By Chukwuma Okoli & Ndu Nwokolo
Flooding has been identified as the most devastating natural disaster in the world and has remained the most recurring natural disaster in Nigeria. The frequency, intensity and impacts of flooding have worsened in Nigeria over the years. Between 2011 and 2020, Nigeria experienced 103 flood incidents across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with 9,501,777 persons affected, 1,187 lives lost, and properties worth $904,500 damaged. Northern Nigerian states are more prone to flooding and have been the worst hit by floods. Six northern states (Niger, Jigawa, Yobe, Kano, Katsina and Kebbi) accounted for 37 (35.9 per cent) of the total (103) floods recorded in Nigeria between 2011 and 2020 (see Umar & Gray, 2022). The year 2022 is reported to be the worst in a decade, with at least 300 lives lost and 500 persons injured as a result of the flooding, which affected about half a million people, displaced 100,000 others and destroyed thousands of hectares of farmlands across 27 states of Nigeria including the (FCT).
Beyond the loss of human lives and properties, flooding exposes communities to humanitarian crises and violent clashes arising from the scarcity of basic amenities. Nigeria is experiencing food insecurity caused by banditry, farmer-herder conflict, kidnapping, terrorism and other forms of criminalities and violence in many agro-communities. The agricultural losses recorded from recent flooding incidents will further worsen food scarcity. For instance, Olam company, one of Nigeria’s largest contributors to the rice value chain, had its farmland of around 4,400 hectares in Nasarawa state completely submerged by excess water from the River Benue. This is a red flag for food scarcity.
There is a consensus among experts that flooding in Nigeria and elsewhere is caused by both climate change and anthropogenic (human) factors. Climate change engenders extreme weather conditions and excessive levels of precipitation which cause flooding, while human actions like poor dams operation, inefficient waste management, building on natural waterways etc., are key contributory factors to flooding. For instance, the release of excess water from the Lagdo dam in the neighbouring Republic of Cameroon contributed significantly to the current flooding across Nigeria. There is also a governance failure on the part of Nigeria for failing to complete the building of the Dasin Hausa Dam in Adamawa state as agreed by the two countries years back. The Nigerian dam is supposed to act as a buffer for excess water from the Lagdo dam.
But, over the years, the Nigerian government has set up institutions saddled with managing natural disasters, including flooding, and has equally ratified various international protocols and frameworks to address climate change-related disasters such as flooding. For instance, on 30 July 2021, Nigeria submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) its first Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), further signposting the government’s commitment to actions that mitigate the effects of climate change. Nigeria is also a signatory to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015 – 2030). Despite these efforts, the increase in frequency, intensity and impacts of flooding, as experienced in 2022, puts to question the efficacy of disaster management policies, strategies and institutions in Nigeria, particularly in disaster prevention and reduction. This edition of Nextier SPD Weekly Policy throws a searchlight on the institutional gaps in Nigeria’s disaster risk management with particular attention to flooding.
- Dealing with Flooding in Nigeria: Alarm without Response or Responding after the Disaster?
Nigeria is a signatory to various milestone international frameworks and protocols for mitigating climate-related crises, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Over the years, Nigeria has also established agencies saddled with the task of disaster risk management. However, the recurring flooding and its associated devastations in Nigeria suggest the existence of institutional gaps and inadequacies in Nigeria’s efforts to deal with flooding and other climate-related disasters. One major institutional gap in Nigeria’s attempt to address flooding is the weak capacity for disaster risk prevention and reduction. One of the four priorities for action of the Sendai Framework is”Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience”, which, among other things, requires states to put in place structural, non-structural and functional disaster risk prevention and reduction measures in critical facilities such as schools, health facilities and other physical infrastructures to withstand hazards.
A review of key institutions saddled with the task of disaster risk management in Nigeria suggests that while they focus on early warning signals and ex post facto response to disasters, they lack the capacity and focus on putting in place disaster risk prevention and reduction. Three such institutions are worthy of mention here. First is the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), established in 1999 to replace the National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA). The Act establishing NEMA also established the State Emergency Management Committee for each of the 36 states. The core functions of NEMA, as specified in its establishment Act, border on ex post facto responses to disasters with a focus on search and rescue, relief and rehabilitation, and refugee management. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) was established in 2003 and provided an early warning on climate-related disasters, including flooding across the country, but it lacks the institutional capacity and mandate to prevent flooding even when it predicts imminent flooding.
Similarly, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA) was established in 2010 under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to maintain Nigeria’s hydrological stations, carry out groundwater exploration and assess Nigeria’s surface and groundwater resources. However, the NHSA has not been equipped with the capacity to prevent imminent flooding in the country. The absence of disaster risk prevention and reduction capacity of the institutions saddled with climate-related disasters such as flooding in Nigeria undermines the capacity of Nigeria to adequately prevent and reduce the incidents of flooding and its impacts. Given the intensity of climate change and the prevalence of other anthropogenic factors which cause flooding, Nigeria faces risks of more devastating flooding in the future if urgent actions are not taken to reverse the trend.
Addressing Recurring Flooding in Nigeria
Invest in disaster risk prevention and reduction: Nigeria must build the capacity of its disaster management institutions to prevent and reduce disaster risk by allocating adequate logistics to such institutions to prevent and reduce disaster occurrence through timely interventions.
Build Disaster-Resilient Communities: Nigeria must drive public and private investment in building disaster-resilient communities by building physical infrastructures that can withstand disasters and ensuring proper maintenance. The government must also invest in the people by building the capacity of the local people to understand and implement disaster risk reduction strategies in the communities to reduce anthropogenic factors contributing to disasters such as flooding.
Investing in the building of dams should be considered a top and urgent priority for the country as it would prevent the human and material losses often recorded yearly and contribute to the provision of much-needed electricity in the country.
Ensure legislation and implementation of policies integrating flood prevention and reduction into land use and urban planning, particularly in urban centres.
Strengthen climate governance: Nigeria must strengthen its climate governance – actions to protect the climate through articulation and adoption of multi-sectoral regulatory instruments that lay down general principles and defines the institutional framework for climate change policy and implementation. This can be done by leveraging the support of international development partners and consulting firms which can support the government in evolving and implementing evidence-based policies in line with international best practices.
Nigeria must deepen diplomatic relations and collaboration with its neighbours, like the Republic of Cameroon, in disaster risk prevention and reduction. That way, the release of water from reservoirs like the Lagdo dam will be adequately planned and managed to avert flooding.
- Policy Recommendations
- Nigeria must build the capacity of its disaster management institutions to prevent and reduce disaster risks.
- Nigeria must drive public and private investment in building disaster-resilient communities by building physical infrastructures which can withstand disasters.
- Nigeria must prioritise building dams.
- There is a need to ensure the legislation and implementation of policies integrating flood prevention and reduction into land use and urban planning.
- Nigeria must strengthen its climate governance – actions to protect the climate through articulation and to adopt multi-sectoral regulatory instruments.
- Nigeria must deepen diplomatic relations and collaboration with its neighbours, like the Republic of Cameroon, in disaster risk prevention and reduction.
- Conclusion
The recent flooding across many states in Nigeria attests to the increased intensity and impacts of flooding in Nigeria. The floods also expose the realities and threats of climate change-related disasters in Nigeria and across Africa. Despite efforts in disaster management, the floods experienced in 2022 reveal that weak capacity for disaster risk prevention and reduction remains a yawning institutional gap in Nigeria’s disaster risk management. There is an urgent need to address the recurring flooding and other climate change-related disasters experienced in Nigeria by investing in disaster risk reduction and prevention and building disaster-resilient communities.
(Dr. Okoli is Associate Consultant at Nextier SPD and Lecturer, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Dr. Nwokolo is Managing Partner/ Chief Executive, Nextier SPD and Honorary Research Fellow, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, UK.)
