About five hundred persons have died and many hundreds of thousands displaced in floods that have swept in this year and overwhelmed residents in 33 out of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Among others, the floods in Kogi State outpaced waters that accounted for the last major flooding in 2012, and swamped whole council areas including Ibaji that State Governor Yahaya Bello confirmed was “100 percent under water.” Even the state capital, Lokoja, and environs were inundated, such that the access artery between the southern and northern areas of the country through Lokoja was cut off. In Anambra State, more than 70 persons died when a boat in which they were fleeing dangerously high waters that submerged their community capsized. Lives have also been lost to flooding in Bayelsa, Benue, Delta, Jigawa and Rivers states to mention a few. Farmlands have as well been washed away.
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President Muhammadu Buhari was reported at the weekend blaming constructions over drainage channels, disregard for early warnings by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and effects of climate change for the flood disaster. He is right, but not totally. The flooding across Nigerian states is fuelled by water that Cameroonian authorities release from that country’s Lagdo dam. In an after-the-fact statement on 19th September, NEMA notified Nigerians that Cameroon had commenced release of excess water from Lagdo’s reservoir on 13th September, 2022, which was bound to complicate the flooding in Nigeria. “We are aware that the released water cascades down to Nigeria through River Benue and its tributaries, thereby inundating communities that have already been impacted by heavy precipitation. The released water complicates the situation further downstream as Nigeria’s inland reservoirs…are also expected to overflow between now and October ending,” NEMA said, adding: “This will have serious consequences on frontline states and communities along the courses of rivers Niger and Benue.”
If Cameroon must release excess water from Lagdo, communities located along the downslope path of that water are sitting ducks. But could Nigeria have stopped Cameroon from releasing the water? Nope, because this country is reportedly in breach of a basic understanding governing the operations of the Lagdo dam. Reports said Cameroon and Nigeria had a pact to build two dams such that when water is released from the Cameroonian dam, the Nigerian dam would contain it and prevent it from causing flooding. The Nigerian dam is, however, yet to materialise, reducing Cameroon’s obligation to merely giving advance notice of its intention to release water from Lagdo. With such backfooted position of Nigeria in the arrangement, effective redress is farfetched for deluged communities.