IBB, God and Mokwa disaster
By Chekwube Nzomiwu
Typical of Nigerians, former Military President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), last weekend, said we could not have done anything about the flood disaster in Mokwa Local Government Area, Niger State, which claimed over 200 lives, as it was ordained by God and beyond our control.
IBB commented on the disaster, which affected four communities in the area, while receiving a delegation of the Niger State government that paid a Sallah homage to his Minna residence. The delegation was led by the Deputy Governor, Yakubu Garba. Besides the fatalities, the flood also displaced many families and destroyed livelihoods in the affected communities.
Reacting to the disaster in his home state, IBB said: “What happened in Mokwa is unfortunate but it is ordained by Allah. It is beyond our powers and this is why we should all continue to pray for the souls of the deceased.”
I agree that natural disasters occur, but disagree with Babangida that we could not have done anything to mitigate the disaster in Mokwa. Frankly, I do not understand why we should blame God for everything that happens to us in Nigeria, including the ones that were manmade. If there is tanker fire anywhere in this country, God ordained it. Yet, we were the ones that abandoned the petroleum pipelines built in the 1970s for the distribution of petroleum products to depots in different parts of the country, to start transporting “highly inflammable” petroleum products by road.
Now, 200 Nigerians have been killed in Mokwa by flood and we are saying that God ordained it. Anybody saying this is not being fair to God. He created us and equipped us to dominate our environment. Rather than dominate our environment in Nigeria, using the enormous human and material resources that God has given us, we have elected to become victims of our environment.
While I agree that flood cannot be completely prevented, it can be mitigated and the impact reduced through effective planning and building of hard infrastructure, such as flood walls, flood barriers, floodgates and dikes, to protect floodplains, such as Mokwa communities that stretch from the bank of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley. They are called floodplains because they experience flooding during period of high discharge of water from the river.
The drainage system in these flood-prone areas ought to be improved and maintained regularly. Development ought to be prevented in such areas, to reduce minimally loss of lives and property in event of a flood disaster.
Dams are crucial for flood control. If you go to Nigeria’s annual budgets hundreds of billions of Naira are appropriated yearly for the construction of dams, but in many cases, they end up not being constructed at the end of the day. The few that were completed have been mismanaged by the same government that funded their construction.
Billions of Naira are appropriated for “flood control” projects and yet, catastrophic floods keep occurring in Nigeria on a yearly basis. Billions of Naira are appropriated for the river basin development authorities in Nigeria. We have about 12 of them. What have they done with the money?
It is now an annual ritual for Nigerian states on the path of River Benue to receive warning of an impending flood as a result of the opening of the Lagdo Dam in Cameroun. For many years, this has been a major source of concern in Nigeria every raining season.
Sadly, you do not hear what the Nigerian government is doing to mitigate the effects of the opening of the dam. But once flood occurs, political office holders will make headlines with press releases, commiserating with those affected by the flood. At the end of the day, no concrete action is taken to prevent another occurrence or to mitigate the impact in event of another occurrence.
I vividly remember that in October 2024, the Senate asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct the immediate dredging of Rivers Niger and Benue, as part of preventive measures against flooding. As of today, I am not aware that the President has given such a directive.
Ironically, the Senate President, His Excellency Godswill Akpabio and his Deputy, Jubril Barau, were among the dignitaries at the scandalous commissioning of the completed 30km stretch of the multi-trillion Naira 750km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project, being executed with preliminary environmental impact assessment certification, covering only site clearance and compensation. Let us hope that this is not another disaster waiting to happen.
If climate change is responsible for the magnitude of the flood disaster in Mokwa, what are we doing about it in Nigeria? Nigeria sent the third largest delegation to COP-28 climate change summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates in 2023. According to media reports, the 1,411-man delegation led by President Tinubu, and government funded, was the joint third largest delegation to the summit, after the host country, UAE with 4,409 members and Brazil, 3081. Considering the size of the Nigerian delegation, I expected them to produce a comprehensive document on how we can combat climate change. Till date, I have not seen any.
Prior to that our scandalous COP-28 appearance, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) listed Nigeria among 10 countries at risk of climate disaster. The other countries that made the top 10 were Somalia, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Yemen, Chad, South Sudan and Central African Republic.
According to the report of the UNDRR, flooding in late 2022, affected 2.5 million people in Nigeria and caused extensive damage to the country’s farmland. The report warned that by mid-2023 an estimated 25 million Nigerians would face high levels of food insecurity, highlighting that political tensions and widespread conflicts contributed to the country’s fragility, making it difficult to respond to climate disasters. This report was published two years ago. Today, what has changed?
So, let us leave God alone. IBB should understand that not all Nigerians are far sighted and fortunate like him to acquire enough wealth as the Head of State, to enable them to build a hilltop mansion, where they are safe from flood. Those poor Nigerians who were unfortunate to find themselves living in floodplains like Mokwa, ought not to have been abandoned to their fate. They should have been protected. It is the responsibility of somebody to protect such vulnerable people. The Federal Ministries of Environment and Water Resources take hundreds of billions of Naira from the national budget annually. Where does the money go? Same applies to the Ministries at the state level.
We would have been spared of all these agonies, if the government invested in the floodplains. Investing in the floodplains is even in the interest of the nation because they often have high soil fertility, since flood waters deposit nutrients in the soil. For instance, in the United States of America, the areas around the Mississippi River are heavily exploited for agriculture. That area is known as the US corn and ethanol belt.
The Mississippi River Commission works tirelessly to protect the land around the river from flooding. Our leaders travel abroad regularly. They see these things. What stops them from replicating the same here in Nigeria with all the money they borrow from international lenders? Why can’t the river basin development authorities in Nigeria deliver like their counterparts in other countries? This is the question that I expect IBB to ask at the National Council of States, and not to say that God ordained a disaster that could have been mitigated.
However, I cannot conclude without commending the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency for putting in place an excellent early flood warning mechanism. I remember that as early as April this year, the agency issued a flood alert to 33 states and the FCT.
Regrettably, the state governments do not act. Drainages are not cleared. Reservoirs are not built to harvest rain water. People living in the floodplains are not evacuated. Instead, governors wait for the floods to occur, and then start requesting for relief materials from the Federal Government. Often, the relief materials end up not getting to the victims of the disaster. We must put an end to this vicious circle.
Dr. Nzomiwu is the Director of Media and Publicity, Development Communication Research Association of Nigeria (DECRAN). Reactions are welcome via chekmma@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: BBC
