Category: Saturday

For five whole days last week, a battle was afoot in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, as it still is in Ibadan, Oyo State and who knows where else in the country. It is a struggle against crime, against abomination and indecency.

Until Friday, the security community was trying to locate and rescue an octogenarian queen in Ogwashi-Uku kingdom, Prof Kamene Okonjo, from kidnappers. Two policemen were detained for not being on duty at the palace when the queen was abducted. Questions were also asked as to why the traditional palace guards were either not around when the kidnappers came or, if they were, why they failed to protect the queen. On Friday, we learnt that 63 suspects had been arrested over the incident. This was followed the same day by reports that the queen and professor of sociology had been freed. Her release coming five days after her abduction, brought a huge relief to the Ogwashi monarchy. Seeing Prof Kamene again put the king, Prof Chukwuka Okonjo and their children, among who is Finance Minister Prof Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, out of their torment. It also eased tension, somewhat, on the entire state, which is fast notching up a notoriety for kidnap, and whose governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan did his utmost to assure agitated Deltans and Nigerians that the woman would be found. Her assailants were to review downwards a billion dollar ransom placed on her to N200m.

In Oyo State, unfortunately, the wife of a former governor of Western Region Brig Gen Oluwole Rotimi, kidnapped also in the week, was still not found as this column took shape on Friday. As in Delta, security personnel also deployed to battle, and with a bit luck, she too will be found unharmed.

Still, the worrying fact remains that we have lost a crucial war. The police, detectives and military may win the battle of freeing abducted grandmothers from their kidnappers, aided in some cases by a huge pile of cash payout, but it is clear that the country has since lost the moral war, one that perpetually fights to keep its values intact.

Every society, no matter how remote, has in-built mechanisms and sanctions to keep itself sane. Age, for instance, is valued in traditional societies. Hard work is a thousand times better than cheap fame or fortune. A title is earned, not bought. Africa’s literary pride Prof Chinua Achebe captured this eminently in his Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo amounted to something because by dint of hard work he defied his ineffectual background to make himself heard. The hero of TFA is a self-made man, not one who stole to become a chief or a layabout who slipped into the fortunes of his father. In Okonkwo’s case, his father left him nothing except perhaps debts and an unflattering lifestyle of palmwine drinking and daylong melodies.

In the sane societies with which Nigeria was once richly blessed across its landscape, crime was decisively punished. In some places, a thief was made to wear a garb and crown of shame while dancing round the community in the hope that he will be mortified. A murderer paid dearly for his crime; in some cases, he was even banished. While hard work was encouraged, becoming wealthy was not a do-or-die. The end did not justify the means.

Not anymore. Our moral fabric has since been ripped to shreds and tossed out the window. Hard work has taken the back seat. Leadership grandstanding has taken over, as have trickery, subterfuge, thievery in high places, opulence, contract inflation and what have you. Things we once cherished no longer count. They do not make sense anymore.

When this new, ugly order crept in us is hard for me to determine. But I know that things are no longer the way they used to be. As the economy continues to slump and the naira weakens and more jobless youths roam the street, some bizarre opulence flaunts itself still. More SUVs or Jeeps, as we prefer, cruise our pothole-ridden roads. Mansions continue to spring up in swanky neighbourhoods, leaving lesser mortals in subdued protest. It is news if in a day or week the dailies do not lead with high profile fraud or something similar.

I believe that is why the youths seem to have lost patience with everything. Many now risk all to own their own Jeeps and their own mansions. Many take to violent crime such as piracy and kidnapping, their sights set on the millions that will accrue after each operation. They are emboldened, as one arrested pirate inferred last week, by their highly placed sponsors.

Some are no longer interested in merely watching their peers, even subordinates, cruise around in sleek cars simply because those rich dudes are leaders. The poor are taking their fate in their own hands by simply joining the bandwagon of vice, of kidnapping, piracy, contract fraud, robbery and the like no matter the cost.

That is why kidnappers no longer care if their target is old enough to be their grandmothers. Or perhaps, that is why they care. The older and more connected to cash, the better. That was why they swooped on 82-year-old Prof Kamene, never minding her grey hair or weak frame. That was why they seized the equally aged wife of Gen Rotimi and took her away. That was also why gunmen shot and killed a soldier in Delta and abducted a Lebanese construction worker.

Nothing matters anymore. All care is gone. Sanctity is lost. So is integrity.

It is not hard to explain. We have since lost the most crucial war of defeating forces and tendencies that snatch our sanity. We are now grappling with problems of different kinds.

Travelling last month through Delta State, I missed the flood at its peak. But I saw enough to move me and offer a nasty hint of an unforgettable disaster. The waters had appreciably receded, yet parts of the dual-carriage way connecting Asaba, the state capital, to the Anioma area of the state remained flooded and impassable. Residents of nearby communities laid their fishnets in the probable hope that if they lost their farmlands and crops, they should at least catch some fish that came with the flood.

At a primary school where the displaced were quartered in Ndokwa-East Local Government Area, life offered little excitement beyond food provided by the state and donors.

In those two wet months, Nigerians felt the power of water, life’s otherwise precious liquid. No one was comfortable with that encounter. A persistent downpour swelled the Niger River and other rivers and tributaries, causing them to overflow their banks. The result has been utter devastation. Over two million people were reported to be displaced in Kogi and Edo states. Hundreds of houses collapsed under the impact of water. Displaced residents found temporary perching spots on the rooftops of surviving houses, waiting to be evacuated. Women clutched their babies, hoping something would happen to put them out of their nightmare. In Delta and Anambra, misery was widespread, as homes and farmlands were washed away.

In Ndokwa-East, reports suggested no flood ever wreaked such havoc in its history. It left about 22 clans under water, their people in sheer torment, displaced and with little to eat and little to wear, in makeshift shelters, and unsure of what tomorrow would bring. In Onuaboh, for instance, a clan of three quarters, this year’s flooding will be a watershed. No dry grounds at all. Inyi, where I spent two formative years, was a vast body of water. 2012 will be the year of the Great Floods. Discounting the services of wall calendars, the year will help to set off one event from another. It was an unsavoury encounter with one of man’s most cherished resources.

There has been some response from government. The Emmanuel Uduaghan administration in Delta State has sent relief to the displaced residents, as have individuals and organisations.

But there is need for more work. There is need for the authorities, including the federal government, to assess the situation and ascertain the magnitude of damage. Next, it will help to determine what assistance is required. Plus, no one should forget that whatever relief is sent should be appropriate, targeted and monitored.

There are reasons for these suggestions. Disaster management can easily be bungled if not properly thought-out, just as relief efforts can be misapplied and wasted if not clearly conceived and monitored. If the right things are not done at the right time, people needing help become hopeless. And that deepens the initial crisis.

For some of the flood victims, their plight has a traumatising impact. Their farmlands may have been flooded in the past, but not their houses or entire communities, as is the case in Ndokwa-East and parts of Isoko in Delta State. These people are struggling with not just economic loss; they are also grappling with psychological shock and need help in that area as well. They need encouragement now, some sort of psychological therapy.

They need comprehensive relief consisting of, but not limited to, food, medicine, water, clothing, and, of course, sleeping places, till the water recedes. They will also be happy to see that assistance meant for them actually gets to them, and not to some opportunistic dealers or people far removed from the floods. But beyond all that, they need something permanent, something to start and sustain them after the great waters. They need cash to buy new seedlings and begin all over again.

It is in the interest of everyone if this crisis is well managed. For one, it will show that we can learn from past blunders in disaster management, and that our governments really care for the people they govern.

No one should lose sight of the imperatives of mitigating the unpleasantness of life in a relief camp. Still, it must not be forgotten that tiding victims over the flood season is only one step, requiring another. That second step is even more fundamental. It should resolve the issues of life after the floods. What will the farmer-victims eat when the waters recede? And since these farmers also feed the society, what will we all eat when dry grounds appear?

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr Akinwumi Adesina has gone to great lengths to assure Nigerians that famine is out of the question. He said there is food and that Nigerians will not starve. Considering that some hefty sums have been raised by billionaires and other donors, perhaps the Jonathan administration is confident that all is well.

The proof of that confidence will however lie in the judicious use and equitable distribution of what is provided. Only that will stave off hunger.

This article was adapted from the one published in October entitled “Life after the floods.”