Assessing Efforts To Address Plight Of Flood Victims

By all accounts, the flooding of several states across the country and the effects on affected communities are quite worrisome.

Media reports indicate that the spate of floods has brought severe pain and anguish on many citizens, particularly in the last few months.

The accounts further indicate that no fewer than 20 states were affected by the floods, which caused the death of hundreds of persons, while destroying property worth millions of naira.

The floods even affected vehicular movement in some areas of the country. For instance, floodwater disrupted traffic on the Abuja-Lokoja highway, a major thoroughfare linking the northern and southern parts of the country, for some weeks.

Besides, the Shendam Bridge in Plateau – a bridge on the road which links some states in the North-Central, South-East and South-South geopolitical zones — was also damaged by the flood.

The flood victims continue to have diverse tales of woe to narrate, as virtually all of them now rely on handouts and assistance from the public, philanthropists and response agencies.

However, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) recently announced that more than 25 million Nigerians were living in flood-prone settlement and the statement elicited a lot of concern from many citizens.

The agency warned communities in floodplains to relocate to upland areas, while state governments were advised to take precautionary measures to forestall future recurrence of the flood disasters.

Experts also warn that unexpected flooding in the future may have myriad negative effects on the country unless urgent precautionary measures are initiated.

Mr Abayomi Oyegoke, the Chief Meteorologist, Nigeria Meteorological Agency, stressed that immediate and short-time plans should be evolved to deal with disasters.

He called on relevant authorities at all levels to initiate and strengthen efforts to provide adequate disaster-management programmes in the country.

As part of efforts to alleviate the suffering of victims of the recent floods across the country, the Inter-ministerial Committee on Environment said that the Federal Government had released N17 billion to cater for the needs of flood victims nationwide.

The Minister of State for Works and Housing, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, who announced this during a recent visit to Birnin Kebbi, however, urged the benefitting states to utilise the resources judiciously.

Besides, the National Assembly also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to prepare a supplementary budget to cater for the immediate needs of flood victims across the country.

Although many of the flood victims have expressed gratitude to organisations and individuals who donated relief materials to them, the handling of the materials’ distribution has been a source of concern in certain quarters.

For instance, Mrs Alice Ogedengbe, the Secretary of the Kogi Emergency Management Agency, claimed that some persons who were never affected by the flood were now pretending to be flood victims; all in a plot to benefit from the relief materials being distributed.

She alleged that such people had been obtaining relief materials and condemning the state government for not taking care of the flood victims.

Ogedengbe, nonetheless, vowed that the state government will soon fish out the fraudulent persons who were parading themselves as flood victims.

Besides, there have been some allegations regarding the diversion of the relief materials in Delta and Imo states, resulting in some protests by the flood victims.

Such protests, perhaps, propelled Chief Edwin Clark, a leader of the Delta Elders and Leaders Forum to advise the governments of flood-ravaged states to start planning about how to resettle the victims.

Clark also urged the government to immediately engage construction firms operating in the affected states to promptly repair those sections of major highways that were damaged by the floods.

All the same, the flood victims at the Ughelli camp in Delta recently protested that some relief materials such as blankets and clothes had been diverted by some camp officials.

Mrs Ann Ekorhi, the Women Development Officer at the camp, however, denied the allegation, describing it as unjust because all the materials brought to the camp had been distributed to the victims appropriately.

The persons displaced by the Benue floods also alleged their relief materials were similarly diverted but Mr Adikpo Agbatse, the Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency, insisted said that the food items and other relief materials were properly distributed.

“Is it possible for officials to cart away relief items in the full glare of the flood victims? They should understand that the officials are doing their best at the camp, in line with international best practices,’’ he said.

Agbatse, however, conceded that some of the relief items were currently warehoused in various camps and government houses because the official store located in the agency’s premises could no longer contain them.

“It is important to also note that there are other displaced persons that are not living in the camps; they are squatting with their relations or friends and we have plans to reach out to them as well,’’ he added.

Gov. Gabriel Suswam of Benue corroborated Agbatse’s claims, saying that all the donated relief items, which were warehoused under his direct supervision, would be distributed to flood victims across the state.

The governor gave the assurance in Makurdi recently when he received the relief items donated by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation.

Observers, nonetheless, maintain that NEMA, apart from providing relief materials for victims of disasters, has introduced some significant changes to existing disaster-management procedures.

They note that the agency has repeatedly underscored the need for state governments to establish functional disaster management agencies to handle disaster handling functions.

Identifying paucity of funds as a major hindrance to NEMA’s service delivery, the observers urge the government and the private sector to collaborate and fund the agency adequately to enable it to discharge its duties effectively.

They also advise the citizens to take precautionary measures to avert disasters in spite of the fact that natural disasters are somewhat inevitable.

Arobani writes for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

Tiamiyu Arobani