Federal Government, Apathy And Flood In Niger Delta

 By Braeyi Ekiye 

Understanding how to use political power constructively makes a difference in leadership. Therefore, political power and the use of it can be broken into the negative and the positive. Such use of positive political power, imbued with the desire to evoke regulatory command in the process of giving leadership, is capable of galvanising a people to achieve set goals.

Furthermore, such use of power has the kinetic energy of firing previously frustrated and helpless people during times of harrowing challenges, such as the recent flood in parts of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, including the oil and gas rich Bayelsa State. 

I doubt if any Nigerian leader led from the front in this regard as the governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri did when the flood came rushing into the state like a thief, consuming properties, destabilising human traffic, and causing dislocations of unimaginable proportion. Bayelsa State was cut off completely from her neighbouring states to the east and to the west.

Citizens were displaced, even as most of the state’s population in the eight local government areas were suddenly displaced and became internally displaced persons (IDP). Thank God, Governor Douye Diri stood doggedly and, imbued with the desire for social justice, faced the odds of the floods by traversing the nooks and crannies of the state, in spite of the overwhelming and raging floods.

Bayelsans and the international community witnessed the governor and his aides walking and swimming through the flood-ravaged environment. At some point, he had to resort to the use of canoes in his on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation in the state.

It was a devastation that history would never forget in the region’s centuries-old flood experience. This is not to mention the loss of valuable lives, farmlands, and properties, the dislocation of communities, and the closure of schools due to the flood. The flood has yet to recede enough for normal life to resume across the eight local governments in the state.

Yet, Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, glibly made very offensive and provoking comments on the flood situation in Bayelsa State. Madam Farouq, who was in the heart of the floods, said that Bayelsa State was not among the top ten most affected states by the 2022 flood that is still ravaging some of the states in the country, including Bayelsa State.

Indeed, Minister Farouq dared the tiger’s tail, and she got the expected barrage of reactions in the form of strong criticisms against her unguarded and provocative utterances in her assessment of the flood situation in Bayelsa State, nay, in states across the Niger Delta region.

Top among these reactions were those from the Bayelsa State Government, Niger Delta members of the House of Representatives, the Bayelsa State Elders Forum, members of the State Traditional Rulers Council, and the Ijaw National Congress, INC. All of these institutions condemned the minister in very strong terms for her unthoughtful comments and called on the Federal Government and ministries saddled with the responsibility of responding to national emergencies of the magnitude of this year’s flood, to rise to their calling by promptly responding to what they described, as a national emergency.

In fact, the INC president, Professor Benjamin Okaba, described Minister Farouq as a disaster instead of a disaster manager. The Bayelsa State Government’s statement was followed by a breakdown of flood displaced persons, those affected and injured, the number of deaths, partially damaged houses, farmlands, and schools in each of the state’s eight local government areas.

From the data prepared and published by the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency (BYSEMA), the total number of flood affected persons in the state was recorded as three hundred and twenty seven thousand, eight hundred and sixteen (327,816), while the number of displaced persons was put at one million, two hundred and ten thousand, one hundred and eighty three (1, 210, 183). 

The number of injured was recorded 382, while the number of deaths was 96. The number of houses totally damaged was 864, while houses partially damaged had a score of  3205. Farmlands totally damaged 11,412, while schools partially and totally destroyed were recorded as 95 and 62 respectively. Alagoa A. Morris, a frontline environmentalist, has also condemned Minister Farouq’s unguarded statement concerning the flood that has badly ravaged the state.

He swiped: “Her bombshell should be condemned, and condemned it should be.” Alagoa, on the other hand, said it was unfortunate that the Bayelsa State Government had done nothing substantial to be applauded in terms of flood and erosion control in the state since its inception. He regretted that a committee formed by former Governor Seriake Dickson Restoration Administration on January 16, 2012, at the Chevron KS Endeavor Apooi facility to address this threat was still in the works.

Alagoa disapproved of the Federal and State Government’s statistics collated on the ravaging flood in some parts of the country, including Bayelsa State, He said the statistics were horribly dished out, and therefore cannot be accurate or accepted for any reason for now, for, as he puts it: “Because every aspect of the impact needs to be taken into consideration if justice should be done on the subject matter.

Neither states nor the federal government can give accurate data on losses as per public, corporate, and individual losses at this point in time.” He therefore said, “Anything cooked up now is a mere estimate, at best, or politically laced with the Nigerian factor. It is worth noting that Minister Farouq’s offensive, and insensitive statement laced with impunity ignored the fact that Nigeria’s petro-dollar spinner, the Gbarain-Ubie Gas Gathering Plant in Bayelsa State, with one billion standard cubic feet of gas and up to 7,000 barrels of oil per day and the largest in West Africa, was severely damaged by the floods. 

This therefore, necessitated the shutting down of the Nigerian Natural Gas Plant’s (NLNG) at Bony Island. Apart from this expensive national asset under the scourge of the flood, Bayelsa’s only link road, the east-west road, has been cut off both from the western and eastern flanks. 

* Ekiye, publisher of EnvironmentWatch, wrote from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.