Since the appointment of Dr. Audu Echuseh, the Executive Secretary, Taraba State Emergency Management Agency (TSEMA), about a year ago, the agency has witnessed tremendous changes in response to emergencies and disaster situations in the state.
Precisely, on November 13th, 2024, Governor Agbu Kefas announced her appointment, where on November 19th of the same year, Dr. Echuseh officially resumed office, and in the next 26 days from today, the leader of the rapid response team in Taraba State and mother to all IDPs, migrants and other distressed persons will be exactly one year in office.
Understanding the place of development partners in tackling disaster, of which requires a multifaceted approach, Dr. Echuseh, quickly mapped out areas said to be prone to flood for the purpose planning, development and emergency response as well as an early warning system to inform communities of potential flood alert for precaution and necessary actions.
Unlike the previous years, where victims of floods undergo unimaginable trauma, with no hope or remedy to their plights, Dr. Echuseh came up with a long term plan and a solution designed to mitigate the flood situation, such that, even after the end of her tenure, successive administration will not ignore the template to control floods in the state. In fact, the level of neglect of human activities in response to emergency situations was a concern, that the TSEMA Executive Secretary had to engage communities on the need for tree planting, discouraging deforestation and other potentially risk factors to flood.
In the template designed by Dr. Echuseh, a new settlement for those in the riverbank and flood prone areas, was allocated to the people to move to higher and safer grounds with basic amenities for the affected communities. This was in addition to the evacuation and relocation of flood victims, creating awareness on flood production beforehand in all the local communities. For those who built on waterways and around the riverbanks, the state government adequately compensated them after an assessment of the value of properties.
Dr. Echuseh leadership at TSEMA has further repositioned the agency in line with its mandates to reduce disaster risk, emergency response, capacity building, public awareness resource management, research and technology among others, which is attributed to the minimal cases of flood disaster recorded in 2025.
From the 2025 rainfall and flood forecast as reflected in the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), issued by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA), Taraba would have been revaged by flood beyond imagination. If not for the bold and strategic response measures put in place by the Taraba State Government, through Dr Echuseh‘s emergency and disaster agency, the flood situation would have been worse than ever. Her unwaivering effort necessitated public awareness to the most flood prone communities in order to conscientious the people on the need to relocate to upland areas.
Painful, while others simply comply to the directive for safety, those who felt it‘s a ploy to confiscate their investments: houses, farmland and other properties, even when it was obvious of the looming danger, considering the reoccurring experiences, the people in the identified areas, who adamantly refused to heed to the agency‘s directive, now have a sad story to tell of the havoc that wrecked their belongings during the 2025 floods in Taraba State. This was even after the state government awesomely compensated those in those areas.
According to Dr. Echuseh, „Prior to the rainy season, the state government through the agency has identified safer places for the people to move to. In spite of government efforts on the precautionary measures in the event of flooding, there are those that deliberately refused to move to safer areas, while those in Jalingo (the state capital) were rented in apartments instead of camps, pending a recovery process.
„When it happens for those that deliberately did not move, you can deny the fact that you will allow the impact to be overwhelming on them. It is our mandate to take responsibility despite the negligence of the communities in question. When most of them complained about not having money to evacuate, the state government provided resources to facilitate their relocation to the safer areas.“
Dr. Echuseh, a resilient team player, who is committed in reducing the impact of flood, mostly caused by River Benue overflowing its banks, has ensure that no victims in all the IDPs are neglected, as she provided them with bags of rice, maize, cartons of Maggi, spaghettis, tomato paste, macaroni, salts, blankets, Matt‘s, mattresses, mosquito nets, bags of garri, wrappers and other yard materials as well as cash donations as temporary response to cushion their conditions.
Some of the high-risk areas, out of the 16 local governments identified for flood in Taraba State, included Karim-Lamido, Lau, Ardo-Kola, Gassol, Ibbi, Donga, Jalingo, Bali and Kurmi local government. And it was established that each of the affected local government have more than one or two Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
According to Dr. Echuseh Audu, in a media report gave an estimate of more 10,000 people affected by the flood in 2025, whereas over 1046 houses, 42,955 hectares of farmlands are destroyed by the flood, including other valuables such as economic trees, food crops, domestic animals among others.
Just within the last one year, the agency‘s Executive Secretary was also able to enhance the capacity of the emergency response team, through training and retaining, increased community and public awareness to flood risks and safety measures, strengthening partnership with development partners, relevant government agencies and other stakeholders in leveraging on their resources, experience and expertise in disaster management, which yielded positive impacts on the minimal level of damages recorded by flood in the state.
Few among the activities embarked upon, shortly after she resumed office on the 19 November was the creation of local emergency response team in the 168 wards of Taraba State, provision of relief materials in all the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, across the flood and conflict areas in the state. More importantly was the establishment of a search and rescue operation team during emergencies and disaster situations as well as the provision of life jackets to communities around the riverine for safety when necessary.
The successes recorded within the period under review would not have been possible without Dr. Echuseh sacrifice, who most often go out of her way to smile on the faces of the vulnerable members of the society, as exemplified in her recent birthday anniversary, where about 110 flood Victims in Mayo-Gwoi primary school in Jalingo local government have benefited from her personal donation of relief materials to alleviate their sufferings. This was just as she facilitated the treatment of two children at the Al‘amin Academy IDP camp in Jalingo, Fatima Saleh, aged 2 years and Muhammad Umar of the same age group, who suffered from severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), malaria and persistent cough and high fever induced loss of sight and hearing due to the flood at the Federal Medical Center, Jalingo.
Also, understanding the peculiarity of Taraba State, Dr. Echuseh came up with an initiative in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to identify early warning systems for prompt actions as well as coordinated emergency response. She has been in constant touch with NEMA in providing valuable insights into rainfall pattern and flood scenarios in the state, thereby leveraging on the 2025 Climate Related Risk Management Implications, Preparedness, Mitigations Actions template, which serves as a guide to TSEMA in strengthening community resilience for flood risks reduction, building capacity of local emergency responder, and in developing disaster mitigation strategies.
These and many more records are some of the purposeful leadership provided by the agency Executive Secretary.
TSEMA‘s swift response to critical conditions is instrumental to the successes recorded in the last one year of Dr. Echuseh leadership, as an approach, from onset aligned with global best practices in responding and managing disasters and emergency cases in the State. The remarkable record was as a result of the selfless acts, which saved many from counting losses in this year‘s raining season, but has restored hope across identified communities, leading Taraba State to a near zero flood zone.
For driving the dream of Governor Agbu Kefas with passion, commitment, and resilience, it is now clear that Dr. Echuseh is determined to change the flood narrative by the end of her tenure at TSEMA.
