General Secretary of Campaign for Democracy (CD), Pastor Ifeanyi Odili, has called on the Federal Government to be proactive on the issue of climate change to avoid the loss of more lives as flooding continues to ravage communities in the country in recent times.
Odili made the call on Monday in a statement made available to newsmen, noting that over 500 people had been killed while over 500,000 people had been displaced through flood disasters so far recorded across Nigeria.
CD Secretary-General said this against the backdrop of his country home in Umuochi, Obaluchi in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State, having been swept away by flood due to heavy rain and the opening of Cameroonian Dam.
This was just as he berated the Federal Government for not being proactive in addressing the flooding issue, saying that “up till today, people are still hanging and sleeping on trees because there is no way of escape by those who cannot afford the fare for flying boat.”
“It is, therefore, incumbent on the Government of Nigeria to create IDPs for the people who were displaced by the flood across Nigeria,” he said.
The CD chieftain, while speaking further, noted that the Delta State government had up till now not put in place any measure to ameliorate the pains of the Internally Displaced Persons.
‘”By now, the state ought to have set up IDPs across the state to take care of them,” Odili said.
“The Federal Government on its part is not doing anything to be battle ready for climate change. If the Government of Nigeria were to be sensitive, River Niger should have been dredged and more dams would have been constructed having been warned by the international community and Cameroonian Government as they alerted Nigeria Government of its intention to open up their dam,” he added.
Odili faulted the claims of certain individuals that the Cameroonian Government and other neighbouring countries were not showing any sense of brotherhood or that they don’t have value for Nigeria.
He, therefore, enjoined the Federal Government Nigerian Government to rise up from its slumbering and face the current reality, saying that River Niger, River Benue and other rivers surrounding Nigeria needed to be dredged, while more dams should be constructed.