Flooding: FG Slams State Governments for Ignoring Early Warnings

The Nigerian Hydrological Services (NIHSA) has accused subnationals, including state and local governments, of ignoring “adequate and timely warnings” and weather advisories issued by the various Federal Government agencies, including NIHSA and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), to avert a flood disaster in 2022.

“If our predictions were heeded by relevant sub-nationals, we will not have been where we are today but I am believing that following this year’s flood disaster across the land, the consciousness of relevant actors especially sub-nationals will be awakened to do the needful once they receive all these advisories,” NIHSA Director General, Clement Nze, said on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise, on Saturday.

He added that Suleiman Adamu, the minister of water resources, had warned state governors in letters earlier this year about the impending catastrophic floods of 2022, but some of the governors had disregarded the advice.

Nze said, “They (weather predictions) were out early enough to set the tone for what to expect in the course of the year. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency came out with February 15 to paint the picture of what to expect most likely and my own agency, Nigeria Hydrological Services, later followed suit.

“The Minister of Water Resources that gave the unveiling of the prediction, the annual flood outlook, issued warnings, issued letters to each state government in Nigeria and relevant ministries like agriculture, environment and aviation, informing them the specific locations in their states they should watch out for during the rainy season.

“The letters were authored by him (minister), signed and sent to the governors, they were informed and the necessary measures they ought to take.” 

Massive flooding has been experienced in many coastal and non-coastal parts of the country in the last few weeks due to excessive floods and inflow from external places like Cameroon. Over 300 people have been killed by devastating floods across Nigeria in 2022, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Hundreds of communities have been submerged in Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Kogi, Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto, amongst others with thousands of residents displaced and hectares of farmlands washed away, a development that analysts have opined could aggravate food crisis.

NEMA also warned that the 2022 flood disaster will be worse than that of 2012 when at least 363 people were killed and over 2.1 million people were displaced by floods.

But according to the head of NIHSA, if the correct things had been done—such as demolishing buildings that were in the way of drainage, managing waste properly, and many other things—the magnitude could have been lessened.

Onimode Abdullahi, a NEMA Director who also participated on the program, insisted that the state government be held accountable for what transpired.

He claimed that town planning and waste management bodies ought to have moved citizens from lowlands to higher grounds and safe zones before the water overflowed the towns in their states.

“We need political will to drive this process at the sub-national level. It is unfortunate the flood has happened and the people have been moved out.
“It is hoped that with the lessons that will be learnt from the flood of 2022, the political will be strengthened to avert this kind of occurrence in the future,” he advised.

Similarly, the Secretary of HEDA Resource Centre, Sulaimon Arigbabu, said the massive flood has already affected food availability in the country.

GOGAN TV