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| Flooding In Nigeria In 2012 |
By Jaye Gaskia
Against the backdrop of
the recent forecast issued by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency [NIMET] with
predictions and alert on potentially devastating floods in the 2013 raining
season; a forecast that actually also identified states that will be most prone
to such flooding; it is important, essential, pertinent, and even incumbent on
us to ask fundamental questions not only with respect to the state of
preparedness or lack of it of our governments prevent or mitigate the predicted
disaster; but also to ask those fundamental questions about the management of
the disaster last time [the 2012 floods].
It must be said from the
onset however, that the 2012 flood was also predicted, and the same government
agency issued public alerts, and wrote individually to all the states and the
FGN! The disdainful manner, with which such relevant information from its own
agency was treated, played a significant role in the magnitude of the impact
and the scope of the devastation that occasioned the 2012 flood! Governments
received the alerts and promptly archived the letters, with the forecasts and
the early action/response advice contained there-in.
In the wake of the gross
failure of the governments at all levels to take preventive and mitigating
actions, and in the midst of the devastation wrought by the disaster, the FGN
and state governments began what must now be referred to in retrospect as the
‘naked dance of the mentally unstable in the market place’!
After pretending as if
nothing calamitous was happening, and in the face of growing accounts in the
media about the scale and scope of the flood disaster, governments at all
levels, and senior government officials suddenly woke up from their lethargic
sleep, and begun to fall over one another in a public competitive display of
pretentious concern, as governors began to compete in canoe paddling to the
amazement of the world media and the amusement of affected citizens and
communities, who know enough about their greedy rulers to be deceived by the
charade of their inept public spectacle!
We have now been told by
the National Emergencies Management Agency [NEMA] that 7.5 million Nigerians
were severely impacted by the flood disaster; 2 million were internally
displaced in makeshift camps under inhuman living conditions [this is not
inclusive of those who in their displacement moved in with relations, kith and
kin]; while 364 persons, including women, children, persons living with
disabilities, lost their lives.
At the height of that
disaster, the FGN set up a Flood Disaster Relief and fund raising committee,
with two business Mongols on the Forbe’s richest list as its arrow-head.
It also made available the sum of N17 Billion Naira available for immediate
relief efforts weeks into the disaster!
First about this paltry
and token ‘donation’ of the FGN! How can a responsible government be making
‘donations’ to its citizens in distress as if it was an act of charity that it
was not obligated to undertake? The first thing to insist on is that it is the
responsibility of the state to cater for its citizens particularly in distress
on a scale to qualify as a disaster. It is an obligation, not an act of
charity! Non state actors, and development agencies can donate, and they may be
engaged in charity exercise, a responsible state cannot.
Secondly notice that this
amount made available for 7.5 million affected citizens, who have lost
properties and means of livelihoods, is just about the amount of money so far
spent on the official residence of the Vice president at N16 Billion Naira; and
is just 17 times more than the annual feeding cost for the presidency alone at
N1 Billion annually! And it is certainly less than the money stolen by one
single person in the pension fund scam at N27 Billion Naira!
It is very important to
make these comparisons in order to be able to definitively place our Treasury
Looting Ruling Class and the worth and value that they place on our lives and
living conditions compared with theirs!
Now let us ask the
critical questions to which immediate responses are required if we must avoid
the catastrophe next time.
What has happened to the
N17 Billion? Was additional fund raised by the committee? How much was raised
in addition and from where? What was the eventual total fund available and
disbursed? How was the fund disbursed? On the basis of what criteria? Who were
those [the companies & individuals] who got contracts to supply relief
materials to displaced persons in camps? What was each commissioned to supply;
in what quantities; and of what quality? Which affected/displaced persons
actually got something or anything?
Is there a record and
proof of allocation and collection of relief materials by affected persons?
Where is the accountability framework for the exercise, as well as the
accountability report of the exercise? Shouldn’t the exercise undergo a
comprehensive audit of not only resources but also processes and procedures of
the exercise?
What was the role of NEMA,
which statutorily ought to be the coordinating agency for the relief exercise
in the entire process? What lessons have been learnt? What needs to be done to
establish where it does not exist, and strengthen where it does exist,
preparedness, risk reduction, and response capacities of not only the
emergencies agencies [at all levels], but of also all relevant agencies that of
necessity would have to be involved in a coordinated response? How many states
have emergencies agencies established by legislation, with clear cut
structures, personnel, and funds allocated to them? In how many states is
emergencies management office just a single desk, with two chairs and two
personnel, tucked in an obscure corner of a dilapidated room, in a hidden part
of a rickety building?
And this leads to even
bigger questions. What has happened to/what happens to the various ecological
and contingency funds? Does a national disaster response & management
contingency plan with autonomous contingency fund exist at the national level?
How many states are even aware that such a plan and fund is needed, or think it
is a priority?
We know for instance from
a Senate investigation in the course of 2012, at the peak of the flood disaster
that more than N400 Billion in Ecological Funds over a ten year period [from
2000 to 2010] had been misappropriated, misused, and out rightly looted.
According to the Senate investigation monies from the ecological fund were
routinely appropriated to settle contractors, to supply furniture, to buy cars
etc for highly placed officials of government!
Who should be held
responsible for this gross dereliction of duty that has led to the occurrence
of a disaster of such devastating impact? Who should account for and be held
responsible for the abuse of the ecological fund? Who should be held
accountable for the grievous lack of preparation after receiving the alerts on
the 2012 flood?
Surely business cannot
and should not continue as usual? Surely we must not allow business to continue
as usual? How can we permit an over pampered top echelon of functionaries,
18,000 of whom this nation expends N1.3 Trillion annually to cater for their
salaries and allowances; how can we permit them to get away with such gross ineptitude,
dereliction of duty, incompetence, and irresponsibility; while even allowing
them to profit from their callousness by manipulating the relief exercise [a
consequence of their irresponsibility] to amass new fortunes and consolidate
old fortunes?
How can we expect people
who treat us with such disdain and callousness when we are distressed by a
disaster of their own making, to have any regard for our well being and welfare
in periods of normalcy? Any wonder they continue to act with impunity with
regards to management of our collective wealth and the provisioning of our
basic social and infrastructural needs?
If anything, the 2012
flood and the response of the governments have only confirmed that as a ruling
class, the current ruling political elites are incompetent in normal times, and
grossly inept in periods of crisis; and that there driving force and motivation
at all times, in times of need or in times of want, remains the congenital urge
to pilfer the public teal, loot the collective treasury, and ravage the
national psych.
This is treacherous and
alienating ruling elite, parasiting on our national wealth, unconcerned by the
public well being, uninterested in the comprehensive advancement of the nation
and its people, blinded by its imperial ambitions, and totally immersed in its
own selfishness; It does not deserve our affection, nor does it deserve our
vote much less our mandate.
It is our historic duty
to flush them out, before they lay our nation to complete waste and sacrifice
us on the altar of the bandit egos!
As we agitate and demand for immediate answers to the issues raised here, we should equally prioritize the necessary and urgent task of organizing and mobilizing politically to retrieve our destiny from their vagabond hands! And in this task all activists and active citizens are needed.
