The killer floods

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As in previous years, floods are currently ravaging the country, claiming lives and property. Last week, residents of Lagos State lamented the impact of heavy rain and the floods that affected several parts of the state. The early morning rain, which lasted for about four hours, caused floods in many communities and motorists and road users had to wade through gridlocks and flooded roads to reach their respective destinations. On Monday this week, a heavy flood over a large portion of the Yola-Mubi highway cut off the Adamawa State capital, Yola, from the northern part of the state.

According to reports, travellers from Yola to major northern Adamawa towns such as Song, Gombi, Hong, Mubi, Maiha, Michika and Madagali and those travelling from those places to Girei and Yola had to stop on both sides of the flooded portion near Jabi Lamba, a rural community in Girei Local Government Area where the flood water over the road was deepest. On Tuesday, the Jigawa State governor, Mohammed Abubakar, extended condolences to the families of the victims of the flood that has ravaged the state in recent days. His government, he said, was aware of the effects of the flooding and was doing everything humanly possible to alleviate the people’s suffering. This was just as the state police command confirmed the death of 95 people in flood-related accidents across the state.

Earlier, the director general, Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA), Clement Nze, had urged Nigerians to intensify efforts towards averting flood-related disasters in their domains, saying that this year would witness catastrophes similar to those witnessed in 2012. Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Nze stressed that flood-related disasters kept reccurring due to the non-adherence to warnings from relevant authorities. He added: “We are also monitoring the developments on the River Benue sub-basin and are keeping close contact with the Cameroonian authorities with regard to flood scenarios in the upper catchment of the Sub-Basin. It should be noted that at this period of the year, impoundment of water into the Lagdo dam in Cameroon is still in progress. Under normal circumstances, it is usually around the seventh week of September that the Dam reservoir could approach an elevation of 213 metres.”

Sadly, what Nze feared has already happened. According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), floods across the country have killed at least 300 people this year and the situation could worsen due to heavy rain and the effects of excess water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon, which has potentially grave consequences for 14 Nigerian states. As revealed by the NEMA director-general, Mustapha Ahmed, over 100,000 people have been displaced by floods since the start of the rainy season and are now living in temporary shelters. The pains of previous years are being relieved once again. And, what is more, they may be relieved next year and in the years to come.

In previous editorials, we pointed out that proper planning, capacity building and other precautionary measures could have forestalled or at least mitigated the calamity and sorrow caused by flooding across the country. We have not been persuaded to change our view that the tragedy of the Nigerian flood situation is that most of the causes are human-made. With continued improper refuse disposal, indiscriminate erection of structures on waterways by the public and improper planning and unbridled corruption on the part of government agencies and officials, a change in the state of affairs cannot be expected anytime soon. No serious country builds bridges and roads without proper drainage systems and provision for general maintenance and monitoring to guard against environmental abuse by citizens. As we noted previously, the technical design of roads, bridges and other facilities in the country is often indicative of professional deficiency, and many of the inadequacies become manifest during the rainy season.

Besides, the fact is established that funds meant to tackle flooding and other environmental challenges are either misappropriated or mismanaged by ministries, agencies and departments. It cannot be cheering news that money drawn from the Ecological Fund, established in 1981 to tackle soil erosion, flooding, desertification, general environmental pollution and natural disasters, continues to be considered as free funds to be expended as those in power deem fit, with contractors vanishing after collecting contract sums. We ask once again: what happens to ecological funds? Are the funds being used to address ecological concerns and if so, why then do floods always wreak havoc? Pictures of ecological damage in the South-East and elsewhere are horrendous, but the situation will not change with the massive corruption that continues to underpin the disbursement of ecological funds in the country. For instance, a four-year audit report (2007-2011) by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) found that the government diverted several billions of naira from the Ecological Fund to projects clearly not ecological in nature. We recall the case of former Plateau State governor, Mr Joshua Dariye, who was jailed for diverting ecological funds to the Obasanjo/Atiku re-election campaign. The ex-governor, who has now enjoyed presidential pardon, even claimed that the donation was well documented.0

The floods are here again, wreaking havoc across the country. We have consistently bemoaned the absence of preventive measures but it is time the government addressed squarely the unending misapplication of ecological funds. At the very least, ecological funds should be devoted to providing palliatives to the victims of flood destruction, but what Nigerians see very often is massive misuse of the funds by those in government. Evidently, there must be necessary control measures that would preclude further diversion of ecological funds. In this regard, it is time members of state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly woke up to their responsibilities and stopped being mere appendages, and therefore accomplices, of the executive arm of government.

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