ASIUWHU PRINCEWILL is not called a General for nothing. In the heady days of militancy in the Niger Delta he had led his “boys” on a revolution against major oil companies whom he accused of impoverishing his people. Meeting the “General” for the first time is an anti-climax. He was of average build and had none of the fierceness often associated with the dreaded militants, he spoke softly barely above a whisper and only raised his voice when angry.
Now a repentant militant, he is on a new battle, a non-violent type to compel the government to rebuild and rehabilitate Patani Local Government Area of Delta State and the people who lost their livelihood in the 2012 flood that ravaged half of Nigeria.
In September 2012, massive flood devastated 22 states in Nigeria displacing about two million people, costing 300 others their lives and destroying 597,476 houses. By November last year, about seven million Nigerians have been affected directly and indirectly with properties- both public and private- worth several billions destroyed. President Goodluck Jonathan granted N17.6 billion to all the states to cushion the effects of the damage, corporate organisations and kind-spirited Nigerians made donations in cash and kind. A Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation (PCFRR) co-chaired by businessman, Aliko Dangote, and human rights activist, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), at a dinner in Abuja also raked in N11.35 billion in pledges. Those who were affected across the country began to dream of the beautiful life they would live afterwards, that dream has since remained nothing but a dream.
“We were promised a lot by the government but we received nothing. The people expected that by now their life would be better and if not, at least returned back to normal, but as you can see, many of them are still crawling,” General said.
Walking through the streets of Patani, a community which borders the River Niger, the evidence of tragedy is all too familiar. Bello Awele, a 78-year-old man sat under a tree in front of what remained of his house where he lives with his invalid wife, Poere. He was emaciated and looked tired, his house which overlooks the Niger, was the first to get flooded in Patani. “We tried to block the water with sandbags but the flood came in, our house was submerged and we had to run away to Ugheli,” Awele said.
When the couple returned, the flood had taken away all their life possessions. “The government has not done anything for us, they said they are coming, we are still expecting them, “Poere said.
Dreams are not the only thing destroyed in Patani, the infrastructure too. Roads caved in and houses were pulled down. The general hospital is in shambles, it is also devoid of patients. Nowadays, only the desperate would patronise it as drugs are scarce and doctors mostly unavailable. In the male ward, a lone adult patient-who had an accident- laid in a foetal position, groaning. A huge bandage occupied where his right hand and leg used to be. All around him, there were cobwebs hanging from the beds, a strange smell pervaded the room.
“How are you now? I believe the pain is going?” General asked but the man groaned the more. General then urged him to get well and get up. The words sounded flat, almost unkind, as the General made his way out leaving the invalid groaning.
Chief Emmanuel Poubeni was one of the lucky ones in Patani, though his house was flooded and his belongings destroyed, through the help of his children he has been able to get back on his feet.
But the General himself suffers. Since the flood submerged his house, destroying his properties, he has since tried to get his large family back on its feet. He has met with little success and while his family also suffers, he tries to engage the government to provide basic amenities that the community can benefit from.
“We are all in the same boat, we are all victims but the government must move fast and cushion the effects of the flood so that the people can feel the impact of government,” General said.
It was 7:00am in Adankolo layout, Lokoja Kogi State. Bashir Dan Musa came out of his makeshift one-room plank hut which he shares with his family. On his back, he strapped his last child named Precious who was born at the Adankolo Primary School camp for flood victims. Unable to find enough space for his properties inside the hut, most of his belongings are packed outside at the mercy of the elements. On sighting his visitor, he released the baby to his wife who immediately put her inside a basin which served as the bath tub.
Musa and his family had known a prosperous past, before the flood which affected two-third of Kogi population; he had lived in a four-bedroom apartment by the banks of River Niger. He was a youth leader and community mobiliser and the youths in Adankolo looked to him for inspiration. Then the floods came and his house was its first port of call.
“We ran helter-skelter, the flood did not submerge our house, it destroyed it. We were the first to be affected by the flood. When the water overran our house, we had to be moved into the camp at Adankolo,” Musa said.
Every living day is a torture for the Musa family. When The Nation first visited the family, Musa’s wife was making dinner over a firewood stove. A child stubbornly held on to a small black pot as she battled to remove the burnt layer of spaghetti inside it, once she succeeded in her task, she transported her trophy to her mouth with a look of contentment.
Musa was the Adankolo camp leader. He fought for the victims and attended to their needs, the government officials feared him for his painstaking and often demanding nature. When President Jonathan visited the camp, Musa was on hand to receive him and delivered a speech on behalf of the victims.
“Because of what I did at the camp and how I managed the affairs of the victims at the camp, many people said I had made a lot of money. It is hard for them to believe that I live in this hut and I am this poor. After meeting with all the government officials and even President Jonathan, I don’t blame them if they think I am living in a mansion,” Musa said.
But his realities are far from what his status as the camp leader conferred on him. Currently unemployed, he had begged the Kogi State government for employment and has been given plenty of promises but no action. “We live from hand to mouth, all these things that you see are donations, including the clothes we are wearing,” he said.
Musa’s main earthly possession is a motorcycle which he acquired nine years ago, but age and persistent use are not friends to the engine and it took about five minutes to get it started only for it to break down after a few meters journey.
Musa’s life is a reflection of the others who also lost their homes by the bank of the Niger. Many of them have been unable to move forward. A former neighbour of Musa now lives at the Adankolo market, sleeping out in the open under the starry stars. She was not alone, The Nation learnt about 10 families currently make the market their home while waiting for government’s intervention.
Adankolo, one of the deeply affected communities in Lokoja, is struggling back on its wobbly feet. Though the water receded, those whose houses are still standing have moved back and the schools have re-opened. Life is crawling back to the devastated community as the people picked up where the flood ended their lives.
But underneath the façade of happiness outwardly exhibited in Adankolo lay a deep anger and mistrust towards the government. The anger of the people manifested itself in Sawa Umar: “The government said we should not come back but where are we to go? They shared N3,000 to each building, is that what we need? Is that what has sustained us since November when we came back?” he vomited his words in anger and venom.
Musa has a legion of queries against the Kogi State government. He alleged that all the promises of government to Adankolo have not been fulfilled. He blamed the government for providing little comfort for the people, while favouring other local governments.
“They brought a shelter bus and claimed it has been distributed. I think if that claim is true, I should be one of the first to get one so that my family will not live in this terrible condition. But if you go to Shintaku which did not suffer half of what we suffered, there are shelter buses everywhere,” Musa said.
“We are not happy, government used us to get what they want. Aliko Dangote gave us relief materials and loan for the women but they now say the money is not for the victims again,” he lamented.
The people of Adankolo do not believe the government would fulfill its promises. Most of them lamented that the 250 unit housing estate under construction at the old polytechnic quarters would be shared by “government people.”
There is disquiet about the money given to the victims. According to Musa, the government did not carry the victims along in determining what to give to them. “ We held a meeting with the deputy governor and agreed that the representatives of the people must be notified but the reverse is the case. I learnt they gave Ward A N4million. This is the largest ward and some people got N1, 000. I personally got N5,000 because my house was destroyed,” he said.
In Ganaja, another heavily impacted community, Jerry Adejo, the manager of Ganaja Motel, didn’t want to talk about the flood. His motel-a thriving business before the flood- is now deserted, for two months it was shut down completely and when it opened, four buildings could not be used any longer.
“Discussing this issue increases my pain, there is nothing to discuss about, this government has not been responsive. Imagine they gave us only N8,000 since the flood and that was all we received. What have they done to prevent a reoccurrence?”
Victims resort to self-help
The long and narrow Omiringi road which led to Otuoke, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, the home of President Goodluck Jonathan came to an abrupt end as a lone figure emerged from the shadows and flagged down the vehicle near the Akragba River in Otu-Asiga. He was a lean and haggard-looking man of about 50 years, dressed in blue jeans and red stripped shirt; he ordered the passengers to disembark and demanded a fee before the vehicle could pass the bridge.
The bridge over the Akragba River collapsed in September 2012 during the flood and has remained in that state. On August 17, 2013, Wisdom Dick was standing on Akragba bridge, face beaming with pride mixed with some anxiety. Two months earlier, himself and three of his friends from Out-Asiga community had come together to rebuild the bridge and enable free flow of traffic. Using their skills as builders and buying planks on credit from local businessmen, they built the failed portion of the Akragba bridge and mounted a toll on it to recoup their investment.
“We spent over N300,000 to construct this bridge, we took the materials on credit and have been paying back the debt from the toll we have collected. We have only N30,000 to pay now before we can start to make profit,” Dick said.
His colleague, India Otuma, also mounted guard at the other end of the bridge using a long pole to cross the entrance. He released the pole only after the payment of N100 toll for vehicles and N50 for tricycles. As vehicles arrived, passengers came down and the driver would make a slow and painful journey across the plank bridge which creaked under the weight of the vehicles. The “bridge builders” said they suffered for a long time before the bridge could be opened again and even lost one of them, Samuel Avoh, during the construction.
“Give me the money, you are wasting my time,” India shouted at a car owner who promptly parted with the required funds. He turned around and said; “We are not levying toll, this bridge is very important and the government has refused to fix it, so we borrowed materials to do the job and have to pay back. We have not even made any profit.”
Omiringi community itself is in mourning, not only of the individual losses but also of the destroyed Omiringi bridge which connected them to the rest of the state. Children and youths in the community came out to begin the unenviable task of cutting the bridge into pieces and selling the parts as stones to house builders. A child about seven years of age sat on a stone and began to hammer away at a rock, after about 15 attempts the rock gave way and dissolved into small granite stones. The stones were then packed into a bag and taken to the road where a bag cost N300.
The state government distributed 40 bags of cement to the affected communities to kick-start the rebuilding process but that has proved grossly inadequate. The Ondewari clan in Olodiama, Southern Ijaw Local Government hit upon a most brilliant idea. Instead of distributing the cement in measures to the victims, they decided to build a public toilet, some others simply sold the cements leaving the victims in ruins.
In Otu-Aba, a community close to the home of President Goodluck Jonathan, in Otuoke, mud houses pulverised by the floods have yet to be rebuilt. Others that are still standing have their foundations washed off. While some of their owners who could not reconstruct them had relocated to squat with their relatives in other communities, others who perhaps had no place to go had continued to live there.
Otuma Ediomolo, a 60-year-old man was defiant refusing to vacate his building with a wobbling foundation. “I cannot go anywhere again. I will continue to live here. We can’t rebuild our houses because we don’t have money. The government has not given us anything”.
Also distraught is a 75-year-old Matilda. Her mud house was destroyed but she has no money to rebuild it. She relocated to a temporary structure made of roofing materials.
“There is no money to rebuild it. My husband is late and we don’t have money. The government promised they will assist us but we have not seen anything. Even the 400 bags of cement did not get to me. Our CDC chairman ignored me. He didn’t give me even a bag. I want the government to assist me.”
Victims living in squalor
When the communities in Rikko Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State returned to the houses by the river to rebuild it, the state government promptly declined permission citing the dangers of flood. But the community like the others in flood-prone areas resisted government’s attempt to stop the construction.
One of the victims, Audu Abubakar, said: “We are not opposed to government’s appeal for us to move away from the water ways, we had expected the state government to assist us with building materials and a new land to build our houses. But the state government was not forth coming in this regard. And you know after the dry season, there will surely be rainy season, so instead of waiting to be beaten by rain, we had no option than to patch up our destroyed buildings and have a place to sleep and keep our children.”
The community seems set on a path of collision with the government, especially as the government is yet to disburse the N500million grant it received from the Federal Government.
Mallam Sani Yahaya said: “Plateau State government is so uncaring; we have families, we thought they will assist us to rebuild our homes, but we can’t allow our children to be roaming without a house to sleep. The only option available to us in the absence of no help was to return to where we were. It is not in our best interest to stay in water ways, but who will give us the land to relocate?” Yahaya asked.
A farmer in Yala council, David Una said: “Since they announced that money from the Federal Government, we have not seen anything. We are only trying to recover from our losses on our own and I can tell you, it is not easy. We are not getting any assistance from anybody.”
The Special Adviser to Plateau State Governor on Media, Ayuba Pam, however, defended government’s decision to hold on to the fund. “”It is true that the fund has not been disbursed up till now. In fact, the N500 million was not meant to be disbursed. It was meant to be used to alleviate the plight of the victims. The N500 million sent by the Federal Government is not up to one quarter of what the state government is planning to do. Governor Jonah Jang is planning a project that will cost over N3 billion because the infrastructural challenge posed by the flood is more than distributing relief materials to victims. The affected areas require solid bridges, culverts, expanded road network, wider drainage channels and reclaiming the soil of the affected areas.”
In Cross River, the people of Afi community had more than collapsed buildings to contend with. The river which provides water for about 40 communities was destroyed by mudslides in the flood and with no alternative source of water; the villages are facing an epidemic of gigantic proportion.
A clan head who did not want to be named said Afi River served as the only source of drinking water for more than 40 villages that lived along its banks. He begged for the sinking of boreholes and water purifying chemicals as an interim measure to meet the needs of the affected villages.
More flood predicted
The Nigeria Metrological Agency (NIMET) has predicted more flood this year, this time it will affect 31 states. Already Awele can testify that the water level in the Niger River has risen. Everyday, he hobbles to the river bank and measures the rising water using his eyes. “This water is rising every day,” he announced.
The victims are not fooled that the next flood would not reverse any gain they have achieved. In Lokoja, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Abdulrahman Wuya, said the victims would be relocated from the flood plains. Musa disagreed, saying the community does not trust the government to fulfill its promise.
As it stands, the victims are locked in a battle of mistrust with their government; will it take another flood to break the jinx?
