The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has recorded 179 deaths in 15 states across Nigeria due to flood.
The Executive Director of NEMA, Zabaida Umar said the deaths were recorded since the onset of the 2024 rainy season.
Umar disclosed this during a fact-finding visit to the agency by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila on Wednesday in Abuja.
“Jigawa State recorded the highest number of deaths with 34 victims while Bayelsa, Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Taraba, Sokoto and Yobe each had 25, 25, 23, 13, 11, 10 and 10 victims respectively,” she said.
“Other states that recorded loss of lives are Adamawa where seven persons died, Katsina and Niger with five deaths each, Borno, Ebonyi and Kaduna with two deaths each and lastly, Nasarawa State with one death.”
Umar told Gbajabiamila that NEMA has continued to give support to disaster victims with food interventions, farm inputs, relief items and the resettlement of flood-displaced persons.
“NEMA carried out disaster assessments in almost all the states in the country such as in Ogun, Rivers, Imo, Lagos, Ekiti, Edo, Kwara and others,” she said.
“We coordinated the response to 158 emergencies, aiding 118,337 individuals and rescuing 4,706 persons.”
According to her, 137 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 28 states were affected by floods this year, impacting 532,600 individuals.
Umar added that 208,655 were displaced, 80,049 houses were affected, 2,016 injured and 107,652 hectares of farmlands were affected.
Speaking on the need to prioritise flood prevention as soon as predictions are out, Gbajabiamila called on state governments to make more budgetary and other provisions towards flood disaster mitigation to avert avoidable loss of lives and property.
“What is the role of the states in this regard, how do they come in, do we tweak the law so the legislators get the states more involved?,” he asked.
“These disasters occur in the states, not on the land of the federal government; they are local, so the states must be more involved.”
“The management of NEMA has to think inwardly and think outside the box towards finding alternative sources of funding for the agency to meet and realise its mandate.
“The mandate NEMA has is basically too broad and flooding has been observed as a perennial occurrence in Nigeria.
“However, most times, we wait until they happen to take action. This has to change and that would help in reducing the amount of money that goes into these disasters.
“A lot of funding is required for the work that you do, resources are limited and we have to prioritise.
“We must start thinking outside the box and look for more creative ways to fund NEMA’s activities outside the normal budgetary provisions.
“As we all know, the government cannot do everything or fund everything; it’s not possible.”
