By Jaye Gaskia
This raining season has come to be one of the most disastrous in our nation’s history, by the share scale and scope of the flooding and the consequent impacts on people, livelihoods, properties and infrastructures across the country. Yet this is a disaster foretold in all its elements, one whose impact could have been far less if those who govern us had taken the warnings seriously and taken preventive and mitigative actions in time!
Government’s
own agencies (NEMA & NIMET), as well as Ministries (Environment and
Agriculture) had warned at the beginning of the year that the pattern of
rainfall expected would very likely cause major floods. But who was listening?
Neither the federal government nor state governments! Even states which
suffered severe flooding last year took no preventive or mitigative actions
when new alerts were issued for this year.
Furthermore,
now that the disaster has come, with millions impacted in varying ways, with
infrastructure destroyed, with homes and livelihoods devastated, and the rising
possibilities of diseases and food insecurity, governments that misappropriated
and looted N400 billion ($2.6billion) in ecological funds in the last decade,
and that have not undertaken any serious assessments of the situation are
falling over themselves to access funds made available by a federal government
clueless about what needs and ought to be done.
This
disaster in its scale and scope was avoidable in terms of its impact, if
ecological funds have been spent for the purpose and not looted, and if the
warnings of possible flooding had been taken seriously. WE ARE A NATION
SUBMERGED IN FLOODS NOW BECAUSE WE ARE A NATION WHOSE POLITICAL ELITES HAVE
IMMERSED US IN A DELUGE OF CORRUPTION AND IMPUNITY.
It
is our country, let’s take it back. It is time for us to take our destiny into
our hands and organise and mobilise to TAKE BACK NIGERIA; and NOW IS THE TIME.
Enough of this mess. End Impunity Now.
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