Flood disasters continue to ravage many parts of Bauchi State, mostly with debilitating effects. The government’s response to these disasters has mostly been reactionary; there is a visible lack of coordinated institutional structures with the capacity to respond to flood emergencies. This report by BELOVED JOHN documented that the state now has “floods refugees” forced to flee their houses and living at the mercy of relatives and other caregivers.
The loud shriek from outside Malama Safila’s house in Filin Shagari, Ganjuwa local government, jolted her out of bed, drawing her attention away from the baby by her side. It was raining heavily but the shrill in this high-pitched voice made the 24-year-old mother rush to the door shocked and frightened.
It was an alarm from her brother-in-law of an incident that would eventually kill his pregnant 54-year-old mother, Baba, as she was often addressed and his sister.
One of the buildings in the neighbourhood was crumbling.
It was the dead of the night; the atmosphere was dark and chilly. Rain splattered in puddles and dripped noisily on old tin roofs, its rhythm rising and falling. It had been pouring down for hours and the torrent was violent, so much that it began to tumble down Baba’s house.
As soon as Malama was alerted, she dashed out of the house to seek help, but the rain wreaked its havoc faster because, by the time the villagers gathered, it was too late for the pregnant mother and her daughter. The villagers could only rescue a child from the building.
Malama Safila recalls watching helplessly as the pregnant mother— who was already in her last trimester— and her child were crushed to death.
“I was in my room nursing my son who did not sleep when my husband’s brother knocked on my door to share the horrid news.
“I was in desperate need of help. I went around the whole of this area shouting for help but by the time people gathered. My pregnant mother-in-law and one of her daughters had died,” she recounted soberly.
Tragedy in Filin Shagari village
The days that followed the incident were difficult for Malama, each one felt harder than the last. Most nights, she slept with a stuffy nose, watery eyes, and a broken heart.
This incident is now 4 months old but the sadness and frustration that consumed Malama Safila still burns as it does on the night of the accident.
However, there is more to Malama’s pain; the death of her in-laws wasn’t the only tragedy that occurred. That night, there was heavy flooding, the kind that left a trail of disaster in every family in her community.
Houses crashed, cattle drowned, farmlands were destroyed, and her community was left in ruins. Many families lost all they owned because of the flooding and hers was one of them.
“It rained for hours that night and flood rose close to my shoulder level. My husband had to carry my children on his shoulders to a safe space outside our village.
“The incident ruined our lives. Now, we don’t have food or access to good shelter. Sometimes we are forced to beg for alms from residents of the communities not affected by the flood,” Malama cried out.
Malama now resides in a small apartment located in a neighbouring village with her husband and two kids. The house was provided by a friend after her home was ravaged by the flood disaster.
Unpleased to be at the mercy of an old distant friend who houses and feeds her family, Malama feels helpless and terrified. She fears that she is unable to ascertain the possibility of rebuilding and getting back the life she once had.
Nigeria’s worst flood disaster
The flooding Malama experienced is not only peculiar to her community, but it is also a nationwide environmental disaster that has led to the death of many people and the destruction of several properties.
From August to October 2022, Nigeria experienced its first flood disaster in at least a decade, with a widespread impact in 29 of the country’s 36 states and Bauchi is one of these states.
The crisis which was a result of climate change damaged 1,453 houses and numerous farmlands in Bauchi state.
A total of 2,185 villagers in the state were affected and about 90% of this total have been displaced.
The recent crisis is one of the country’s worst cases of flood disaster in the last decades.
The last major flood disaster occurred in 2012 when the Niger and Benue rivers overflowed their banks. In this case, about 500 people died, 7 million people were displaced and almost 600,000 houses were damaged.
How govt failure, deforestation, aid menace
An analysis by the World Weather Attribution group attributed the flooding that swamped many communities in Nigeria within the last six months to climate change.
According to the group, climate change triggered heavy rains, and the situation is likely to worsen in the coming years.
The analysis showed that Nigeria’s rainy season was 20% wetter than normal because of that climate and that an event of this intensity now has a one in ten chance of happening each year.
Heavy rains combined with deforestation has Nigeria more susceptible to flooding.
Despite being a signatory to the United Nations Convention on biodiversity, the country has failed since 1994, Nigeria government has failed to stop the illegal felling of trees. About 36% of the country’s trees have been removed in the last 20 years.
In 2020 the country lost 97.8 kilos of hectares of natural forest, which equated to 59.5 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
And to substantiate this, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) reported that Nigeria had lost 96% of its original forests.
In Bauchi state, the indiscriminate hauling of forests and burning of trees is prominent and is aided by state authorities.
An investigation by WikkiTimes revealed how political officeholders in the state enabled the plundering of the Lame Burra Game Reserve, one of the state’s forest reserves, for personal gains.
Between 2001 to 2021, Bauchi lost 4 hectares of tree cover. This is equivalent to a 0.49% decrease in tree cover.
The state’s disaster management preparedness is inadequate. The impact of the recent disaster on its residents showed the failure of the government to put preventive measures in place.
Yakubu Umar, an environmental activist who spoke to Hama media said; “the government at all levels have shown its systems are very weak to adequately respond to flood in Nigeria.
“In Bauchi as we speak, we now have floods refugees who are forced to leave their houses because the floods have literarily washed away everything they have, and the government has failed to come to their aid”, he said.
He insisted that the government has no mitigation and response plan to flooding, adding “they are mostly reactionary in the approach. “They rushed to flood scenes, make empty statements and disappear with sometimes no solution in sight”, he added.
Farmers recount losses
Dudduru, is another small Bauchi village that was swamped. The village which is located in Zaki LGA is only 3 away from Filin Shagari.
Residents of this village told Xchange Hama Media that it rained in the village until the entire area became overwhelmed with water. Not a single house or farmland was spared.
One of the locals affected by this was Muhammed Dudduru (45). The farmer had been preparing for harvest. His crops looked profitable and he felt grateful for the season. He had hoped for rain to keep nourishing his plant till his harvest time but the rainfall he experienced that month simply wrecked everything.
All his properties were damaged by the flood. The farmer said he lost his home, his cattle, and five farmlands.
As a result of the disaster, Dudduru, his two wives and 10 children had to construct three makeshift camps on the outskirts of their village to serve as temporary shelters.
“The farms submerged by the flood feed my family and are used to earn enough to repay the loan collected from a relative. But all that I have on the farms have been flooded, I don’t know what to do. How will a person who once harvested more than fifty bags of Guinea corn survive with only five.
“My beans, millets and sorghum were all washed away during the floods; we now suffer to get our daily bread. We have to resort to menial jobs before we could earn a living”, he said.
All the members of Dudduru’s village are all severely affected and traumatized by the incident. Hundreds of farmlands were destroyed, wives were separated from their spouses and everyone was displaced.
But the locals can do nothing but accept fate, which currently is the displacement of the victims from their homes and the destruction of their properties.
For many of the villagers who spoke to Xchange Hama Media, surviving in their camps and new shelter has been a struggle. Their access to food, Clothing and other necessities is limited.
The victims live under difficult conditions with no support from the authorities.
According to victims, the government is yet to render support or provide relief materials. No food, shelter, clothing or the hope of rebuilding.
“Nobody gave us anything to reduce our suffering, with no health care and shelter, we were left to our fate since the displacement of our homes and farms. We can only rely on the goodwill of other villagers for food and clothes. Some even allow us to squat in their compounds,” Musa Sauti, another displaced farmer said.
Another Farmer, Audu Umar in Kirfi local government area of Bauchi state said the flood disaster wiped out his fortunes for life. “I don’t think I will ever recover”, he says.
“We have never witnessed this kind of disaster in our entire life. I know nothing except farming, this flood has rendered me poor, and no one is coming to my rescue whatsoever”, he said.
Umar lost the 7 hectares of farmland he cultivated to the flood disaster, saying “I have invested about N2 million in farm implements and fertilizer, but nothing in the end”, he lamented.
Authorities speak
When Xchange Hama Media contacted Alhaji Bala Yakubu Lame, the director of the State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA), he revealed that relief packages for the affected victims are ready for distribution.
Lame affirmed that the agency is working to ensure that the impact of the flood on affected villagers is reduced.
He noted that at the beginning of the rainy season, the agency sensitized residents about the possible occurrence of flooding and the need to prepare for such environmental disasters.
“The impact of the flooding is grim. More than five hundred people were affected, and many were displaced but we were not allowed to disclose the number of victims who died. But the state government has the number.
“We have visited the affected communities, commiserated with them and I assured you very soon we will start distribution of the relief materials to them, ” he said.
However, Muhammed Usman Sale, Director of the state Environmental Protection Agency attributed the situation to the growing climate crisis.
According to him, human activities are the major causes of climate change, citing the burning of fossil fuels and unsanctioned clearing of trees, as the two most common activities.
To prevent a recurrence, Sale noted that proactive methods must be adopted by the government to protect the environment and ward off the possibility of more hazards.
This publication is produced with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
