Stop the politicisation of flooding

In Nigeria, we are not satisfied until we politicised every issue under the sun.

Recently, the minister of humanitarian and disaster management, Sadiya Farouq, while responding to a question of why the government is not paying attention to the flooding in Bayelsa, said the state is not among the top 10 worst hit states by flooding.

According to the estimation of the ministry, Jigawa is the number one worst-hit state based on some of its findings.

The ministry said the criteria used to conclude are based on the following indices: the number of deaths recorded and displaced persons per state, number of injuries, partially damaged, houses totally damaged, and farmlands partially and damaged.

According to the federal government’s flood data of October 24, 2022, 257,913 persons were affected in Bayelsa while 166,076 persons were affected in Jigawa. 219,471 were displaced in Bayelsa while 68,883 were displaced in Jigawa.

The number of injured persons was put at 81 and 148 for Bayelsa and Jigawa respectively. Also, 58 deaths were recorded in Bayelsa while 91 were recorded in Jigawa.

I agree that the minister should have been more tactful in her response but the backlash in the media space was unbelievable.

Indeed, every life lost to flooding or insecurity matters. To others, life lost may be another statistic but to someone, the person that died is a father, mother, child, brother, or sister.

What I can’t understand was how fast the minister’s remarks turned into a north versus south debate in the media space. She was accused of favouring the north and neglecting states in the south when distributing relief materials.

I read a response on social media when someone said how can you compare the deaths in the two states when most of the people that died in Jigawa are Almajiris. I don’t know how the person concluded that the people that died in Jigawa were Almajiris. What if there were Almajiris, so their lives are worthless?

I think the less attention we pay to politicising every issue under the sun, the faster we will develop as a country. Every debate must end up as a north VS south or Christian VS Muslim matter. It is tiring.

You will see educated and exposed persons throw common sense out of the window when it comes to issues of ethnicity and religion. Right now, the country is facing arguably its worst humanitarian crisis in recent years.

The federal government has said at least 603 people have been killed in floods across Nigeria with 1.3 million persons displaced from their communities.

Some of the states where deaths from floods have been reported include Kogi, Anambra, Kebbi, Delta, Bayelsa, and Jigawa, with about 31 states said to have experienced flooding in 2022.

The government also revealed that about 82,053 houses had been decimated, 2,504,095 million persons were affected, and 327 hectares of land were completely damaged.

I guess we will experience a food crisis next year and a possible epidemic because of the flooding. Medical experts have predicted the possible surge of the malaria epidemic in areas affected by floods.

Already, the World Food Programme and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said in September that Nigeria was among six countries facing a high risk of catastrophic levels of hunger. So far, 332,327 hectares of farmlands have been destroyed by the flooding.

We are facing serious issues and arguments about the north VS south divide won’t solve the issues. It won’t prevent the food crisis or stop the looming epidemic.

It’s funny how the countries that are progressing are the ones with less emphasis on religion. All hands must be on deck to solve the humanitarian crisis on our hands.

The politicians who exploit our fault lines of ethnicity and religion are always succeeding because we are obsessed with religion and ethnicity in the country. If we put just 10 percent of the effort we use into fighting for religion and use it to fight for good governance in the country, we would have made considerable progress by now.

I always tell people we have two religions and tribes in the country – the rich and poor. When they are looting our common patrimony, they forget about religion and tribe, they are one but when things go sour, they play the ethnic or religious card and the gullible supporters always fall for this well-orchestrated scam.

The sooner we begin to see ourselves as Nigerians who need to rescue the country and put ethnicity and religion in the back seat, the faster we will be on our way to el-dorado.