homeless and disrupting socio-economic activities in affected areas. Earlier meteorological forecasts
notwithstanding, most of the victims were still caught unawares, coupled with the fact that the magnitude
of floods in some of the places was unprecedented in the country’s ecological history. In one of the
affected areas in Kogi State, for instance, it was like a phenomenal volcanic eruption. Houses and the Lokoja-Abuja road were submerged. Despite the spirited efforts of the National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) to ameliorate the consequences of the surges, cases of dislocation,
fatalities and sundry hardships characterized the unfortunate incident. At least 104 people were confirmed
to have died in floods in the North Central zone of the country, while 50,000 were displaced. The scope of the tragedy suggests that NEMA is either not fully equipped for such optimal interventionist
role or is suffering from under-funding and a dearth of emergency management professionals to grapple
with the challenge. In one of the cases, the water level kept rising thus compounding relief steps being
taken vis-à-vis evacuation of people from rooftops and trees. It is unfortunate that our response
mechanism to emergencies – either natural or man-made – is usually haphazard. Otherwise, in the circumstance of the Kogi flood, why would NEMA fall back on local canoes for its rescue
operations? When this kind of incident takes place in most other countries, there are visible technological
strategies that drastically minimize the impact. We cannot understand why an agency like NEMA should
not be well equipped and adequately funded by the Federal Government considering the life-saving nature
of its assignment. The most worrisome aspect is that by the time this kind of crisis recurs, NEMA and the country will be
caught napping again! According to the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, “the situation is not only
devastating but alarming going by the magnitude of damage to the communities as we had seen from the
air.” There is, however, no doubt that NEMA has been doing much within its capacity and constraints.
Other relevant establishments should show interest in these eruptions. The Kogi tragedy should serve as a warning to other parts of the country where flood and erosion have
been threatening human existence. This is the time to move in and begin to check such disaster-prone
areas like Ogbaru Local Government area of Anambra State and Oguta and Ohaji-Egbema Local
Government councils in Imo State that have been experiencing similar exposures. If anticipatory steps are not urgently taken, likelihood of disaster may quadruple. It must be pointed out
that the list of communities under threat is inexhaustible which calls for continuous seismic assessments
in areas that are known to have related susceptibility. It is appalling that it took the Federal Government
days to commence rescue intervention. Agreed that NEMA, which moved in immediately is a government
agency, but the issues involved, going by the magnitude of the mishap, were clearly above NEMA. We had expected the government to mobilize other institutional apparati to tackle the menace instead of
leaving it all to NEMA. In other climes, rescue missions for this kind of Kogi incident transcend agencies.
At any point, there must be contingency plan for emergencies. Obviously, the global climate change is a
major causative factor in the series of flooding afflicting not just Nigeria but other countries, too. No
government can stop these natural manifestations, but measures must be put in place so that when there
are geological disruptions, the level of damage will be reasonably low. There must be antidotes to these challenges when they confront us. It is not enough to attribute it to global
warming and go to sleep. We are supposed to conquer our environment and not vice versa. We empathise
with the families of those who died in the flooding incidents and hope that steps will be taken to ensure that
such tragedy does not befall our country anymore.
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