Flooding seems to have gradually become an annual event in Nigeria.
At least, this has been the case in the past couple of years.
Frequent flood disasters in Nigeria have had devastating consequences on the socio-economic lives of citizens. Residential homes, towns, villages, farmlands, public buildings such as schools, health centres, among others, have been washed away as a result of flooding.
Agriculture and food production have been badly hit due to frequent flooding that affects many states in the country. At some point, the soaring prices of food items in the country was blamed partly on the negative import of flooding on farm lands across the country.
In some cases in the past, the Federal Government
blamed incidents of flooding to occasional release of water from dams in Cameroon; a situation that is said, usually to lead to surge of the River Benue which in turn, flows into Nigeria from that country.
On other occasions, flooding is attributed to heavy rainfall and other man made factors including building on, or blocking of waterways, unplanned or chaotic urbanisation, to mention a few.
However, before the recent incidents of flooding in various parts of the Nigeria , the nation’s meteorological agency, NIMET, had issued several alerts to states and the Federal Capital Terrorist, warning of possible flooding in those areas.
Sadly, it appeared that the warnings issued by NIMET may not have been acted upon by states, even the Federal Government.
One may wish to ask whether the idea that people resident in flood-prone areas should be evacuated, was heeded by the authorities at various levels of government?
It is also imperative to ask whether the idea of dredging the River Niger in other to reduce the effect of flooding, or the idea of building a massive dam to contain water released from the Cameroonian dams, have been implemented?
We are insistent that governments at all levels should be proactive in prioritising the protection of lives and property of the citizens from natural disasters and other factors since it is part of their constitutional responsibility.
Going forward, measures to prevent future recurrence of the devastating flood disasters must be put in place by all relevant authorities at the Federal and state levels in the country. Governments should avoid being reactionary on critical issues bordering on the lives and property of the citizens.