Different parts of Nigeria have been subjected to the devastating impact of heavy rains and flooding. Investments worth billions of naira have been lost.

In some cases, individuals have either been injured or dispatched to their early graves. Even some burial sites have not been spared as they were violated. Some of the remains therein were dislodged and floated in some communities especially in Bayelsa State.

New Telegraph sympathises and empathises with the victims of the rain and flood disasters across the country. We pray that the good Lord, who is the Great Comforter, would wipe away their tears and give them the much-sought restoration.

We also pray that Nigerians would not have to slide into sorrow when Mother Nature decides to bless Mankind with the necessity of rains in future.

The relevant agencies of government at the state and federal levels have responded to the rain and flood disasters by embarking on rescue operations while urging those who live in flood-prone areas to relocate to higher grounds which are undoubtedly safer places.

Some of the affected state governments have started to knock on the door of the Federal Government (FG) requesting that the latter mobilise material and financial resources to save the victim-states and their communities from further devastation.

Unfortunately, these are adhoc interventions likened to that of the Fire Service when contacted to make a similar intervention in a fire-raging scene. If the fire-fighting team ever succeeds in making an impact in its outing, the team, no matter, its level of dedication would not and never succeed in preventing a fresh outbreak of fire in future, with what, at best, is rightly a reactive measure.

The admonition by the relevant publicly-owned disaster management agencies for the trapped persons to move to higher grounds is like pouring water on the rock. In some instances, the stranded persons lack the capacity to relocate to higher ground on their own and would need to be airlifted out of the danger zone.

The sought financial and material assistance from the FG is equally ad-hoc in nature and will only constitute a temporary relief to the state and their devastated communities. The FG’s hand out is incapable of providing a permanent solution to the rain and flood-induced devastation across the country.

Though the rains come with a measure of flooding and devastation, New Telegraph will not campaign against the benevolent descent of rains on Mankind. The benefits unleashed on humanity through the opening up of the heavens outweigh the disadvantages.

The more consistent and vigorous the rains are, the more excited and committed the farmers and other agricultural practitioners become to stay at their duty-posts, though with guaranteed security, to produce food crops for domestic consumption and cash crops for local manufacturing of different categories of products for export.

This will help Nigeria earn substantial foreign exchange and be persuaded to purge itself of uncontrolled borrowing thus reducing its embarrassingly maintain-high debt profile. We recall with sadness the famine that occurred in Northern Nigeria on two occasions.

Aided by inadequate rainfall, the first occurred in 1855 while the second lasted for two years between 1912 and 1914. With the rains, the environment becomes cleaner thus putting some diseases on a prolonged sabbatical from humanity.

We make bold to say that the rain and flood-induced devastations are a by-product of man’s environmental unfriendliness and the failure of the federal, state and local governments to consistently put in place proactive measures to help make the rains and floods less destructive.

While state governments should not be discouraged from requesting assistance from the FG with regard to tackling the flood disasters, but we push for a strengthening of the 36 state governments and the 774 local government councils with more administrative and fiscal powers/responsibilities.

The trend whereby some states will be pleading with the FG to make an ecological intervention so as to help save their communities from being erased from the face of the earth is illogical and misplaced. Almost all the funds that the FG lays claim to be generated within the jurisdictions of the local governments.

It is therefore commonsensical to allow the local government areas to be reasonably empowered so as to be able to discharge sensitive obligations including tackling rain and flood-induced devastations. It should be made mandatory for all state and local governments to have functional disaster management agencies.

This would help reduce the over-dependence on the federally owned body, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). All the tiers of administration should mainstream disaster management into the curricula of the educational institutions under their control.

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