Nigeria has been experiencing flooding not seen since 2012, ten years ago. These floods affect majority of the 36 states in Nigeria; from the north to the south, from east to west. It is everywhere! And there projections that more will come.
The immediate causes for this include the release of the Lagdo dam in the Cameroons and the unprecedented downpour recorded in Nigeria recently. Furthermore, there are a lot of remote causes amongst which are bad water management, bad town planning, the inability of Nigeria to construct the Dasin Hausa dam that could have been more than twice the capacity of the Lagdo dam in present-day Adamawa State. It has been more than two score years, yet the dam has not been constructed. The dam would have not only helped with situations like floods but will also give additional economic benefits including helping Nigeria with its perennial power problems.
These floods have affected half a million hectares of land; led to the loss of almost a thousand people; about two million people displaced and hundreds of billions of naira worth of property destroyed! It is really sad. Lives and livelihoods alike have been caught in the crosshairs.
As if that is not bad enough, these floods will lead to elevated food inflation levels and exacerbated food insecurity in Nigeria by the end of the year and in the coming year. For farmlands have been destroyed, including the Olam farms responsible for a quarter of Nigeria’s rice output. This is besides the small holder farms being displaced and their farmlands being destroyed.
Nigeria is a deficit rice producer, needing 7 million metric tonnes but producing 5 million metric tonnes. And with these floods, the gap will increase . And not only for rice but for other crops and even animals.
Nigeria has a reputation as poverty central with the number of people living below the poverty line expected to climb further as projected by the world bank to almost 100 million people. Equally bad is the report by the GHI (Global Hunger Index) which placed Nigeria at number 103 out of 121 and a score of a measly 27 out of 100. Consequently, these floods will make already bad situations even worse. Even the spectre of the likelihoods with these floods. Food inflation will climb a little bit more and food security will definitely be threatened.
However, all hope is not lost as there are remedies. Temporary measures such as opening Nigeria’s food reserves to help the most vulnerable in the population will go a long way. In the long term, agriculture in Nigeria has to be modernized and be made more efficient and effective in every way possible. Easy access to credit; reform of Nigeria’s land tenure system; subsidies for production; mechanization and innovation must all be deployed to fix the problem in permanent. Other solutions include beating insecurity like Boko Haram, ISWAP, and herder-farmer clashes as they have discouraged farmers as they make farming increasingly risky. The Ukrainian War has not helped matters and the state needs to take measures to make future wars like this not have impacts on the Nigerian population. There is also a need to diversify Nigeria’s export earning and government revenue.
J Damara
October 26, 2022 at 5:55 pm
Well said, Dr.
We hope the authorities put up good and feasible measures to reduce the flood impacts.
Dauda
October 26, 2022 at 5:57 pm
Clear brief and precise. So insightful. The government now has go fa e two damage control;
1. The environmental/property.
2. Relief for displaced person’s, and
3. Effect on agriculture/food.
A permanent solution should be adopted to avoid such a sad and costly tragedy.
Thank you Dr. Samson Galadima.