Flood Everywhere And Inadequate Government Response

Floods are without doubt one of the most devastating natural disasters. Floods strike numerous regions in the world each year. In the last decades the trend in flood damages has been growing exponentially. This is a consequence of the increasing frequency of heavy rain, changes in upstream land-use and a continuously increasing concentration of population and assets in flood prone areas.

In general, less developed countries like Nigeria are the most vulnerable to floods, causing damages that significantly affect the national GDP. Flood Forecasting (FF) forms an important tool in reducing vulnerabilities and flood risk, this forms an important ingredient of the strategy to “live with floods”.

Preparedness and response actions of the various national disaster management authorities are highly dependent on the availability of accurate and timely meteorological and hydrological forecasting products; adequate and timely dissemination of flood warnings to  authorities responsible for protection of the general public.

It is in the light of this that three months ago, the Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Mustapha Ahmed warned that the agency had identified 233 local government areas in 32 states and FCT that would experience flooding in 2022. He spoke at a national consultative workshop on 2022 Flood Preparedness, Mitigation and Response organised by NEMA in Abuja. The workshop was one of the strategies to collectively prepare and provide strategies to strengthen flood risk mitigation and effective response.

“This followed the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction released by Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Annual Flood Outlook released by Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA). Efforts must be made to mitigate and respond effectively to flooding. “We have sent advisory letters and maps showing predicted flood risk areas in various states to the respective state governments.” He added that state emergency management agencies as well as local emergency management committees must be proactive. He said this would ensure effective and efficient flood preparedness, mitigation and response.

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It is now obvious that the government officials that attended the workshop merely entertained themselves because the reality on the ground since the recent flood disasters across the country do not show any level of preparedness for a flood disaster that was foretold. The magnitude of the flood this time is worse than in 2012 and has already claimed over 600 lives.

In fact, the Federal Government, on October 16, said the floods ravaging parts of the country have so far claimed 603 lives. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja. She said, “As of today, the number of persons affected nationwide is 2,504,095. The number of those displaced nationwide is 1,302,589; the number of injuries is 2,407, and the number of deaths is 603. “The number of houses that are partially damaged is 121,318; the number of houses that are damaged is 82,053; farmlands that are partially damaged, are 108,392 hectares, while damaged farmlands are 332,327 hectares. This is the statistics of today, October 16, 2022.” The unconscionable aspect is that the government at all levels failed woefully in putting preventive measures in place. This has left many complaining including some local and state government officials in parts of the country.

Authorities in Ahoada East and Ahoada West local government areas, the localities worst hit by the 2022 flood in Rivers State have cried out to the federal government, noting that federal government has shown no concern as the disaster sacks thousands of people, destroying property and livelihoods in the state. Ben Eke, Chairman Ahoada East Local Government (LG) and his Ahoada West counterpart, Hope Ikiriko spoke to journalists on stakeholders’ efforts at easing pains of flood Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their domains. Eke said, “This is the worst flood situation I’ve witnessed. Every community in Ahoada East is affected. We are talking about over 54 communities. Right now you can’t even access most of the communities. With respect to 2022 flood, federal has not done anything. Only yesterday, my Chief of Staff told me somebody called to introduce self as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Coordinator in Rivers state. We’ve not gotten any contact. NEMA has not done anything to the best of my knowledge.”

Hope Ikiriko, Ahoada West LG boss said, “I can tell you that we’re the worst heat. We have more than 70 communities, all of them severely

impacted. We have both riverine and upland communities, both having their own flood challenge. Thanks to the state government that is supporting us enormously, but federal government, no support, nothing, no calls, no interface, no communication.”

Because of lack of attention by the government to the plight of flood victims, the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, called on the federal government to formally declare a flood emergency and put intervention modalities in place. The LP candidate made the call in a post published on his verified Twitter handle on Saturday after visiting several communities affected by the ravaging floods in Anambra State. Obi has suspended his campaign because of the flood and had visited flood disaster areas in Benue and Bayelsa before moving to Anambra. He said tour of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps to assess the needs of victims displaced by flood will help the federal government and donor agencies on priority recovery projects.

Meanwhile Akwa Ibom and Delta state governments have chided the federal government for blaming states over the flood ravaging most parts of the country, admonishing it not to play politics with the worsening disaster. The two South-South states’ anger was that the Presidency challenged states to give account of how they spent amounts in excess of N1 trillion, allocated to them from the Ecological Fund to tackle floods and other ecological problems. Several states, including Benue and Kogi in the North-Central; Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta in the South-South, had cried out to the Federal Government for help as they battled to provide succour for victims of flood.

Presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, said: “Each of the three tiers, the local government, the state government and the Federal Government has a sizeable budget at its disposal, allocated monthly precisely for dealing with these state-level natural emergencies, as well as federal agencies dedicated to doing the same. “It is not clear why some of the state governments in question are not already drawing upon those funds to tackle the current emergency, and the general population is misguidedly calling on the Federal Government to intervene in all situations.

“If those sums of money are, for whatever reason, no longer available, the affected states and local councilsmust immediately contact the relevant authorities to explain what hashappened to those funds.”This column agrees that the federal and state governments must accountfor the ecological funds, which many feared may have been diverted in this election season when our leaders abandon governance and keep the public’s money for vote buying. However, the position of thepresidency has been faulted with the commissioner for information andstrategy, Akwa Ibom State, Mr Ini Ememobong, saying the All Progressives Congress, APC-led federal government should be ashamed of its ‘poor capacity’ to manage the emergency. “The current Federal Government should not politicise emergency management. It should be ashamed of its poor capacity to manage the emergency. Ask them the information management strategy put in place for this. Did this justhappen? Was there no warning? “They now blame the state governments. Pakistan is under water but the government is not trading blames. What management procedures did the Federal Government do in terms of communication?” he said.

This is obviously not the time to trade blames but to rise to the challenge of ameliorating the sufferings of Nigerians under the avoidable flood disasters. I hope that lessons will be learned from this and that one would not be forced to write about this problem next year.

The US Embassy Security Warning!

Nigerians woke up on Sunday to see warnings blaring on the social media and elsewhere that Abuja was likely to be attacked. This warningwas meant for US citizens but it quickly circulated countrywide.

Reports have it that the DSS also confirmed the possibility of such a terror attack and Abuja became a partial host town. Observers could tell that Abuja traffic was sparse on Monday (yesterday)! Abuja is foremost city of Nigeria and one hopes that the security agencies are working proactively to avert and prevent such! In that regard, thiscolumn calls on Nigerians to give all the support to security agenciesso that they can keep everyone safe. Such support is usually by way of information and vigilance.

MAY NIGERIA REBOUND