The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday alerted Nigerians to more devastating flooding across the country in 2023, if necessary steps are not taken by the Federal, states and local governments.
NEMA’s Director General Mustapha Mohammed announced this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Special Duties to defend his agency’s 2023 budget yesterday in Abuja.
The agency boss said early warnings given to the states in 2022 by the agency were ignored and the consequences came in destructive realities in the affected areas.
He said: “Let me also use this opportunity to prevail on the committee to intervene on our behalf. We have written to states several times. This flood is still coming in 2023.
“They must be advised early to set up State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) and local emergency committees and fund them adequately.
“We gave similar warning last year but our advice was ignored.”
Mohammed told the lawmakers that despite early warnings NEMA issued to state and local governments with flood-prone areas, none of them took any positive steps to mitigate it.
The NEMA boss said the Federal Government had opened up the nation’s silos and released 12,000 tonnes of grains which have been shared to all the 36 states of the federation.
He added that state governments need to do more in disaster management, instead of abandoning the menace to the Federal Government.
Mohammed said the National Assembly should help to inform the states early enough to avoid another devastating flooding and its effects.
He said: “NEMA lacks adequate personnel to handle disaster management. State governments should help. We do not enjoy hazard allowance.”
A member of the committee, Lilian Ekwunife, expressed doubts over the possibility of the National Assembly to tell state and local governments to prevent flooding.
She said: “The National Assembly is an independent institution that is not answerable to any state. The states are also not answerable to us. We can only appeal to them, but our constituents have a greater role to play by telling their state governments to act fast on the NEMA warning.”
The committee, chaired by Yusuf Yusuf, advised residents of the affected states to hold their governors accountable because flooding is beyond the mandate and jurisdiction of the National Assembly.
Also, the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency (BYSEMA) has said 1,344,014 persons have so far been directly affected by this year’s flood in the state.
BYSEMA, in an official data released yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital, said while 1,344,014 persons were affected by the floods, 1,210,183 people were displaced from their homes.
The data, dated Friday, November 4, shows that 96 deaths have so far been recorded by the state with Yenagoa Local Government Area posting the highest fatality figure.
Confirming the official data, BYSEMA Chairman Walamam Igrubia said collation of data from the field was still ongoing.
He said the heavy floods affected a great number of farmlands, school buildings, health structures and other facilities.
Igrubia also said the flooding affected several communities across the eight local government areas of the state.
He stressed that the preliminary reports and data available to the SEMA and other agencies indicated that Bayelsa remained the most flood-impacted among the states in the country.
The SEMA boss also expressed delight to hear that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, had acknowledged the fact that Bayelsa is in the league of top 10 most impacted states.