The year 2012 has brought with it
the worst weather calendar in the history of Nigeria's existence as a
geographical and/or geopolitical territory since the amalgation of the Southern
and Northern Protectorates by the then British colonial masters in 1914 led by
the late Lord Lugard.
Still smarting from the unfortunate
realisation that the year 2012 is one in which the largest number of innocent
Nigerians have so far been killed in the most gruesome of fashions by armed
Islamic extremists waging a war of attrition against the Nigerian State and
perceived religious enemies made up essentially of innocent Christians and
moderate Moslems, Nigeria's weather has become so inclement and vicious in
fatalities so much so that at the last count over one thousand persons have
lost their lives from massive floods that are said to have emanated from the
South Eastern Nigerian neighboring country of Cameroon when the dam was
reportedly opened by the Government of Cameroon to ease up the excessive water
threatening the integrity of the dam.
The release of the dam water from
Cameroon has resulted in the dangerous massive overflow of the River Niger in
Nigeria thereby creating weather nightmares and flash floodings across the
communities that border both the River Niger and the Benue River.
Hundreds of thousands of farmlands
have been submerged in places like Lokoja and other adjourning communities in
Kogi Sate, several communities in Anambra, Adamawa, Benue States have also
suffered and millions of Nigerians mainly farmers and travelers are now passing
through the horrific and horrendous ordeals of being swept away by the massive
floods.
Another equally dangerous and
potentially damaging effect of the current massive submerging of farmlands from
the floods is that sooner rather than later, Nigerians may be subjected to the
untold hardship of food insecurity because, according to experts, a lot of the
crops planted by the affected farmers all across the country do not have the
capacity to withstand the massive overflow of water from the Cameroon dam.
There is also widely circulated
report that 40 communities near the Sokoto Dam in Sokoto State would
surely experience submerging of their communal farmlands when eventually
water is released from the dam as is the usual practice every year because the
Nigerian Government has not thought it wise to build dry dams all across
Nigeria especially around riverine communities bordering River Niger and Benue
to absorb the overflow of flood water from the Cameroon dam whenever the
Cameroonian authority releases water from that dam or from the Sokoto dam. Last
year, thousands of persons lost their lives in Sokoto because of flood waters
from the release of dam water. The philanthropist Alhaji Aliko Dangote was seen
on national television sharing relief materials to affected Nigerians in the
last year's Sokoto floods and even the devastating flash floods in Ibadan, Oyo
State same year.
The natural outcome of the ongoing
flooding all across Nigeria is that the National Emergency Management Agency of
Nigeria [NEMA] is currently over burdened and since this very proactive and
very vibrant agency of the Federal Government is not assisted by any existing
emergency management agencies of the thirty six states and the over seven hundred
local Government areas in a large nation like Nigeria, the National Emergency
Management Agency [NEMA] understandably can not humanly speaking handle
the enormous challenges occasioned by these spectacular natural and unnatural
disaster that have befallen our great nation.
I will return to the strategic
role being played by the National Emergency Management Agency[NEMA] and the
need for the State Governments and the Local Council administrations in Nigeria
to quickly complement the effort of this workoholic Federal Agency by
establishing and funding proactive and viable disaster/emergency management and
rescue agencies in their areas of jurisdiction to control disaster at their
local areas.
But first let me point the attention
of my readers to the present and clear dangers posed to Nigeria and Nigerians
by the monumental and massive floods all across the six geopolitical areas of
the Nigerian nation and to try to suggest some workably longstanding and
sustainable palliatives and measures through which Nigeria and Nigerians can
competently be prepared to face these kinds of challenges in the nearest
future.
There is a global fact that
scientists and weather scholars have fingered Nigeria as one of the places
whereby the effects and consequences of climate change would be severe because
of the comprehensive indiscipline and lack of compliance to both urban/town
planning and good sanitation attitudes by Nigerians and the poor implementation
and/or enforcement of urban/regional and town planning laws and statutes that
are articulated and promulgated by the Nigerian legislatures at the National
and State levels to guide against natural and unnatural/man-made disasters.
Paul Shaba Marley, a Professor of
Crop Production and the Managing Director of the Upper Niger River Basin
Development Authority recently predicted that Nigeria could face imminent food
insecurity and crisis occasioned by the perennial flooding being experienced
across Nigeria this year.
His words; "Flooding is a
threat to national food security programme of the Federal Government and the
signal to possible food scarcity next year due to washing away of many
farmlands, especially in the North of Nigeria."
According to this erudite scholar,
the current volume of flood water in the submerged farmlands is inimical to the
growth of cereal crops and crop production generally and except the water
levels rescinds in those affected submerged farmlands, especially in places
where cereals were grown in the Northern Nigerian region, the nation will
inevitably experience grave food shortage because according to him, cereals
have low water tolerance.
The Professor of Crop Science spoke
with media workers in Minna, Niger State.
The Nigerian press quoted Professor
Marley as stating thus; "There is no doubting the fact that flooding is a
threat to the food security of Nigeria. Except for Rice that is highly tolerant
of water, other cereals are not".
The Agricultural crop expert further
stated thus; "Horticultural crops and other food crops in the flood
affected areas are being lost and these will cause big problems in food
production next year because it may take long for the water to rescind".
Experts say that flood defined as
the overflow of water that submerges land may be controlled effectively by
flood control reservations and dry dams. Experts say that in many countries,
rivers are exposed to the dangers of floods and are often carefully managed.
From Wikipedia the online
Encyclopedia we can learn that defences such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and
weirs are used to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. When these defences
fail, experts are of the knowledgeable opinion that emergency measures such as
sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used.
Experts say that a weir also known
as a low head dam is most often used to create mill pounds.
But in Nigeria with 'fire
brigade' and very poor emergency preparedness and infrastructure, it is not
known how many of these flood control measures have been deployed by the
Federal and Governments of the thirty six states of the Federation and the many
unviable and dysfunctional local council areas. President Jonathan recently
jetted out of the country to attend the United Nations sessions amidst the
widening threats to lives and property of Nigerians caused by the massive flood
waters that have effectively blocked a major national road network that
connects the political capital of Nigeria with the rest of the country in the
Southern segments of the large landmass that make up Nigeria.
Experts in Nigeria have also
attributed the floods across Nigeria to poor town/urban and regional planning
and the lack of readiness of Government agencies to transparently enforce laws
against building houses on water ways. Why for instance are the Universities in
Nigeria not sufficiently funded to set up research centers on
urban/regional and town plannings and why are the Federal ministry of Justice
and the state ministries of justice not in the forefront of the fight against
abuses of the laws promulgated to safeguard the health of our environment?
Why for instance is the Federal
Capital Territory Administration under the current Minister going ahead with
the deliberate abuse of the Green Areas by allocating Green Areas to some
influential business executives under the guise of attracting developers to
open up new satellite districts?
Another question is why most
Nigerians would build their living structures on water ways and why the
respective State Government never take remedial and preventive actions to
relocate their people in these dangerous water ways before the flood waters
arrived even with the widespread announcement in popular mass media by the
National Emergency Management Agency?
Writing under the theme of what is
flood?, the writers of the article in Wikipedia stated thus; "While flood
damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies
of water, since time out of mind, people have lived and worked by the water to
seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and
commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened
by flood damage is evidence that the perceive value of living near the water
exceeds the cost of the repeated periodic flooding".
I doubt however whether most
Nigerians that have lost loved ones and property due to floodings made
worst by the absence of emergency control measures, will forget
the monumental damage suffered by them this year alone.
For the first time in recent
recorded history, the ever busy Abuja-Lokoja Road which is a major link road
from the Northern Nigeria to Southern Nigeria has been cut off by the floods
that have submerged major towns and cities in Kogi State forcing the Federal
Roads Safety Commission [FRSC] to ask motorists coming from both ends of
the divide to switch over to other routes that would take longer period of
time to get to their desired destination from and to Abuja and other parts of
the country.
Many locals in Kogi State are said
to have taken refuge on tree tops even as the state and Federal Government
have done nothing tangible to resolve this dangerous national emergency.
What the Federal Government has done
is to take the easy and unviable solution of constituting a national emergency
committee made up of relevant Federal agencies charged with emergency and
rescue mandates such as the National Emergency management Agency to assess the
extent of damage caused by the floods but the affected populace are left to
their unfortunate fate. What a country?
This tepid and illiterate measure
adopted by the Federal Government of Nigeria is unworkable and at best is
cosmetic. Worst still, because of the collapse of Federal Road
infrastructure all across Nigeria and especially in the South East, the
problems occasioned by the flood waters have become ever more complex due to
absence of alternative viable roads whereby travelers could follow.
Nigerian Government at all
levels need to immediately activate workable mechanism for emergency and
disaster management strategies and to immediately commence the establishment of
functional disaster management agencies in the states and local Government
areas.
Government needs to adequately fund
the National Emergency Management Agency [NEMA] to double her activities
towards setting up functional national emergency/disaster volunteers' corps to
teach Nigerian youths the different ramifications of disaster management in
Nigeria.
The National and State legislatures
should also introduce legal and legislative framework for the setting up of
state emergency/disaster management volunteer corps to recruit hundreds of
thousands of unemployed school leavers and graduates to carry out the national
assignment of enlightening Nigerians on how best to prevent man-made disasters
and strategies to protect their lives and property from the deadly consequences
of disasters/emergency situation and these large army of youth can be deployed
to plant economic trees all across Nigeria to protect our nation from the
notorious consequences of climate change.
Multinational companies and other
corporate bodies should be encouraged to contribute certain percentage of their
profits as corporate social responsibility towards the funding of the proposed
National disaster/emergency management volunteers' corps to be coordinated by
the National Emergency Management Agency [NEMA].
Again, technical ministries and
agencies like the Federal and state ministries of Environment and the Nigerian
Meteorological Agency must be staffed with competent and qualifies Nigerian
experts to properly carry out their constitutional mandate because the Federal
Ministry of Environment with a career politician as minister has failed to play
active role in the control of the ongoing massive floods all across Nigeria
thereby leaving the burden to be carried alone by the National Emergency
Management Agency.
Broadcasting outfits and the print
media should also focus more airtime and print space on weather reports
to keep Nigerians abreast of the current weather situation. Civil society
organizations, Community based bodies and faith based bodies also have critical
roles to play in this regard.
Nigerian youths should also be
sponsored to study weather related courses n the Universities so that Nigeria
will be ready in the future with the required manpower to withstand the threats
pose by climate change.
+Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human
Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria, blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
