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When natural disasters hit, communities are often devastated and left vulnerable, having little access to some of life’s essentials, such as food, clean water, shelter, and basic services. While they must deal with the tragic loss of human life and property, they also have to face the uncertainty of seeing their livelihoods destroyed or severely affected.
One natural disaster that we are often threatened by in Kogi State is flooding. This is consequent upon the fact that river Niger and Benue have their routes across many local governments areas in the state with their confluence in Lokoja, this makes the state prone to flooding whenever there is high rainfall and water level increases.
The 2012 experience remains very fresh in our memory and it is still being used as a reference when discussing the devastating effects of flooding on Kogi State.
Properties were destroyed, lives and livelihoods were lost with many people still counting their losses up till date. It was indeed a devastating period in the recent history of our state.
Since the coming on board of Alhaji Yahaya Bello as the Governor of Kogi State, priority is placed on the environment.
Having learnt from the mistakes of the past, the Governor understood that despite it being a natural disaster, there are certain human acts which can make its effects more devastating, hence the need to control such human acts. And this can only be achieved through massive sensitization of the public on environmental practices and the enforcement of environmental laws.
The government took a proactive step by mandating the Ministry of Environment to carry out the task of coordinating sensitization, especially to areas marked as flood prone. The measure is geared towards preventing any reoccurrence of the 2012 flood disaster which took the state “by a storm”.
Therefore, from the streets of Kabba, down to the fish markets in Lokoja and KotonKarfe, the jingle was on. At Ibaji, Dekina, Bassa, Ajaokuta Ofu….. the message is the same; clear the drainages, don’t build houses on water channels, don’t block waterways and so on. And this is being done year in, year out.
Although this year’s flooding came with its own devastating effects on the people, we are however glad that it has receded. However, efforts of the New Direction Government under the able leadership of Alhaji Yahaya Bello that mitigated the hardship faced by the affected communities cannot be overemphasized.
Towards the middle of this year when NIMET forecast that there might be flooding, the type similar to that of 2012 and Kogi State was listed among the top 5 to be worst hit. The Governor did not wait for Federal Government intervention before he quickly tasked the Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders to double up sensitization and monitoring to safeguard residents. While this was ongoing, the water level continued to rise, even faster than expected. Once again, we were face to face with the monster that visited us in 2012, and this time around more daring.
As a government that doesn’t express hopelessness when confronted with any challenge, efforts were doubled in providing temporary camps for the affected. Of course it was not enough to camp people somewhere without catering to their welfare, especially when their livelihoods are destroyed. Even though a camp cannot be as comfortable as the home they fled from, Kogi State Government prioritized the welfare of the internally displaced by providing emergency relief items such as food stuff, drugs, mattresses and standby medical teams to attend to any medical emergencies in all of the camps. All these were put in place even before the Federal Government declared a state of emergency and NEMA fully came on ground to do their bit.
The devastating flooding covered a vast area which are mostly agrarian, submerged over 200 communities and rendered about a million people homeless in the state. Leading to a loss of an estimated 100 Billion Naira in farm products and other properties. However, this year’s flooding witnessed limited loss of lives as compared to the 2012 episode. This was as a result of the Kogi State government’s emergency preparedness which has strengthened community responses to natural disasters through sensitization. The government is not resting on its oars as we have continued with assisting disaster recovery, reconstruction, and mitigation.
Indeed, the disaster in focus was so well managed by Kogi State Government led by the dynamic Governor Bello that when a certain state pulled out of hosting the 2nd Education Summit due to the flooding experienced by the state, Kogi State saved the day as it stepped up to the Challenge hosting a hugely successful summit even though it also experienced serious flooding.
We have a government that places premium on the security of lives and properties of Kogites, a government that confronts challenges rather than shy away from them or wait for the Federal Government. Kogi State is blessed with a governor who is never caught napping where the lives of the citizens are concerned and threatened either by criminals or nature and man?s activities in the environment, Governor Bello rises to the occasion, each and every time.
– Petra Akinti Onyegbule
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