DG Allumaga.

NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia

The Nasarawa State government, through the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, is providing building materials to victims of flood and fire disasters in more than thirteen communities in the State. This was made known by the Director General of the agency, Zakari Allumaga during a chat with reporters in Lafia, on Thursday. He noted that the State government received N3,000,000,000 (three billion naira) from the Federal government to help resettle those who lost houses and valuables during the last flooding season. He particularly listed communities along the banks of the Benue River, especially in Toto, Doma, Awe and Obi local government areas. Vice President Kashim Shettima flagged off the distribution of the items last week.

The DG noted that beneficiaries have been enumerated following visitations to the affected sites. “About thirteen to seventeen communities. We went to the communities with the IOM, NEMA, Red Cross and then NASEMA. Four organisations went there together to take stock of what happened. We have captured biometrics and documented all the affected buildings,” he noted in response to questions about how his Agency arrived at the data.

He said the government’s efforts to resettle the people living in flood-prone communities have not yielded fruits. This is because the victims cite their natural connection to their ancestral homes: “And in the process of the sensitization, we tell them about the dangers of even going back. You must make them appreciate that going back to the place is a big problem. That is a very difficult area. They wouldn’t want to hear that. Like in Nasarawa State, they have already taken money from people so they know about money. So, what they do is tell you it is a tactical way of getting them out of their land so that you can sell it to investors. I find the complaint about the ancestral home trivial. Where is the ancestor himself?”

The SEMA boss added that his Agency undertakes lots of advocacy visits to keep the people aware of the likelihood of the danger of living on river banks “First of all you do sensitization in the areas affected. And then one of the things that is serious about flood disaster is that you try to get to the people and discuss with them and agree on temporary settlement areas so that when it happens, they “can move to some temporary camps after which, when it dries, they could come back. We are always giving a lot of information about nature, farming, shifting cultivation together with the Ministry of Agriculture. We have given them a lot of this information. There are lots of agricultural programmes that are on the ground right now and most of them succeed in high-density water areas. So, we advise them to take those.

Dr Allumaga disclosed that although humanitarian crises in the form of herder-farmer clashes had abated, intra-communal conflicts are becoming a source of concern to the government. “The drastic reduction [in violent conflict] is particularly in the area of humanitarian crisis – where you find one community up against another. And then now it has surfaced or it is beginning to show its ugly head, by one community, the same tribe, the same brothers and sisters fighting themselves very drastically. It is no longer a palatable issue and shouldn’t be one that anybody should condone at all. I am particularly in this case referring to the crises in Aholand, I’m talking about the crises in Udege.

Although he noted the conflict between farmers and herders has cooled, he pointed out that the failure to adopt the ranching system of cattle rearing implies that the reprieve will last only for a while.