By Paul Nwosu
Our country’s annual tragedy of rampaging flooding is at its worst this year. It is estimated that more than 300 persons have been killed by the floods that are somewhat beyond control. Out of Nigeria's 36 states, 27 are battling with the floods. Even Abuja is under threat of the flood sweeping from Kogi State capital, Lokoja. Large number families have been affected, and displaced persons keep increasing. Thousands of hectares of farmland have been destroyed. Hunger is a clear and present danger as the agriculture chain has been grossly disrupted.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is at its wits end while the State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) can hardly cope with the onslaught of water. Nigeria is indeed facing a beyond-the-pale disaster. The spokesperson of NEMA, Manzo Ezekiel, has stressed that “this is the highest we ever had since 2012”.
It has now become a recurrent factor that Nigeria records flooding every year.
This is almost always as a
result of the non-implementation of environmental guidelines, lack of preventive
infrastructure and the lackluster attitude in tackling the flood menace over
the years. It is as though the authorities would never take pre-emptive
measures to address the flooding. They are always caught napping once the
floods appear. It is always a blame game for the authorities who are quick to
attribute the yearly flood to water overflowing from some local rivers, unusual
rainfalls and the release of excess water from Lagdo Dam in neighbouring
Cameroon’s northern region.
The issue
of the release of water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon is a twice-told story that
needs to be tackled now at the highest diplomatic level between Nigeria and
Cameroon. It flies in the face of reason that Cameroon officialdom acts as they
are unaware of the havoc wreaked on Nigeria by flooding waters coming from
their dam. The heart-rending economic devastation and hardship must not
continue. The Federal Government needs to take measures economically,
politically, and diplomatically to check Cameroon’s obvious disregard for Nigerian
lives, property and means of livelihood.
On the local front, the Nigeria
Hydrological Services Agency had predicted more floods in this year than last
year due to “excessive rainfalls.” NEMA has also alerted states of “serious
consequences” in the weeks and months ahead. Two of the country’s dams have
also started to overflow. According to NEMA’s Mustapha Habib Ahmed, “I want to
advise all the governments of the frontline states to move away communities at
risk of inundation, identify safe higher grounds for evacuation of persons and
preposition adequate stockpiles of food and non-food items.”
The
reports available show that in Jigawa State in the North West, floods killed
more than 20 people in the past week, as revealed by Yusuf Sani Babura, head of
the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency. Beyond that, Jigawa has recorded
91 deaths from flooding this year, more than any state in the country. Babura
stated sadly: “We are facing devastating floods beyond our control. We have
tried our best and we couldn’t stop it.”
In
Anambra State, NEMA has just confirmed the death of one Ginikanwa Izuoba in the
Enugu-Otu, Aguleri flood. The acting state coordinator of the agency in
Anambra, Mr. Thickman Tanimu, said that Izuoba died when her house collapsed
due to the impact of the flood.
Tanimu
has further revealed that at least 651,053 persons in six local government
areas of Anambra State have so far been displaced by flooding. From NEMAs
record on Anambra, Ogbaru has the highest number of victims, with 286,000
persons. Anambra West and East local government areas (LGAs) follow with
237,000 and 103,000 victims, respectively. Awka North LGA has 10,345 victims,
while Ayamelum has 9,240 flood cases, with 5,468 displaced persons.
NEMA, accompanied by officials
of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), have visited Umueze-Anam,
Mkpunando, Umunteze, Igbedo, Inoma Ifite-Ogwari, in Anambra East, and Anyamelum
LGAs. Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo has equally visited all the affected areas
and constituted a task force comprising the Deputy Governor, Commissioners for
Local Government, Health, Power and Water Resources to immediately engage the
displaced people and ensure that the essential items and services they required
are provided.
Tanimu of
NEMA reports thus: The assessment team observed that the flood has submerged
houses, farmlands, schools, health centres, police stations, churches and other
critical infrastructure. We did the assessment tour with a boat because the
access roads to the communities have been submerged by flood water.
Tanimu
had some words of commendation for Anambra SEMA for taking some proactive
measures to mitigate the impact of the disaster. Some of the measures
undertaken included the identification of 13 Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP)
camps, recruitment of camp managers and support staff, and activation of health
workers to work with the people in the camps. The camps so far activated are
the Ifite-Ogwari and Igbakwu Health Centres.
In the
words of Tanimu, “the assessment tour is the first step the Federal Government
has to take. We have reported our findings to the management of the agency and
based on that, they can now deploy relief materials as appropriate. We once
again advise villagers to move to the holding camps to avert further loss of
lives.
There is a clear emergency in
the land. Schools in the riverine communities have been shut. There is the
urgent need to supply clothing, diapers, beddings, sanitary materials, sundry
food items, and other relief materials to salvage a very bad situation that the
states cannot tackle alone.
Since
each of the affected states cannot tackle the flooding menace on their own, the
Federal Government should step in and treat matter it as a national emergency.
Since the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon is a major factor in the flooding, the
government should officially communicate the level of economic and social
devastation caused by the flood to the Cameroonian government.
Nigerian
government should call for a bilateral committee with Cameroon to holistically
address the indiscretion of recklessly unleashing water on Nigerians every
year. This is not the first time that Nigeria has suffered consequences of a
natural disaster coming from Cameroon. Back in time, on August 21, 1986, Lake
Nyos in Northwest Cameroon erupted triggering the release of tons of carbon
dioxide which suffocated and killed 1,746 people and putting the lives of
persons living in Nigeria's frontline states in grave danger.
On
December 20, 2005, the same Lake Nyos endangered some 300,000 lives yet again.
But a degassing system has since been installed at the lake to reduce the
concentration of carbon dioxide in the water. In September 2012, there were
fears that Lake Nyos Dam may collapse and lead to the ruination of many
Nigerian states through excessive flooding.
Just the same way the murderous
gas from Lake Nyos was reined in, its not impossible that the devastating body
of water dumped on Nigerians by Cameroon can be checked by a bilateral panel of
flooding from both countries. The two countries must necessarily come together
to address the issue of over flooding Lagdo Dam once and for all.
Nigeria can no longer afford to
act the big African brother and continue to die in silence while her
neighbour’s asset destroys her people and their means of livelihood in this
difficult time.
*Sir Paul Nwosu is Anambra State Commissioner for Information.
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