Like we always do, after the nationwide ecological disaster of 2012, everybody went to sleep. No lessons learnt. No improvements in our critical ecological infrastructure. No readjustment of Lokoja, the epicentre of that year’s climate catastrophe. No sustained efforts to strengthen response in tandem with early warning systems. No creativity is deployed in the climate adaptation value chain. Indeed, it was as if our memory was totally wiped clean. Now, 10 years down the line, the same climate calamity is back and we are caught with our pants down, totally helpless.
Last Sunday, massive flooding overran Ajaokuta-Ganaja-Lokoja road in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State. It has yet to subside though. The road which links the metropolis to the eastern part of the state was totally covered at the popular Ganaja village, such that commuters could only cross by canoe. It is also this part that motorists going to the eastern part of the country, via Enugu, ply on a daily basis. That corridor is now off-limits unless the vehicle is amphibious. When one looks at the aerial pictures of the flooding, it has an uncanny resemblance to the pictures of the 2012 disaster. For real, one could actually publish a picture from 2012 and no one would know the difference.
The most heart-rending part is that this is not an accident. It is not a sudden occurrence, whereby people would start lamenting how unprepared they were. As a matter of fact, the people of Lokoja, especially those around the Ganaja village axis, live every day of their lives with the consciousness that their abode could be drowned without a warning. Yes. They know that most part of that settlement, especially the parts that kiss the coast, is in a floodplain. This is why anyone going to rent a house in Lokoja would notice the sharp difference between the rent of the houses in the “safe” zone and those in the “endangered” area. The rent is relatively very cheap at the latter. There is an unspoken agreement between you and the landlord that when the rains and floods come, you are on your own.
Secondly, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency had last week issued a warning of a massive surge of flooding in the country, particularly in 13 states, including Kogi. The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency also put out its own warning and so did the National Emergency Management Agency. They predicted that this would happen within the remaining days in September, following the expected heavy rainfall within this period. The bleak scenario was then worsened by the fact that our neighbour, Cameroon, opened its Lagdo dam in order to release excess water. Still, this is not the first time Cameroon is opening the floodgates of Lagdo, it was actually one of the major causes of the 2012 flooding incident.
Anyway, these warnings came just a couple of weeks ago, so no one should be surprised at the degree of devastation. But then, looking at the bigger picture, there is no mistaking the point that we actually had 10 years to prepare for the colossal ecological emergency that is now before us. It must be noted that Lokoja is just a microcosm of the national eco-crisis. For months now, the news has been trickling in. Jigawa, Lagos, Borno, Cross River, Anambra and Nasarawa; name the state, there is a rivulet of sorrow tracing the contours of our ecosystem. In Jigawa alone, more than a hundred citizens are dead from the ravaging floods. We are not talking about the tens of thousands that are displaced all over the nation or the farmlands that have been washed away.
I watched a video of a distraught farmer in Nasarawa lamenting over his livelihood that has been washed away in a twinkling of an eye. Looking into his eyes, I saw a man that is so psychologically troubled that he might become a risk to himself if people do not rally around him with enough succour, materially and emotionally.
With the lack of creativity on the part of the government at all levels—local, state and national—it is now obvious that our leaders benefit from our ecological sorrows. Nobody seems to raise a finger until the rains and floods come and they begin to share relief materials as if that is the only way to prepare for such emergencies.
During the 2012 flooding incidents, the government of Goodluck Jonathan set up a Flood Relief and Rehabilitation Committee and voted N17.6 billion for it, for relief and rehabilitation of the affected citizens. Out of the money, N13.3 billion was allocated to the states and N4.3 billion to Federal Government agencies. At that time, some stakeholders feared that the money was shared as a “national cake” and was not actually allocated according to the degree of impact of the eco-calamity. Hence, when the rains stopped and the clouds cleared, everybody moved on.
It bleeds my heart contemplating the sad reality that we are abysmally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and global warming. To be frank, these disasters would still be coming to us, again and again. This is because we have not learnt anything from our pain. Ironically, human society is known for its ability to adapt to changes. That is how our human civilisation has evolved up to this stage. When nature throws a bad deal at us, we build resilience against it and even start making a living out of it. A sane society never watches helplessly as natural disaster hits on it repeatedly, without finding ways to save itself and its unborn children.
On the same hand, a good leader never goes to his people complaining that he or she does not have an idea of how to solve their problems. Leadership is about solving problems. How the Western world has conquered and mastered its extreme weather (snow) and geographical disadvantages (mountains and lowlands) and some Eastern nations like Japan have overcome their challenged (earthquake-prone) environment should teach us never to succumb to these repetitive destructions we suffer. Rather, we must think, we must plan, we must redesign. We must survive.
The government and the people of Nigeria should take ecological issues more seriously. It is now about survival and not just an academic treatise about climate change or conservation matters in faraway rainforests. It is high time our structural engineers and town planning authorities joined the fray in the struggle for environmental sustainability. It makes no sense to fold our hands and wait for the rainy season and then start counting the hazard-prone spots to mobilise our emergency response teams to. I believe that because of the kind of topography most of our cities are blessed with, we would not have worried about flooding if we had got the foundational urban infrastructure right from the get-go.
The truth of the matter is, if the gutters, waterways, conduits, underground channels and shoulder culverts are well designed and managed, there would be fewer flash floods in the cities. If our political leaders have constructed buffer dams to checkmate excess water from Cameroon, we would not be having this destructive seasonal deluge.
If the calcified and silted water channels are rehabilitated, our bridges and pedestrian platforms would not be overrun by flash floods. If the roads are constructed with flood-resistant materials and durable underlay, our towns and cities would be more resilient to the impacts of climate change. And, if our political leaders are eco-friendlier during budget and fund allocation, we would never wring our hands in despair when Mother Nature gives us her worst.
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