nonchalant attitude towards the plight of the citizens in the Niger Delta.
Responding to these allegations, the Director-General of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, NHSA, Clement Nze, accused authorities in the various states of not taking warnings from the forecasting agencies at the federal level. Nze who spoke on Arise TV Newsnight Nigeria last Sunday warned that the scare of flooding is yet to be over.
“Whatever we saw in Lokoja on that 4th of October and the continued release of water from other counties, particularly Cameroon, that is to say, we’re not yet out of it. That’s what we’ve been emphasizing and speaking about the early warnings given by the forecasting agencies at the federal level (the Nigeria Meteorological Agency, NiMet, and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, those warnings weren’t quite headed by the sub-nationals.
For example in Delta state, we saw the amphibious equipment that can work on waters, trying to excavate at that time of the year after the disaster has ravaged everywhere is like looking for the black sheep in the night, instead of in the afternoon. So, when those warnings were given, it is expected that the states will go to work when the flag had been raised.
“For instance, each time this forecast is been released to the public, the Honourable Minister for Water Resources, Suleman Adamu personally endosses letters to each state governor with a package. That one-page letter will contain the names of local government areas in that particular state and deliver appropriately to the government house. It is expected that those states run with it, but when these are given, people go to sleep, they don’t remember it, whereas each state has an emergency management agency,” Nze added.
BEYOND THE WARNING
Authorities of the federal government have warned actors of government in the various states to henceforth take steps to forestall a reoccurrence of the disaster. The D-G of NHSA, Clement Nze, warned that no one should expect the federal government to “travel from [Abuja] to Delta or Bayelsa and begin to do physical work in their environment after giving them the advice.
“We expect that instead of using those excavators to begin to clear under the rains at this time, in September. By the end of December, please go and do the update of your environment, you will see the signature of the floor, and it will tell you the extent it has rained, then take the appropriate measures: one, remove the structures that are impeded the free flow of water, widen drainage systems, don’t allow buildings on drainages and heed warnings of evacuating people from areas prone to flood.
The major factor responsible for flooding is the precipitation of rainfall. As indicated by NiMet, many cities experienced more than the normal rainfall, coupled with human activities, like the blockage of drainages. When you try on the side of caution, you heed the warning, even if at the end of the day it doesn’t come as predicted, you have nothing to lose,” he added.
Will the relevant authorities use the lesson learnt to prevent future occurrences? Time shall tell.