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Tag: disaster

  • Journalism and the diary of disaster

    Journalism and the diary of disaster

    By Ray Ekpu

    At the end of every year there is always a graceless burst of bad news for journalists. That is when media-related organisations release the year’s diary of disaster, bringing to the public the number of journalists killed or imprisoned in the outgoing year.

    In its recent report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has informed us that 128 journalists were killed in 2025, 10 of them women. The Middle East and the Arab World recorded the highest figure of 74 which is 58% of the total killings. The most notable of the killings was the targeted attack on Anas Al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter killed along with five other journalists and media workers in a tent housing journalists on the outskirts of Al Shita Hospital in Gaza City on August 10, 2025. Another trouble spot, Yemen, came second with 13 deaths while Ukraine, Sudan and India recorded eight, six and four respectively.

    Other countries such as Mexico, Peru and Pakistan also lost some journalists during the past year. Of particular interest to observers is the brutal murder of an Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar on January 1, 2025. He was beaten to death with an iron bar and his body dumped in a septic tank.

    In Africa, Sudan took the lead with six deaths while Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe followed closely. Even though Nigeria recorded the death of seven media workers in a car accident on December 29, 2025, this is not considered work-related. The IFJ says that since 1990, it has recorded 3,173 deaths of journalists worldwide. This is an average of 91 deaths per year. In 2024, it also recorded 122 deaths while 516 were imprisoned.

     In 2025, 533 journalists were in prison globally. China took the first position on this while Eritrea also came first in Africa, putting behind bars seven journalists out of a total of 27 imprisoned in Africa. In Nigeria, a number of well-known journalists have been assassinated over the years. Dele Giwa, the founding Editor in Chief of Newswatch leads the pack. He was assassinated through the instrument of a parcel bomb on October 19, 1986. Bagauda Kaltho of The News magazine, Godwin Agbroko of ThisDay newspaper and Bayo Ohu of the Guardian newspaper were also victims of targeted attacks. They were all killed without their murderers being brought to justice.

    For several decades, journalists in Nigeria have been in distress. Apart from the killings, hundreds of journalists have been thrown into detention for frivolous reasons by power hungry, corrupt and irresponsible leaders who cannot look truth straight in the face. Many newspapers and magazines were proscribed especially during the Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha iron-fisted administrations in the 80s and 90s. So it can be said without any fear of contradiction that the media in Nigeria have not been in fine fettle in terms of available freedom of expression.

    Our leaders, both military and civilian, have had the tendency of exploding from time to time in a towering rage of intolerance because they have something to hide. They think that the media are digging for dirt that they have accumulated during their stay in office. But the truth is that truth is like a pregnancy, you cannot hide it for too long. That is what makes the job of any committed journalist extra difficult. Ordinarily, journalism practice is not a cakewalk. It is a tough assignment because journalism enjoys the scent of scandal and any journalist who is committed to bringing the scandal to the full glare of the public is considered by the victim as an enemy. Everyone in the public space wants to have good ink in the media. No one wants to be thrown into the abyss of grief through the report of uncomplimentary conduct. This is what leads to the targeting of some journalists, their unfair detentions and death.

    However, as the statistics given by the IFJ shows, most of the journalists were killed at theatres of global conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen etc. There isn’t much that can be done about that because journalists must cover conflicts. And most of the combatants at the scene of conflicts do not obey the rules of international engagements. They even target journalists and other civilians because they believe, falsely or fairly, that they are probably spying for the other side. Secondly, there are misjudgements in the use of their equipment by some combatants. So journalists and other civilians get to pay for these mistakes with their lives. That makes journalism quite a hazardous enterprise.

    The IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger says “that 128 journalists killed in a single year is not just a statistic; it is a global crisis. Those deaths are a brutal reminder that journalists are being targeted with impunity, simply for doing their job.” There is an element of truth in this because warriors who do unconventional, unorthodox and illegal things at the war front may target journalists so as to prevent them from reporting the inconvenient truth at the war front. Even though there are continental and global laws that cover such engagements, the truth is that when a war breaks out, laws are easily broken and hell’s gate stays open.

    In Africa, there is the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. At the global level, there is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There is also Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which guarantees protection for journalists on duty. The problem is not the absence of laws. There are laws but they are not respected particularly in war situations. That is why journalists get killed in such situations. And as the war zones increase around the world, journalists are assigned to do their duty in those places. The more wars there are, the more journalists that are likely to be assigned to cover them and the more journalists that eventually get killed. So it can be said that global conflicts are journalism’s worst enemies. If global conflicts are reduced, the number of journalists killed at such settings will also be reduced. But since many politicians are power hungry, global conflicts cannot be eliminated.

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    So what can be done? One, media organisations must provide insurance cover for their journalists who are assigned to cover conflicts. If they get killed on duty, their loved ones can get the benefits of the insurance cover. Two, many media organisations may not have the huge financial muscle that can get for their journalist the kind of insurance cover that can be very beneficial. That is why it is important for such media bodies as the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and other media-related bodies to launch a fund-raising event for the purpose of helping journalists in distress. Three, the federal government must show interest in the cases of journalists killed in Nigeria and bring their killers to justice. That is government’s duty to journalism in Nigeria.

     Right now, self-pity is sitting on the chests of journalists around the world like a pile of bricks for the deaths, avoidable deaths that have occurred to journalists in various parts of the world. Self-pity is not enough. Journalists all over the world must unite to save their profession. There is an Ethiopian proverb that says that “when cobwebs unite they can tie up a lion.” It is not enough for us to look at these statistics and sigh and shrug our shoulders and go away. These deaths obviously affect our practice. It is George Bernard Shaw who said that “the ultimate in censorship is assassination.” Whether we know it or not these killings invariably affect our profession and may even discourage young people from coming into it for fear of being killed. 

  • Disaster management: Reform emergency agencies, says NGO

    Disaster management: Reform emergency agencies, says NGO

    To reduce disasters, government should reform emergency agencies, Executive Director of Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative (WOPEGEE), Dr Mojisola Akinsanya has said.

    The reform,  she noted, would enable humanitarian actors to carry out research and disaster risk reduction.

    She spoke  with reporters on the sidelines in Lagos of a four-day training.

    The workshop is to equip stakeholders with tools to ensure proper emergency management with emphasis on a gender-responsive approach.

      It was organised in partnership with WOPEGEE and Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDCP) with Austrian Centre for Peace (ACP) within the framework of Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa (HAWA) Multiplier Module (MM).

    The project was funded by Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and Federal Ministry of Austrian Defence.

    Dr Akinsanya said while a non-humanitarian actor would classify a disaster natural or man-made, a humanitarian actor doesn’t believe disasters are natural, that is why “government should reform emergency agencies so humanitarian actors can carry out research and disaster risk reduction so that it will be reduced to a minimal level”.

    Dr Akinsanya said the body wants to build capacity of local NGOs to push for progress in disaster risk reduction.

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    A delegate from ACP, Ms Sophia Stanger, said the organisation builds capacities to support people in the African region.

    “ACP is engaged in Capacity Building for Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa (CABHA), and we try to build capacities to support West African region, and help people from government, civil society and military to be equipped for humanitarian needs.”

    Earlier, Helen Bodunde,  identified the causes of floods as inadequate drainage, blocked and improper drainage management and excessive rainfall.

    She urged everyone to tak care of the environment to minimise disaster risk.

    Programme Manager of Women Peace and Security for UN Women, Peter Mancha, noted that structures in places to ensure proper emergency response and crisis management were needed because in the South, flood is one of the major natural disasters that occur every year.

    “The challenge we have is we get all the signals that these will happen, but what measures do we have in place to prevent these or mitigate the impact? This workshop is looking at how we can support different stakeholders, communities, civil societies and emergency response agencies, but more from a gender perspective, because we all know that women are the majority that bear the brunt of these crises,” he said.

  • Emerging from disaster: being fully alive on the road to happiness and perfection

    We conclude our series on emergency preparedness by considering a topic that is important as one begins a new year with hope for the best – being fully alive.

    Before the recent holidays, I commented to a student that I had a lot of work to do at home when asked how I would spend the holidays.  After the holidays he asked if I had finished everything.  It was the question of a youth.  I gave a “geriatric” answer that I did some work and others keep coming up but I go on and that is life. As we go older, we realize, we can only finish when we die.  We need to keep fit for life as we need to keep going on with duties and tasks and challenges and interests and goals and possibilities, etc. When we are not fully alive and when we are not fit for them, these activities are finished, so are the benefits, rewards, merits, credits, profits, fruits, and  glories.

    Fitness for life involves well-being in body, mind, and spirit.  Fitness is important for us to be our best and do our best and make a difference in our world, great or small.  We all know about eating a balanced diet and eating regularly and properly (quality, quantity, and suitable for our own body).

    In Nigeria, I feel far away from reality when I discuss eating a good diet and I know many people cannot if they want to.  In a struggling economy that is left to market forces, it may be very hard indeed for salary earners to maintain a good standard of living or to aim for a good standard of living.  As prices go up, stay up, and then climb up again, and again, the quality and quantity we can afford go down and down.  As we look forward to better life in the New Year we need to change to an economic environment that favours better life.

    I was tidying up my office to begin the New Year when I saw the Oct 28 – Nov 3 2012 edition of Castles.  On Page 12, the Property Xtra section gave me food for thought.  Under a bold title on that page, “Continuing lack of electricity and fuel”, I have here a few extracts:   “queues at petrol stations seem to getting longer….. On the back of this is the mystery of persistent powercuts which also seem to be getting worse and worse”; “The average generator using Nigerian spends between N200k-N2m a year on personal use of their generator.  The cost of running personal businesses is a monumental drain on the profits of that business”;   “Generators are being run round the clock, noise and air pollution are major problems that are not even acknowledged”.

    Acute fuel shortage at Christmas time in 2017 came like a customary event.

    Many people took to walking to their destinations.  Initially, there were no buses along certain routes and in other routes, there were buses but they hiked their prices to make up for the difficulties in getting fuel. The Government is trying to drive out the demons of disaster, a task indeed.  For many Nigerians at a time of fuel scarcity, some of the little money budgeted for feeding well is diverted to solving fuel scarcity issues.  People need to get to work so that their bosses do not have excuses to fire them or cut their salaries or wages.  They would rather starve than lose their jobs.

    For a happy New Year, we must eat well.  There is no life without food and no good life without good food.  Michelle Obama was growing her own vegetables in her backyard at the White House.  Many of us own land here and there or have access to land in our villages and home towns.  There are things the authorities should do but there are also things that we can do for ourselves to improve our standard of living. This is food for thought to begin the year with.

    Apart from good food, the body needs exercise.  Exercise that is enjoyable is good for both the body and the mind. Such exercise should be frequent and even regularly planned.   Exercise can be fun with music, with good company, or in a good environment.  Some superrich Nigerians go to the level of bullet proof gym but for most of us, we can get by with a good walk on the beach with a friend, playing with the kids in the park, bicycling in a safe neighbourhood, skipping rope at home, swimming in a hotel or resort, farming in the village, etc.

    And how do we keep our mind fit.  Love is it.  Do what you love and love what you do.  There is nothing better for the mind than love.  Sometimes the things we have to do are difficult but we can do them in a way we love.  For many people, professional work or their means of livelihood may not be loveable.  One may find some loveable activity to do frequently because the mind needs to experience love.  When we love what we do, we easily bear fruit in it.

    Of course, one’s spirit needs to be healthy and fit, therefore we should all learn to walk with God, as King David said: “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23).

    Dr. Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

  • APC finally claws its way out of disaster

    THE ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is blissfully unaware of its uncanny resemblance to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially in the latter’s closing months in office. With its chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, at the centre of the brouhaha in the party, and a vast array of supporters and enemies still primed for battle despite the nearness to some sort of tentative resolution, the party is becoming increasingly aware of the expediency of one man perishing so that the party could live. The party is plotting its way out of trouble, but whether it can claw its way out fast enough before the egregious implications of its misdeeds swoop on them next year remains to be seen.

    No sequence of events can be so mocking and punishing, particularly for a party that prides itself on its ideological convictions and collective capacity to midwife political, social and economic changes. Hopefully, when the fog of battle clears, the now traumatised party can still recognise itself and perhaps its raison d’être. The sequence began with the foolish adoption of a selfish motion to extend the tenure of the party’s executives at all levels, from ward to national. Then, after an epiphany, their usually detached leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, saw the political, electoral and legal perils of emplacing caretaker executives, and he forcefully made a case for the party to abide by its and the country’s constitution.

    Shocked and disarmed, the national chairman, who seemed to be the primary target of the quakes in his party, retreated into his lair, conferred with his diehard backers, and sprung a desperate trap to thwart the calculations of his interdictors. One of his backers, Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu, even attempted to reconfigure legal language, if not English entirely, by suggesting that no one at their portentous National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting a few weeks back advocated extension of tenure. What everyone called for, he said disputatiously, was a caretaker committee. He did not say how that would not amount to tenure extension, even though he tried to bamboozle the lay with the legal esotericism of ‘effluxion of time’. Said he: “There was no time at our NEC that we took a decision for tenure to be elongated. If you look at it, search and make enquiries, all what the NEC asked for was for the existing committee to work in an acting capacity or work as caretaker committee for a period not more than 12 months. So, there is nothing like tenure elongation. Their tenure will end as expected according to law. That is why the legal officers at the meeting kept using the word ‘effluxion’. What happens thereafter is what we are discussing now. It is not the intention of APC to elongate anybody’s tenure.”

    After setting up a technical committee to apparently find a way out of their quandary, and after a few more meetings, some of them held with the now somewhat resolute president, and with some of the meetings witnessing very intemperate exchanges, the party finally appeared to bow to the sensible and unambiguous provisions of their constitution. Tomorrow, when the final meeting is held, and Mr Odigie-Oyegun has bowed to the reality of holding congresses and convention, the APC will have discovered how uselessly and needlessly it worked itself up into hysteria. The party is sacrificing their chairman. He is blamed for the sorry pass to which the party has come, a condition succinctly painted by the party’s former chairman, Bisi Akande. Chief Akande had in an interview with a newspaper at the weekend blamed the current chairman for the party’s woes.

    The ruling party’s newfound resolve to run like a political party, especially by adhering to its constitution, at least in the absence of honouring its principles and ideology, is noteworthy. But whether that resolve is enough to get the party through purgatory and reconcile it with a cynical electorate, not to say help it win the next general elections, is not certain at all. Mr Odigie-Oyegun has been less than composed in performance, and must rightly bear a huge proportion of the blame for the party’s decay. But he does not bear all the blame. Indeed, he seems to many to also be a victim of the party’s lack of ideological conviction and consensus. He is at bottom not as principled as his antecedents suggest. It was, therefore, not difficult for him to take advantage of the confusion and cavalier politics of his party to chart a futile path for himself and his acolytes. After the elections, and not being a man of deep convictions, he waited in vain for the president to show leadership before he galvanised himself into anything. Instead, he discovered that the president, not being imbued with deep convictions and ideological clarity, simply surrendered the reins of power to a few chosen aides without whom he would grope in the dark. And since the aides were themselves alien to the party’s principles and ideology, they had to embark on a wary eclecticism that completely ostracised the party and promoted an insular oligarchy. Ostracised and ignored, the party, under their unprincipled chairman, simply charted an ignoble path for itself that led to the abyss. It is that path that has rendered the APC impotent.

    Yes, Mr Odigie-Oyegun was unprincipled and opportunistic, but the president did not also show leadership, especially given the delicate fact that the party was cobbled together from an uninspiring tapestry that is, even in the best of times, difficult to put in harness. The chairman may be sacrificed, but the party’s problems will remain. They will walk a tightrope of grafting their congresses and convention upon a party that does not have a soul. It was expected to develop a soul immediately after the 2015 polls, but party leaders frittered away the opportunity on the heels of a raucous competition for the spoils of office. It never developed a consensus around anything, never fine-tuned its ideology, craved no principles, and had no scintilla of notion on how to unite the country around noble ideas and deeds. It will take extreme discipline and good luck to organise their congresses and convention. If they are going to pull this off, it is hard to see the president directing the requisite give and take.

    Mr Odigie-Oyegun’s fate may be sealed, but he has spawned a complicit and fawning adders nest of supporters to keep the party prancing on hot coals. The pathetic cipher, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, has lost a friend and supporter, if not a mentor, in Mr Odigie-Oyegun. Mr Akeredolu will sulk over the departure of the chairman and remain inconsolable because he has a long memory — the Ondo governor has a fondness for making enemies without apparently any serious provocation. Muiz Banire, the party’s legal adviser, who is not as liberal as many think, wages his own private war and allows it to colour the discharge of his duties as a party official. Indeed, it took Mr Odigie-Oyegun’s cavalier style to manage the competing groups and interests in the party’s National Working Committee (NWC). A strong chairman will find it tough going to cobble together a united party executive imbued with the discipline and principles the party would need to flourish in Nigeria’s tempestuous political waters. How that astute chairman will emerge should preoccupy the party’s leaders.

    But more saliently, for the party to be reformed, and for it to stand a decent chance in the next polls other than hoping that the opposition would remain fractionalised, will depend on how genuinely changed President Buhari becomes in the months ahead. Can he suddenly cease to be insular? Can his politics suddenly become inclusive? In view of the statement credited to his former ADC, Mustapha Jokolo, about the president’s reclusive and sanctimonious politics, can he suddenly throw his doors open, believe in the goodness and genuineness of his fellow party leaders, and run a government that is at once practical and philosophical? Indeed, can he assemble close aides from across the country into his security system in such a way that he can benefit from cross-fertilised ideas, suggestions and arguments from people of different backgrounds, whether ethnic or religious? Is he really at bottom the progressive and liberal his party and its principles and ideology presupposed?

    The APC has its work cut out for it. It will not only have to reclaim itself from the hands of buccaneers, as it is attempting to do, it will also have to develop the ideas, structure and consensus needed to run a disciplined organisation. That task is truly herculean. Had the president not been faced with the prospect of re-election, it is doubtful whether that journey of self-discovery and renewal would have begun in the first place. The problem, contrary to what many analysts and party officials say, is not that the president suffered a long-term health indisposition. The problem was that he was at the beginning not equipped to project and offer the kind of leadership his party and the country hoped for. If he is now discovering his real self, if he is already taking the first few tentative steps in that direction, the next few months will show whether his party and his own politics are indeed salvageable. For now, no one should give him the benefit of the doubt.

    The problem faced by the APC is not peculiar. The greatest need of the hour, if not in all of eternity, is finding a few men of character and judgement into whose hands the levers of power can be safely deposited. The world is impoverished by a lack of sound leaders. Nigeria is not an exception. And, sadly, the APC will soon find out how difficult it is to find one such leader to head their party, reform it, and prepare it for greatness. President Buhari only partially fits that bill at the State House; and since the APC appears stuck with him, should he win re-election, the country must be prepared to make do with half measures in the foreseeable future. The more urgent task, however, is for the party to find such a leader at the party level. There is no proof they will get one, except they are extremely lucky. They have noised a few men about, but none is likely to prove adequate. If they get a partial fit, would the party’s contextual but hostile and divided ideological environment make it possible for such a man to flourish and reposition the party? It is hard to tell.

    The opposition PDP hopes for a miracle to catapult them back into Aso Villa. It is foolish to rely on miracles, for even if that were possible, they could not hope to rule by miracles, as their disastrous 16 years in office proved. The APC could also be hoping for a miracle to get the right party chairman, and possibly to regenerate and refine President Buhari’s apolitical heart. They are welcome to chase their chimera. If ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria nirvana does not pick up momentum, if the revolutionary momentum the disaffected and the uproarious not-too-young-to-rule hope for does not occur, then Nigerians must hope that either the APC or the PDP gets it right. The tantalising prospect of getting it right lies better with the APC if they are able to overcome their fractionalisation and petty-minded politics.

  • Dapchi: it’s a national disaster – Buhari

    Dapchi: it’s a national disaster – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari is sorry about Monday’s invasion of the Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, by Boko Haram insurgents and their abduction of some students.

    He calls the attack a national disaster.

    “We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain,” Buhari said yesterday in a message to the parents and relations of the abducted students.

    He said no effort would be spared to find the abductees and bring them back home.

    The President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the government would deal with the situation and forestall a repeat.

    His words: “When I received the devastating news of the attack on the school and the fact that the local authorities could not account for all the students, I immediately dispatched a high-level delegation on a fact-finding visit to the town.

    “I also instructed the security agencies to deploy in full and not spare any effort to ensure that all the girls are returned safely, and the attackers arrested and made to face justice.

    “The entire country stands as one with the girls’ families, the government and the people of Yobe State. This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain.

    “We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

    “Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.”

  • Flood disaster: NEMA complies with Buhari’s order, moves to Benue

    Flood disaster: NEMA complies with Buhari’s order, moves to Benue

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has deployed a team to provide humanitarian services to victims of floods in Benue State, the Director-General of the agency, Mustapha Maihaja, announced yesterday.

    The reaction is in compliance with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Maihaja, in a statement through NEMA’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Sani Datti, said that the humanitarian team had been reinforced with another contingent headed by Air Commodore Paul Ohemu, Director, Search and Rescue.

    He said that this was in addition to the officers of the North-Central Zonal Office of NEMA in Jos.

    NEMA boss said they were to deliver immediate humanitarian assistance to the affected persons in the various locations and to assess the situation for further support.

    He said that seven 30-tonne trucks had been despatched to the state.

    Maihaja sympathised with the affected people and assured that NEMA would work closely with the state government in providing them with the necessary assistance.

    On  Thursday President Buhari directed NEMA to deploy personnel and resources to provide succour to victims of flooding in Benue.

    The flood displaced over 100,000 people in 12 local government areas of the state.

  • Funding threatens children’s education in conflict, disaster zones

    About 9.2 million children in conflict and disaster zones may not be able to acquire education, the United Nation Education Fund (UNICEF) has said.

    Of the $932 million needed this year for its education programmes in emergency countries, UNICEF has so far received recorded voluntary contributions of less than $115 million. The funds are necessary to give 9.2 million children affected by humanitarian crises access to formal and non-formal basic education.

    Funding shortfalls, the UN organ noted ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg, are threatening education  for millions of children caught up in conflicts or disasters.

    In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, UNICEF noted that of the $932 million needed this year for its education programmes in emergency countries, it has so far received recorded voluntary contributions of less than $115 million. The funds are necessary to give 9.2 million children affected by humanitarian crises access to formal and non-formal basic education.

    “Without education, children grow up without the knowledge and skills they need to contribute to the peace and the development of their countries and economies, aggravating an already desperate situation for millions of children,” said Muzoon Almellehan, UNICEF’s latest and youngest Goodwill Ambassador, speaking from Hamburg, Germany, where she is representing UNICEF at the G20 Summit.

    “For the millions of children growing up in war zones, the threats are even more daunting: Not going to school leaves children vulnerable to early marriage, child labour and recruitment by armed forces.”

    Funding gaps for UNICEF education programmes in some of the world’s hot spots vary from 36 per cent in Iraq, to 64 per cent in Syria, 74 per cent in Yemen and 78 per cent in the Central African Republic.

    Pursuing educational opportunities has been cited as one of the push factors leading families and children to flee their homes, often at great risk to their lives. A survey of refugee and migrant children in Italy revealed that 38 per cent of them headed for Europe to gain access to learning opportunities. A similar survey in Greece showed that one in three parents or caretakers said that seeking education for their children was the main reason they left their countries for Europe.

  • Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding, is big headache for Lagos State. Yearly, it devises means of curtailing the menace in order to save lives and properties. The government gathered stakeholders to find solution to the seemingly intracable problem plaguing communities along the plains of Ogun River, MUYIWA LUCAS reports.

    Sunday Osagie, a young man living in Edo State, had earnestly looked forward to his vacation in Lagos. That was in June 2012. But he didn’t plan for what he later experienced. His holiday was spent indoors, courtesy of the heavy downpour that began on the second day of his arrival. For seven days, the heavens opened up, emptying its bellies, filling the surface of the earth with water. Across the state were endless stretches of rainwater, which constitututed heavy floods.  And in the process, the state’s economy practically shut down. For more than two weeks after the downpour, everywhere in the state remained flooded.

    It has since been established that while nature may take its natural course in flooding, human activities such as dams’ construction may lead to flooding if not properly managed. The perenial Lagos flooding, experts say, could be attributed to many factors such as torrential rainfall, poor drainage system, poor sewage management and disposal, poor urban planning control, deforestation and climate change. All of these factors have combined to make flooding a regular occurrence in most areas of the state, particularly the Ogun River downstream areas, such as Akute, Kara market, Ishasi, Isheri, Ojodu –Abiodun, Ajiliti and Ajegunle Mile 12 axis of the state.

    Determined to find a lasting solution to it, the state last week, organised a two-day summit on the “Negative Impacts of Flooding of Ogun River on Adjoining Towns and Villages in Lagos State”.  The summit, which held in Alausa, Ikeja, aimed at mitigating the effects of the flooding of Ogun River plains and maximising the benefits derivable from the river basin, which include transportation, fishing/farming, power generation and water supply.

    The State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, who spoke through his Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, said Lagosians along the plains of the Ogun river usually suffer the hardship brought about by the recurrent flooding of the river, owing to the discharge of water from the Oyan Dam, managed by Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA).

    “Over the years, people in flood plains, especially Ajegunle (Ikorodu), Owode-Elede, Agiliti, Maidan and Itowolo, have been at the receiving end of the flooding of the plains of Ogun River” he said.

    According to him, the operational activities of dams, being subject to vagaries of nature, sometimes produce unpleasant consequences to the immediate environment, while human activities, resulting in flagrant abuses of the environment are also contributory factors.

    He said: “While the forces of nature can be adapted to, all man-made factors must be adequately dealt with for sustainable environmental renewal,” adding that, to bequeath a sustainable environment to posterity, Lagosians must change their attitude to the environment.

    Ambode disclosed that in response to the phenomenon of Flooding, the state had strengthened Flood Early Warning Signs (FEWS) to deliver reliable, timely and effective flood information to the people at an appropriate response time.

    As part of measures to relieve the pains of people living along Ogun River plains, Governor Ambode, stressed the commitment of his administration to strengthen the existing relationship with the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority for effective Dam management.

    Ogun-Osun River Basin is located in the Southwestern part of Nigeria, with a land area of 101,802 km2, which is 11 per cent of the total area of the country. The river basin covers Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and parts of Kwara States. It is drained by two main rivers–Ogun and Oshun, a number of tributaries and smaller rivers, the most important among them are Sasa, Ona, Ibu, Ofiki, Oni, Oyan, Opeki and Yewa.

    In his paper presented at the summit entitled: “Some Evidence of Changing Climate and the implications on Flood Events in Nigeria,”Director-General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi, agreed that in addition to the changes in weather patterns, Nigeria has also been experiencing extreme weather events in line with the global trend. He said the extent and intensity of the 2012 flood in Nigeria was almost the worst in recent history.

    He based his submission on statistics from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which reported that at least 363 persons were killed; 5,871 people were injured; over 590,000 homes were destroyed and over 2.1 million persons displaced by the flood in 2012.  Mashi further said the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) carried out by the World Bank revealed that the losses and damages to infrastructure- transport, electricity, water and sanitation, occasioned by the flood amounted to $398 million. The combined value of the damages and production losses stood at $16.9 billion, representing 1.4 per cent of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2012.

    The floods affected 35 out of the 36 states, covering 3,870 communities in 256 Local Government Areas. He said Agriculture ranks among the most vulnerable sectors to extreme weather events. The estimated damage and loss inflicted on the agricultural sector in Nigeria by the 2012 flood, according to him, stood at N481.53 billion, representing 40.6  per cent of the total for the productive sectors.

    From the various plenary session and presentations at the summit, it was evident that flooding in Lagos can be attributed to natural and anthropogenic causes. The natural causes include the flat topography, coastal location, low elevation relative to mean sea Level, climate, hydrology, and soil characteristics while anthropogenic causes include haphazard land-use and physical planning.

    Besides, Lagos, through its Lagoon and Creeks, receives all the waters from the Ogun and Osun river basins for onward release to the Atlantic Ocean via the Commodore Channel. This, in combination with its small geographic size, and extensive urbanisation make Lagos incredibly vulnerable to flooding. Also is the effect of climate change, which is said to be responsible for the extreme weather events such as floods that the country now experiences.

    The summit also noted that the hydrological network within the country are few with insufficient annual financial budgetary support to maintain basic hydrological services and their data collection activities, putting lives and infrastructure at risk and limiting the potential for better and informed decision making. It further noted that flood prevention and management efforts can only be achieved if interdisciplinary and inter-governmental approaches are adopted, and affected communities are sensitised of potential and actual risks in order to induce their pre-cautionary actions, and ature conservation measures adopted.

    The Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams, stakeholders agreed, are underutilised assets, especially as regards their hydro-electrical power generation and irrigation potentials, which offer alternative uses of the Ogun and Oshun basins’ waters that should help prevent flooding of downstream communities. They are convinced that the rapid increase in settlement areas, and corresponding decrease in vegetation cover, non-urban land (floodplains) and channel coverage along the Ogun River course in Lagos and Ogun states are the underlying reasons for the flood impacts during heavy rainfall and release of water from Oyan dam in Ogun State.

    Communique

    Arising from the summit, a communique was issued and signed by stakeholders in attendance. Part of it was that: Physical development (housing estates, industrial estates etc) on Ogun River flood plains must be discouraged by both governments of Lagos and Ogun; that Lagos State should strengthen collaboration with the NiMET, OORBDA, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NiHSA) and other relevant MDAs, for early warning systems on Ogun River; all identified stakeholders (Federal Government, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo states and OORBDA) should ensure that both Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams are put to their maximum usage in order to prevent flooding the downstream. Where necessary, new upstream dams, channels, floodwalls, levees, retaining walls and piers, as well as non-structural options such as natural ecosystems, planted degraded wetlands be used as buffers against flood prone areas. All these they said, should be seriously considered as protective measures by the Federal Government; Lagos and Ogun states and that they should liaise with other relevant stakeholders, especially OORBDA to produce flood risk maps, comprehensive flood plain management plans and set up flood management teams for communities at risk. The stakeholders, it was agreed, must adopt Integrated Water Resources Management plan (IWRM), which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

    It was also agreed that the Federal and Lagos State, OORBDA and tertiary institutions should facilitate easy access to all relevant data in the public domain from past studies relevant for flood management. Re-afforestation of the flood plains, they said, must be seriously considered for urgent implementation by Lagos and Ogun states, while the Federal Government should partner Lagos State for further studies to better understand the tidal effect of Lagos Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean on the flood plains.

    The OORBDA and the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, it was recommended, should spearhead the formation of a Technical Committee to work with other states(Ogun, Osun and Oyo) to facilitate regular holding of similar fora. OORBDA, again, should strive to reduce the negative impacts of the Oyan and Ikere Gorge Dams on communities in the Ogun River Basin by followinginternationally acceptable best practices in their reservoir operations.

  • Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding: Lagos moves to avert disaster

    Flooding, is big headache for Lagos State. Yearly, it devises means of curtailing the menace  in order to save life and properties. Last week, it gathered stakeholders to find solution to the seemingly intracable problem plaguing  communities along the plains of Ogun River, MUYIWA LUCAS reports.

    Sunday Osagie, a young man living in Edo State, had earnestly looked forward to his vacation in Lagos. That was in June 2012. But he didn’t plan for what he later experienced. His holiday was spent indoors, courtesy of the heavy downpour that began on the second day of his arrival. For seven days, the heavens opened up, emptying its bellies, filling the surface of the earth with water. Across the state were endless stretches of rainwater, which constitututed heavy floods.  And in the process, the state’s economy practically shut down. For more than two weeks after the downpour, everywhere in the state remained flooded.

    It has since been established that while nature may take its natural course in flooding, human activities such as dams’ construction may lead to flooding if not properly managed. The perenial Lagos flooding, experts say, could be attributed to many factors such as torrential rainfall, poor drainage system, poor sewage management and disposal, poor urban planning control, deforestation and climate change. All of these factors have combined to make flooding a regular occurrence in most areas of the state, particularly the Ogun River downstream areas, such as Akute, Kara market, Ishasi, Isheri, Ojodu –Abiodun, Ajiliti and Ajegunle Mile 12 axis of the state.

    Determined to find a lasting solution to it, the state last week, organised a two-day summit on the “Negative Impacts of Flooding of Ogun River on Adjoining Towns and Villages in Lagos State”.  The summit, which held in Alausa, Ikeja, aimed at mitigating the effects of the flooding of Ogun River plains and maximising the benefits derivable from the river basin, which include transportation, fishing/farming, power generation and water supply.

    The State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, who spoke through his Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, said Lagosians along the plains of the Ogun river usually suffer the hardship brought about by the recurrent flooding of the river, owing to the discharge of water from the Oyan Dam, managed by Ogun-Oshun River Basin DevelopmentAuthority (OORBDA).

    “Over the years, people in flood plains, especially Ajegunle (Ikorodu), Owode-Elede, Agiliti, Maidan and Itowolo, have been at the receiving end of the flooding of the plains of Ogun River” he said.

    According to him, the operational activities of dams, being subject to vagaries of nature, sometimes produce unpleasant consequences to the immediate environment, while human activities, resulting in flagrant abuses of the environment are also contributory factors.

    He said: “While the forces of nature can be adapted to, all man-made factors must be adequately dealt with for sustainable environmental renewal,” adding that, to bequeath a sustainable environment to posterity, Lagosians must change their attitude to the environment.

    Ambode disclosed that in response to the phenomenon of Flooding, the state had strengthened Flood Early Warning Signs (FEWS) to deliver reliable, timely and effective flood information to the people at an appropriate response time.

    As part of measures to relieve the pains of people living along Ogun River plains, Governor Ambode, stressed the commitment of his administration to strengthen the existing relationship with the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority for effective Dam management.

    Ogun-Osun River Basin is located in the Southwestern part of Nigeria, with a land area of 101,802 km2, which is 11 per cent of the total area of the country. The river basin covers Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and parts of Kwara States. It is drained by two main rivers–Ogun and Oshun, a number of tributaries and smaller rivers, the most important among them are Sasa, Ona, Ibu, Ofiki, Oni, Oyan, Opeki and Yewa.

    In his paper presented at the summit entitled: “Some Evidence of Changing Climate and the implications on Flood Events in Nigeria,”Director-General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi, agreed that in addition to the changes in weather patterns, Nigeria has also been experiencing extreme weather events in line with the global trend. He said the extent and intensity of the 2012 flood in Nigeria was almost the worst in recent history.

    He based his submission on statistics from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which reported that at least 363 persons were killed; 5,871 people were injured; over 590,000 homes were destroyed and over 2.1 million persons displaced by the flood in 2012.  Mashi further said the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) carried out by the World Bank revealed that the losses and damages to infrastructure- transport, electricity, water and sanitation, occasioned by the flood amounted to $398 million. The combined value of the damages and production losses stood at $16.9 billion, representing 1.4 per cent of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2012.

    The floods affected 35 out of the 36 states, covering 3,870 communities in 256 Local Government Areas. He said Agriculture ranks among the most vulnerable sectors to extreme weather events. The estimated damage and loss inflicted on the agricultural sector in Nigeria by the 2012 flood, according to him, stood at N481.53 billion, representing 40.6  per cent of the total for the productive sectors.

    From the various plenary session and presentations at the summit, it was evident that flooding in Lagos can be attributed to natural and anthropogenic causes. The natural causes include the flat topography, coastal location, low elevation relative to mean sea Level, climate, hydrology, and soil characteristics while anthropogenic causes include haphazard land-use and physical planning.

    Besides, Lagos, through its Lagoon and Creeks, receives all the waters from the Ogun and Osun river basins for onward release to the Atlantic Ocean via the Commodore Channel. This, in combination with its small geographic size, and extensive urbanisation make Lagos incredibly vulnerable to flooding. Also is the effect of climate change, which is said to be responsible for the extreme weather events such as floods that the country now experiences.

    The summit also noted that the hydrological network within the country are few with insufficient annual financial budgetary support to maintain basic hydrological services and their data collection activities, putting lives and infrastructure at risk and limiting the potential for better and informed decision making. It further noted that flood prevention and management efforts can only be achieved if interdisciplinary and inter-governmental approaches are adopted, and affected communities are sensitised of potential and actual risks in order to induce their pre-cautionary actions, and ature conservation measures adopted.

    The Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams, stakeholders agreed, are underutilised assets, especially as regards their hydro-electrical power generation and irrigation potentials, which offer alternative uses of the Ogun and Oshun basins’ waters that should help prevent flooding of downstream communities. They are convinced that the rapid increase in settlement areas, and corresponding decrease in vegetation cover, non-urban land (floodplains) and channel coverage along the Ogun River course in Lagos and Ogun states are the underlying reasons for the flood impacts during heavy rainfall and release of water from Oyan dam in Ogun State.

     

    Communique

    Arising from the summit, a communique was issued and signed by stakeholders in attendance. Part of it was that: Physical development (housing estates, industrial estates etc) on Ogun River flood plains must be discouraged by both governments of Lagos and Ogun; that Lagos State should strengthen collaboration with the NiMET, OORBDA, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NiHSA) and other relevant MDAs, for early warning systems on Ogun River; all identified stakeholders (Federal Government, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo states and OORBDA) should ensure that both Oyan and Ikere Gorge dams are put to their maximum usage in order to prevent flooding the downstream. Where necessary, new upstream dams, channels, floodwalls, levees, retaining walls and piers, as well as non-structural options such as natural ecosystems, planted degraded wetlands be used as buffers against flood prone areas. All these they said, should be seriously considered as protective measures by the Federal Government; Lagos and Ogun states and that they should liaise with other relevant stakeholders, especially OORBDA to produce flood risk maps, comprehensive flood plain management plans and set up flood management teams for communities at risk. The stakeholders, it was agreed, must adopt Integrated Water Resources Management plan (IWRM), which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

    It was also agreed that the Federal and Lagos State, OORBDA and tertiary institutions should facilitate easy access to all relevant data in the public domain from past studies relevant for flood management. Re-afforestation of the flood plains, they said, must be seriously considered for urgent implementation by Lagos and Ogun states, while the Federal Government should partner Lagos State for further studies to better understand the tidal effect of Lagos Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean on the flood plains.

    The OORBDA and the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, it was recommended, should spearhead the formation of a Technical Committee to work with other states(Ogun, Osun and Oyo) to facilitate regular holding of similar fora. OORBDA, again, should strive to reduce the negative impacts of the Oyan and Ikere Gorge Dams on communities in the Ogun River Basin by followinginternationally acceptable best practices in their reservoir operations.

  • Kiama bridge on East-West Road: Disaster waiting to happen

    Kiama bridge on East-West Road: Disaster waiting to happen

    The East-West Road remains a sad reminder of the failures of former President Goodluck Jonathan. He left the Presidency without completing the road adjudged as the most critical gateway linking the Niger Delta region to other parts of the country.

    Ironically, the most deplorable part of the abandoned road is the axis criss-crossing Bayelsa, the home state of Jonathan. Kaima bridge is the worst hit. The bridge is a ticking time bomb. Unless something urgent is done to temporarily repair it, the bridge may one day become a scene of death and blood.

    The failed bridge is located in Kaiama, the hometown of the popular late Ijaw hero, Maj. Isaac Adaka Boroh in Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. Initially signs that all was not well with the bridge emerged when the connecting rods and concrete linking the road to the bridge began to show disconnections.

    Then road users took solace in a fathom hope that they would soon be diverted to the bridge at the other side of the dual carriage way, which was then under construction. But it has now become a long way to freedom as all work on the second bridge has been abandoned. Nothing was also done to close the widening gap that emerged at the entry and exit points of the existing bridge.

    Now the gap has widened into a gulf and vehicles find it extremely difficult manipulating the bridge edges. The road is always busy because all kinds of vehicles including articulated trucks ply it in torrents. The daily weight of the vehicles has further worsened the fate of the bridge.

    For regular users with mastery of the road, the collapsing bridge poses little danger because they apply tact and care to manipulate the dangerous zones. But for persons plying the road for the first time, the danger is ominous. It becomes a death trap if darkness meets the unsuspecting new user.

    Recently, the bridge was a scene of chaotic traffic snarl. Hundreds of vehicles queued to pass through it. The passengers had their hearts on their hands as their vehicles maneuvered the dangerous areas. Some screamed, others kicked as their complaints saturated the atmosphere.

    A passenger of one of the vehicles who identified himself as Simon decried the silence of the Federal Ministry of Works on the plight of the road users. He said in the spirits of the change mantra, the Federal Government is expected to wade swiftly into emergency situations.

    “This is a disaster waiting to happen. We have been crying and lamenting over the nature of this bridge because we know one day it will cause a heavy accident. They do as if they don’t know that this problem exist. When people die now, you will see them sending condolence messages”, he said.

    An indigene of Kaiama, who refused to give his name, said though they’re were disappointed in Jonathan’s administration, the present government should fix the abandoned road.

    “Jonathan failed us. We know but government is a continuum. The present administration should hasten the construction of the East-West road. They should first treat the case of Kaiama budge as an emergency. We don’t want our town to be a scene of death”, he said.

    A motorist, who gave his name as John said he had suffered at the bridge and wondered the fate of persons plying the road for the first time especially at night. He said it was pathetic that such danger was allowed to linger for a long time.

    He said: ”It is unthinkable and worrisome that the major expressway linking the people of South-South was allowed to degenerate to such a pathetic level. From the look of things, the way the bridge is now, if nothing is done quickly to fix it, we will soon be cut off from other states.

    ”One expects that there should be people going round such sensitive asset, but as it were, nobody seems to care. Maybe they do not want us to travel to other places again. I do not want to know who is responsible for what, what the people want is that the bridge should be repaired to save us from an impending catastrophic danger.”

    Also Patricia, a commuter, said East West road had become a major stumbling block to the people of the Niger Delta region.

    She said: ”The Bayelsa State section of the expressway has remained unattended to for a long time. The contractors handling the road rehabilitation have been dilly-dallying. I do not intend to lay the blame completely at their door because in Nigeria, anything goes. As we speak, maybe they have not paid them their money.

    ”It is a pity that a road that should be rehabilitated with a bias is allowed to deteriorate in such a pathetic manner. This is no time for buck-passing. We urge the government to come to the rescue of road users and fix the bridge quickly.”

    Responding to the matter, the Bayelsa State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Mr. Wobin Ayuba Gora, said he had written to the Federal Ministry of Works in the state about the development.

    He said: “We have written to the Federal Ministry of Works. I believe that they will soon do something. The last time something like this came up, we wrote and they did something.

    “They piped some iron to reduce the gap. But now that the thing is expanding, they should do more than piping irons. Something needs to be done urgently and I am sure something will be done”.

    Gora said he would send a reminder to the ministry to alert them on the need to address the situation urgently.

    But the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Lawrence Ewrhudjakpor, said Kaiama bridge is a federal government’s responsibility and had nothing to do with the state government.

    He said, “My duty is to inform the Federal Controller of Works in the state and I have duly informed him. He is aware of the problem on Kaiama bridge.

    “Bayelsa State has spent over N40bn on federal roads in the state without any refund from the Federal Government. As for us, we have done the needful by informing the relevant federal authorities”.