In the last two months, floods have devastated many parts of the country with progressing intensity as the wet seaon draws to a close. Hardest hit is the North-West, where whole villages in some states were swept away, with fatalities in some cases, rendering thousands of people homeless and farmless. Just last week, 5,000 houses and property worth millions of Naira were said to have been overrun by floods in 20 villages within three local government areas in Sokoto state.
The story is the same in the neighbouring Kebbi state as well as Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and Kaduna. In Katsina, the floods wrought havoc in many local government areas across the state with particular vengence in Charanchi, where lives were lost. Most of the victims in the affected states are now housed in public places like schools, with the authorities looking clueless as to what remedial measures to take.
The tragedy of the situation is that we never seem to learn from the past. Like the rainy season, floods occur annually at the period when the wet season peaks. This is the time when dams and other reservoirs overflow and, because of the absence of effective (where available) drainage system and the prevalence of mud houses in the rural areas, the excess water so discharged sweeps away every weak structure in its path. It happens every year, attracting the same response: many promises by the leadership that remain unfulfilled up to the next season and more floods.
It is doubly unfortunate that this year, the rainy season has been wetter and the floods more intense, at a time when the last thing on the mind of the political leadership is the wellbeing of the citizenry, beholden as it were to the politics of 2011. Everything other than the forthcomming general elections seems of little or no interest to those in power, it would appear. That is why few of the governors were in their states when the floods came. Even the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which is supposed to be the expert in disaster crisis management, does not seem to be up and doing in the current situation.
Nigeria is very much a blessed country. Apart from its abundant human and material resources, the country is blessed with clement elements. Our winter does not get very cold as to freeze the rivers as in Europe, some parts of the Americas and Asia. Our summer does not get so hot as to trigger bush fires as in the US and Australia. Our wet season does not come with the monsoon wind as to engender the kind of floods prevelent in Asia and Europe. Our topography is not earthquake-prone as in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Even then, our society is still ill pepared to cope with the “mild” floods (by the degree of the recent floods in Pakistan and the ones witnessed in Europe last year), and other infrequent natural calamities that occasionally challenge us.
Things must not continue in this ruderless manner. Our leaders must rise to the occasion and tame the monster floods that perennially claim scores of lives and leave thousands homeless. The nation has the wherewithal. If they cannot, then it is our duty to beat and tame them in their own game, starting from 2011.
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