The annual flood challenges

I looked into the archives a few days ago. Here is what I found.

In 2012, our country experienced the worst flooding and flood disaster in its history up to that point in time. It affected 27 out of the 36 states and Abuja. In a country rather allergic to statistics, the experts managed to provide us with this statistical evidence of the havoc wrecked by the flood in the 27 affected states: 300 lives lost; over two million people displaced; some 597,476 houses destroyed; livestock were lost; farmlands and crops were washed away, and thousands of mostly peasant farmers were made destitute and homeless in the time it took to say flood.

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It was a national disaster. President Goodluck needed no one to tell him that. He recognised it and appreciated what it portended for the country and the people. He rose to the occasion in one of the shining moments in his presidency. He approached the problem rather methodically by first setting up a presidential technical committee and directed them to visit all the affected states to fully assess the impact of the floods, the extent of the damages to persons and properties, and advise the government on the steps it should take to assist the victims in their rehabilitation. The committee submitted an interim report to the president which he shared with state governors as well as the national assembly.

In his nation-wide radio and television broadcast Jonathan announced two major decisions to deal with the problem. One, was “the immediate provision of a total of N17.6 billion in direct financial assistance to the affected the states and some federal agencies responsible for disaster management. The states will receive a total of N13.3 billion while the federal agencies will receive N4.3 billion.”

Two, he set up of “a National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation to assist the federal government to raise funds to mitigate the pains and ensure effective post-impact rehabilitation of victims.” 

Jonathan constituted a 34-person national committee on flood relief and rehabilitation jointly chaired by Africa’s richest man and Nigeria’s savviest businessman and investor, Aliko Dangote, and a senior lawyer and political activist, Olisa Agbakoba. The committee had illustrious Nigerian businessmen with deep pockets; men willing to give that their less fortunate compatriots might do better than merely exist on the face of the earth. Jonathan charged the committee with raising the needed funds to tackle its heady challenges.

Multi-billionaire, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr, is in charge of fund raising. Tony Elumelu and Jim Ovia, both of whom are reputable bankers are also on the committee. Dangote announced the committee would raise N100 billion to provide relief to people in the affected 27 states. At its inauguration, the committee raised an impressive N11.35 billion. Dangote and the federal government donated N2.5 billion each, Adenuga gave N500 million while Arthur Eze, Elumelu and Ovia donated N1million each. Other members and other Nigerians chipped in – and the purse of the committee bulged with precious Naira. They meant business.

I have gone to this extent to tell the story of the committee to make some important points about the annual flood challenges dreaded by people living in flood prone areas of the country. Jonathan’s response to what was clearly a national disaster was impressive. The steps he took could not be faulted. The committee members shared his determination to walk the talk. Dangote told the press: “We will go round and see what needs to be done and also what the government should do so that this thing does not reoccur again.” 

I suppose the committee has been working hard without exposing itself to the klieg lights and so not much is publicly known about what it has done or is doing to meet the annual flood challenges. However, it is not unfair to say that the momentum generated by Jonathan has not been fully sustained; thus, “this thing” has reoccurred every year in various states of the federation with floods leaving woes and the gnashing of teeth in homes, particularly those of the most vulnerable among us. 

We are back to the 2012 flood challenges. The same 27 states are once more being ravaged by floods. It may get worse. The disaster management agency has warned of flooding with “serious consequences” in at least 12 states. Mustapha Habib Ahmed, head of the agency, advised “all the governments of the frontline states to move away communities at risk of inundation, identify safe higher grounds for evacuation of persons and prepare adequate stockpiles of food and non-food items.”

His advice might have come too late as exemplified by the flood disasters in Benue, Jigawa and Bayelsa, among other states. Yusuf Sani Babura, head of the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency told a press interviewer: “We are facing devastating floods beyond our control.”  In Benue State, more than 110,000 in 24 communities are said to have been displaced by flood. Boniface Ortese, the executive secretary of the state’s emergency management agency, said over 2,769 households are affected in various parts of the state. 

The presidential committee headed by Dangote, has been generous in assisting the victims of the floods nationwide. It gave N250 million to the victims in Benue, N150 million to those of Anambra State; N118 million to NEMA in addition to the N1.6 billion given by the federal government to provide food and non-food relief materials to the flood victims in Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Abuja FCT, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau and Sokoto.

This generosity is within the mandate of the committee. Of greater interest to me is that it says it is executing various projects in 24 states to help the states respond to emergencies, including floods. We do not know what those projects are but it is fair to suppose that they are projects that will benefit the people and help the nation tackle these devastating annual challenges. Natural disasters have minds of their own and cannot in truth be prevented. But given proper planning and timely response, their impact can be minimized on the country and its people.

Nigeria has a pretty poor record of preparedness for emergencies such as natural or man-made disasters. Climate change is a global challenge. It is the major cause of floods in various parts of the world. But long before the rest of the world woke up to the inclement weather changes, we have had to do deal with ecological problems. Gully erosion has been as challenging as the annual floods in many of the southern states in the country with perhaps Anambra holding the candle to no other state.

The ecological fund office was set up in the office of the secretary to the government of the federation in 1985. It is funded with one per cent allocation or derivation from the federation account. This fund has gone the way of all good intentions, thanks to corruption in its administration by the state governments. If you add the environmental and the ecological problems to the annual flood challenges, your skin crawls with ticks of anxiety.