Diri: Battling Bayelsa’s flood of tears

LAST week, as flooding continued to ravage the nation, burying entire communities under its rage and rendering millions of families homeless, the Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, cried for help. Floods had overwhelmed many communities and nearly a million people in over 300 communities in the state had been internally displaced. He had hopped into a canoe, surveying the devastation and offering whatever help he could, but the waves proved too overpowering even as traumatised Bayelsans swam through the angry splendour.  Lamented Diri: “The narrative is the same across Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolokuma Opokuma local government areas. Businesses have been shut, properties lost and farm lands destroyed. We have a humanitarian crisis.  Critical infrastructure like hospitals, roads, bridges and schools, including the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma; the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, and the University of Africa, Toru-Orua, have been severely affected.

“As I make this address, Bayelsa State is completely severed from the rest of the country as portions of the strategic East-West Road, the sole access to and from the state, between Ughelli and Patani in Delta State as well as Okogbe and Ahoada in Rivers State, have collapsed with a high volume of flood water occupying the stretch. Economic hardship has set in, as food, medical provisions and energy are now in short supply. The situation is desperate and getting worse.”

The devastation was blamed on the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon but the Federal Government dismissed that suggestion and virtually cast the flooding as a fait accompli. Hear the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu: “The tributaries of River Benue are the main cause (of flooding). And this year, the rains have been unprecedented. The trans-boundary water that even comes into this country from Rivers Niger and Benue constitutes only 20 per cent of the fresh water that flows into the country. Eighty per cent of the flood is water we are blessed with from the sky falling on Mambila and Jos Plateau. Most of this flow is from Nigeria. You cannot stop flooding, it’s a natural phenomenon; just like you cannot stop earthquake.”

If the raging water is the work of fate, so is Diri’s position. On February 13, 2020, the newly elected governor of Bayelsa State, David Lyon, was rehearsing for his swearing-in on the next day, beaming with smiles. But it was Diri, candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and runner-up in the election, that was sworn-in on Valentine Day, and he has sought to be Bayelsans’ beloved governor ever since. It so happened that Nigeria’s  Supreme Court, outraged by the chicanery of Lyon’s running mate, Degi Eremienyo Wangara, in presenting multiple identities, deemed his  (Wangara’s) ticket and that of his principal (Lyon) invalid. And so Diri, a trained teacher and political scientist who was previously the senator representing Bayelsa Central at the Red Chamber, became governor, with his running mate, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, firmly by his side.

A tribunal sitting in Abuja would, trifling with the apex court, order Diri’s sack on August 17, 2020, but that was bound to be an exercise in futility: the Court of Appeal, on October 2 of that year, retained Diri’s seat. And since his inauguration Diri, sensing the anger in town, has been seeking to calm frayed nerves. He has urged everyone, including his political adversaries, to shelve partisanship and help to steer the ship of state.

Though he rather immodestly dubs himself the Miracle Governor, not even the naysayers  have failed to notice the tranquility that has enveloped the state under him. Diri has strengthened the various security networks in the state and re-launched the state’s security outfit, Operation Doo Akpo. He has exploited interpersonal relationships to solve age-long disputes, including the land disputes in Agudama-Epie and Akenfa, schisms in  Peremabiri, killings in Ekeremor and towns bordering Delta State, and the communal clashes in Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri in Nembe.

And he is continuing the projects started by his predecessors while initiating new ones. Users of the Glory Land road that traverses various communities from Igbogene to Onopa and terminates at the Government House, and the Igbogene-Opolo- Elebele Road meant to decongest the Mbiama-Yenagoa trunk road and add aesthetic value to the state capital and its environs will attest to his work.  Diri is attending to Unity Bridge, a bridge linking the ancient towns of Bassambiri-Nembe and Ogbolomabiri-Nembe,  and is working on the construction of the Elebele bridge, a gateway to  Bayelsa East Senatorial district. He is rebuilding the Ayama-Oporoma Road and constructing major bridges like the Aguobiri bridge meant to link various riverine communities. The newly-completed Amassoma-Igbedi road is opening up access to communities hitherto accessible by only water. States in the school, from primary to tertiary, are witnessing rapid transformation.

Sadly, all of the foregoing is being threatened by the raging flood which is even washing up corpses at cemeteries, and it’s a fair question to ask what Diri’s predecessors did to mitigate the impact of flooding in the state. In asking that question, the situation in Akwa Ibom, a state in the same geopolitical zone, can provide some contrast. Speaking four months ago, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Environment and Solid Minerals, Mr. Charles Udoh said the state had expended about N50 billion on flood control projects in the last seven years, intent on bringing an end to the years of frustration and anxiety from residents over the growing menace of flooding in the state capital.

Only last month, as part of activities to mark Akwa Ibom’s 35th anniversary, the governor of Delta State and vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, inaugurated a 8.4km $34 million flood control project in the state. The scheme initiated in partnership with World Bank through the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) transverses 18 communities in three local council areas and  is designed to carry  more than half of the flood water generated in Uyo and its environs. Emmanuel’s objective was to arrest the perennial flood problem which had sacked many landlords and residents of the affected communities. Okowa has in fact called on the Federal Government to build dams and  de-silt Rivers Niger and Benue to deepen their depth so they can accommodate more water.

Over time, flooding has been contained around the world by planting vegetation to retain extra water, building canals and floodways to divert water, building levees, dikes, dams and  reservoirs. In Egypt, the Aswan Low Dam and the Aswan High Dam have long controlled flooding along the Nile. Of course, demolishing structures erected on waterways is a sine qua non, and Diri has to step up his game and mobilise Bayelsans to overcome their current travails. After all, when the Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang “Water, e no get enemy,” he was not referring to flooding.

The Federal Government must quickly build the dams it has promised, but state governments must also commit greater resources to flood management. Happily, if Diri’s record in the last two years are any indication, Bayelsans have cause to expect a drastic change in the month and years to come.