Flooding has become a perennial problem in Nigeria and has taken a major toll on the nation’s economy. This year, several hundreds of death cases including mass destruction of property and displacement of persons have been recorded in the country due to flooding.
Though the effect has been unprecedented, the occurrence of flooding this year has not been unexpected. Earlier this year, the National Emergency Management Agency had predicted that not less than 22 out of 36 states in Nigeria including the federal capital, Abuja would be affected by flooding this year. How the Government has been able to respond to the crisis still leaves much to be desired.
Therefore, many indigenes of the mostly affected regions, especially Benue and Kogi states in the North-Central as well as Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta in the South-South have vehemently hounded the Federal Government for its tardiness in extending palliatives and relief materials to victims of floods forced out of their homes and left without shelter, food and potable water.
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In response to the above, the Presidency has stated that over one trillion Naira has been allocated to all states from the Ecological Fund to tackle floods and other ecological problems, and it has challenged state and regional governments to give account of how they’ve been able to use disaster-management funds which have been allocated to them in the last three years.
The Federal Government in a statement it released on Wednesday has also said that contrary to popular belief, the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon was not responsible for the large-scale flooding in Nigeria.
According to a news report by the Vanguard, roughly N1 trillion, that is 2.2 per cent of the total budget for 2018, 2019 and 2023 was budgeted for ecological and disaster management. In 2018, 2.2 per cent of the estimated of N9.120 trillion budget, amounting to N198 billion was set aside for the Ecological Fund; in 2019, the 2.2 per cent amount of the budget of N132 billion was allocated for the Fund, while in 2023, 2.2 per cent of the N21 trillion budget indicated N462 billion allocation for Ecological Fund.
The report shows that a search of the website of the Ecological Fund Office for details of accruals and monthly/ quarterly releases to states and federal agencies did not yield the desired results. Similarly, a search of the budget implementation report leaves much to be desired.
“The House of Representatives had since June, launched a probe into the utilization of the fund for the past 10 years. This is not the first time such a probe is taking place in the National Assembly” the Vanguard stated.
The Presidency has therefore expressed indignation over how public attention has consistently been on the Federal Government instead of the states and regional governments that have received the chunk of the ecological funds set aside for disaster management.
The Presidency also reiterated the need for state governors to own the responsibilities of their offices by responding to the needs of their citizens in the face of growing floods and other ecologically-related disasters.