Delight Chinedum
When renowned Nigerian music icon, Fela Anikulapo Kuti composed one of his popular lyrics, “Water no get enemy”, far back 1975, little did he factor in the devastating effects this same essential commodity he celebrated years ago would have and still having on several Nigerians.
While the music star was obviously looking at the positive sides of water, including its drinking, bathing, washing and cooking merits, many Nigerians, particularly those displaced and sacked by erosion ocassioned by ravaging flood over the decades, as well as those currently battling with the scourge will vehemently disagree with him. Infact, water remains their greatest enemy as far as flood/erosion menace is concerned.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria as a country is plagued with serious ecological problems, namely erosion with its attendant displacement of residents particularly in the Southeast; oil exploration, causing oil spills and degradation of fishing waters and farms in the South-South, desertification drying water bodies, denuding the soil, and displacing thousands in the North-East and North-West, among others.
For residents of Southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, the fear of gully erosion has been the beginning of wisdom. While their houses and farmlands are being swept away by rapidly expanding gully erosion sites, many residents in the affected areas are abandoning their ancestral homes.
Farmers in the affected communities, on their part, are counting their losses as reduction of income forced by poor harvest, loss of biodiversity, development of fragmented lands and shortage of land for other uses threaten their livelihood.
It is estimated that there are over 4,000 erosion sites in the Southeast. Anambra State alone accounts for over 1,400 of the figure, earning her the unenviable description as the worst erosion-hit state in West Africa by the World Bank and other international donor agencies.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo had in September, 2022, declared the state as erosion capital of Nigeria. Speaking to State House Correspondents after meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, argued that only an urgent intervention from the Federal government and other development partners could salvage the situation.
He however said his administration was introducing better environmental awareness among the people to limit the challenge.
He said, “The environment is our number one existential threat, other than security, and Anambra is the erosion capital of Nigeria. Perhaps, you might know that about 30% to 40% of our land is under threat of erosion, there’s no other state like Anambra when it comes to erosion.
“Even last week somewhere between Ezinhifite/Osumenyin Road was cut off again and several huge gullies everywhere; Obosi, Oko, Nanka, Aguolo, everywhere, there’s erosion menace.
“As I said, while our landmass is shrinking massively due to erosion and so on, it’s far beyond the capacity of a state government to deal with. Even if you were to sink the entire budget of the state for the next ten years into dealing with the gully erosion in the state, it will still be like a drop in the ocean.”
Soludo however assured his government readiness to “partner effectively with the federal government” and other development partners to address the issue.
“It is a state of emergency, with regards to erosion. And of course, we’re also promoting this concept of responsible citizenship on the part of our people, to be able to take some responsible steps.
“We are providing some regulations; people controlling the runoff water from their homes, they don’t just pipe them and get them off on the streets. Of course, they must go somewhere, contain it within your place. Building controls; will designate drain versus buildable areas, and so on and so forth.
“Then, of course, trying to tackle these things with early warning signals, and we’ll begin to tackle them. Clean up our drainages and make sure we channel runoff waters down to rivers and so on and so forth and not let them percolate on the road or try to go to unwanted places and so on and so forth,” he said.
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma had lamented that the erosion menace in the state was far beyond the capacity of the state government to handle.
Speaking through his Deputy, Prof. Placid Njoku during an inspection with his team to one of the erosion sites in the state, Uzodinma expressed shock at the level of devastation in the area, reassuring the people of his passion about tackling the menace and had sent a “Save Our Soul” (SOS) message to the Federal Government to rescue his people by providing some interventions.
In Abia, statistics has it that over 3000 active erosion sites exist in the state, with majority of them domiciled in Abia North particularly Isuikwuato, Umunneochi and Bende council areas.
Other erosion sites in the State include Okpulukwu gully erosion at Umuosu Nsulu, Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area and two lives have been lost to the erosion; Umuchime gully erosion located in Ogbodiukwu—Umuopara, Umuahia South Local Government Area.
Amidst these myriad of erosion scattered across the region, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has always predicted more rainfall and likelihood of more flooding as each year rolled to an end.
Meanwhile, Federal government, in response to appeals by governments of the various states being ravaged by the scourge, proactively, had enacted legislation that created the Ecological Fund since the 1980s. The fund is sustained by taxes as a buffer and intervention nest to help the states and LGs implement remedial programmes. Money from the fund is disbursed regularly.
Just in September 12, 2024, President Bola Tinubu approved N108 billion for states to combat natural disasters, with each state being entitled to N3 billion.
Confirming the approval, Vice President Kashim Shettima, while hosting House of Representatives Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, said, “The President has shown his zeal, willingness and commitment to partner with the states towards addressing these issues.
“Recently, he approved the release of N3 billion to each state of the federation to address some of these challenges so that all parts of the federation should have buy-in and belonging.”
The speaker, on his part, promised that the House would give all necessary support to assist the victims.
He said: “We in the National Assembly are looking all through to see what kind of support we will give to the people affected.
“Insha Allah, it will come to pass, and people will go back to their normal lives and businesses as if it did not happen because we and you will make sure that we provide all the palliatives for them to regain their means of livelihood.”
Regrettably, however, while flood had continued to pose serious “enemies” of victims of erosion disasters in the affected areas, those in charge of funds dedicated for managing ecological related matters, including flooding and erosion have constituted themselves “bigger enemies” of these erosion victims as the officials regularly plunder the funds with reckless abandon.
Some experts had blamed increased vulnerability of many states to the growing scourge of floods and gully erosion on poor implementation of ecological funds, while others argue that no coordinated legislative action has been taken to address these issues of mismanagement associated with the use of ecological funds.
The 2023 probe of the alleged misapplication of over N82 billion of the Ecological Fund by a House of Representatives ad hoc committee remained a classical example of serial abuse of the intervention fund over the years. The probe, unfortunately, turned out to be another charade of allegations, sordid revelations, and eventual sweeping of the case under the carpet.
Twenty seven states had earlier reportedly shunned another probe by the Public Complaints Commission. The agency said a total N177.8 billion was shared among the 36 states and 774 local governments between January 2020 and September 2022. Allegedly, most of it has not been properly accounted for.
According to editorial of one of the national dailies of September 14, 2023, the institutions that should monitor, oversee and compel proper accounting were accused to be weak and compromised. These include the National Assembly, state Houses of Assembly, statutory auditors, and the anti-graft agencies. For federal and state officials, the funds are “pocket money,” which they routinely embezzle.
“While many governors have been accused of diverting the ecological funds without reprimand, only one, a former governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, was successfully prosecuted and jailed with his conviction confirmed by the Supreme Court. He served less than three years of his 12-year sentence before he was accorded Presidential pardon.
“As part of his rejected defence, Dariye claimed that N100 million out of the N1.1 billion misappropriated was used to fund the re-election bid of then President Olusegun Obasanjo. This untenable defence merely confirms the attitude of officials to the buffer.
“Interventions such as tree planting projects have also been enmeshed in corruption. In August, the House discovered that the National Agency for the Great Green Wall spent N81.2 billion to plant 21 million trees across 11 frontline states. Tree planting projects started in the 1980s, but subsequent governments and agencies have failed to upgrade the campaign despite increased funding, leading to faster deforestation.
“The National Assembly should be more effective in its oversight. It should stop voting fresh funding to federal agencies that fail to account for previous funds and satisfactorily justify expenditure. They should also show tangible results. The state parliaments should similarly assert their independence by overseeing the ecological projects in their constituents.
“The anti-graft agencies should go after the thieves. The Reps started on a wrong footing by barring journalists from the proceedings. They should demonstrate more seriousness. Civil society organisations should step up their surveillance and whistleblowing,” the editorial partly read.