*As FG approves 12,000 metric ton of assorted food from Strategic Reserve
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has raised the alarm over the devastating impact of flood nationwide, saying about 33 states have been affected, 1,000 people have been reported dead while over 350,000 victims have been displaced.
NEMA Director General, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, stated this in a media interview at the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction event organized by NEMA in Abuja, with a theme titled : “Early Warning and Early Action For All”.
Ahmed also said that the agency has commenced delivery of relief materials to provide succor to persons affected by flood across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He further revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has also approved the release of 12,000 metric ton of assorted food commodities from the National Strategic Reserve for NEMA to distribute across the states to vulnerable Nigerians.
He said: “The President has graciously approved 12,000 metric tonnes of grains that is equivalent of 400 trailers which has been spread across the country and we are still working on providing relief materials, food items and non food items to each state of the Federation and relief items have gone to all the States.
“We have some hiccups along the way in Lokoja, we alerted the DSS, IG of Police to help us in clearing the way so that relief items will continue to get to all relevant States”.
He assured that the relief delivery will soon be completed to all other states by this weekend as efforts have been made to address some challenges encountered in movement of the items due to condition of the roads that were covered by flood.
On the assorted food commodities approved by the President, he said the Agency has already commenced transportation of the items from the National Strategic Reserve to all the states.
The items, he said will also be presented to the State Government for distribution to the vulnerable Nigerians.
Reviewing the ongoing flood situation in the country, Ahmed acknowledged that NEMA and its partners were grappling with “the large scale flood disaster across the country in which more than 500 lives have been lost, several property destroyed and a large number of persons displaced in some of the disaster hotspots.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said all efforts must be made to address the challenges of flood situation in the country.
The Minister who was represented by Director Disaster Management, Ali Grema, said of the present flood situation that, “As a matter of fact, the scale of devastation can only be compared to the 2012 floods.
More than 500 lives have been lost, more than 1.4million persons affected, about 90,000 homes either partially or completely destroyed; and still counting.
And also destroyed are thousands of hectares of farmland; thus, worsening fears of a disruption of food supply in Africa’s most populous country. These widespread cases are in 27 out of 36 States and the FCT.
“As we reflect on the present flood situation in Nigeria, let’s consider the focus of the 2022 IDDRR. Did we not have enough warnings or was our predictions and flood outlook wrong?
Did we not act enough to prevent or mitigate what we’re confronted with today?”
“While we shall not apportion blames, we need to acknowledge the fact that we all had enough warning and our advocacy was timely.
However, communities must recognize that ‘All Disaster Are Local’ and they must take climate predictions and flood outlooks warnings seriously.
We can’t out rightly eliminate flood but we can keep people safe.
That responsibility is collectively ours”.
According to her, the Ministry, with relevant stakeholders were working on implementation of the National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan that was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council.
“The plan stipulates specific roles and actions for all (including National, State and Local Governments as well as households, communities and pressure groups).
The Ministry considers the importance of preventing deaths and loss of lives in a disaster that is predicted and occurs every year”, Farouqe added.
Director General, Federal Road Maintenance Agency, (FERMA), Abbas Idris, said no one is to be blames but early warning is an issue of education and enlightenment.
He said, “Nigeria is just coming up to join the league of nations whereby early warning really works well.
The issue we are having in Nigeria is that when you are giving early warning to the residents or to the populace, they seem to be knowing much more than you, because we believe in some cultural and religious aspects that doesn’t allow us to take early warning.
And I always say, early warning come from a learned people and learning is from God, knowledge is from God. So therefore we should adhere strictly and imbibe the culture of accepting the early warning.
‘If for instance you are going this way and we told you there is an accident that blocked the way, you will try to deviate from going there.
So why is it that when the learned people say it’s going to rain and it is going to cause flooding and they need you to evacuate, you will now say you will not evacuate?
So you can see there is contradiction in our beliefs and in our culture, unless we change this we cannot get it right”.
He also said that the agency has been authorized to remove illegal structures obstructing free flow of water.
He said, “Like I told you, we have the political will to remove a structures that are obstructing free flow of water.
If you know any, no matter how big the estate is let us know, help us and share information with us and we will definitely go and remove it.
“So this is what we are doing, we are educating the public and we are also doing the needful. We cannot ask you to go and remove your own structure.
And do you know, if we remove your structure, we can also charge you for that and then prosecute you. So the law is there and we are not afraid to enforce the law for the safety of lives and the property of the FCT Residents.
“We are on our way to prosecuting offenders”.
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