Maiduguri Flood Disaster a Double Jeopardy for Residents - Duruoha

uh ferdinanda joins me now in the studio fresh uh from the firsthand experience there in meduri Ferdinand welcome back it's good to have you thank you so much on news night I mean tell us more about what you saw I mean one cannot begin to appreciate the the the this you know tragedy yeah in meduri you have to be on ground to appreciate the devastation now that's exactly why we had to do a quick in and out personally well to see things for myself and um it's because it's a double jeopardy like they they they say well it's a town recovering from you know Insurgency you know lots of the IDP camps were closed some of them gone back to their places to their ancestral homes unfortunately this devastating floods and you know they find themselves back into the camp again now we're talking about um close to 400,000 people or thereabout well that's the statistics from Neymar and um you know that particular camp that I visited the bakassi camp was housing over 14,500 talking about those registered yes I saw them saw I saw the register myself and you know uh you just want to feel for them uh children scrambling for anything they can find that looks like food no water and uh the sad thing with flooding is you know it's not just about displacement it comes with disease and then when it comes with yeah there are concerns about disease and then when it comes with it and then you also realize that yes where do you run to the hospitals themselves were affected speaking of where to run to before these floods or flooding happened there were early warning signs yes we've been told there's a need for even stronger earlier you know Warning Systems to be put uh in place true from what you saw to what extent would you say the state government indeed the federal government was prepared you know to mitigate the impact of this flood when it came let me tell you something well from what we gathered well we heard that um um you know just as recently as last week well a committee was sent to go and take a look at the allow D to see exactly if there was any risk and guess what the community came back and um you know for them it was uh on the negative that um everything was fine and just a couple of days back well this disaster happened the dam overflooded and you know broke its banks and this is exactly where we are now the sad point is that there are still persons who are trapped now we spoke to some of the Military Officers off record unfortunately where we couldn't get to you know some of those very interior places and that's because you know you go there you you just can't come out easily now we spoke to some of the military personnels who definitely have been at the Forefront and then trying to help out as well and um they complain about logistics and that's because well some of this you know they complain about logistics they complain about our infrastructure that's because you know you have to move these things and how do you move them when the roads themselves you know we started the VT with a look at you know some of the roads where some of the bridges connecting the towns and MRE itself are beginning to cave in you know F Before I Let You Go one issue that's been I mean bugling uh observers the issue of ecological funds right we hear that the president has given 3 billion Nara to each state uh the the governor of Boro state has confirmed that he has received uh his 3 billion but on the issue of ecological funds I mean they are meant to address these issues before they arise that's I think the in 2023 we hear that the state government I'm talking about B specifically now did not spend anything on you know environment and ensuring that this you know disasters um are minimized when they happen in 2024 in four months only milon has been it's sad and that's because when you take a look at you know bar State well I've been there a couple of times this year trying to look at the situation know the city recovery you know the state recovering from Insurgency and you see that um the government have done a whole lot in terms of that perspective security wise trying to resettle these persons and uh sometimes there's a setback you know the insurgents come chase them back and then they still have to do a whole lot more but it's sad to see that you know we have not taken this discussions further now don't forget it's not just about 2023 we saw the signs we you know we had lots of casualties in 2012 and I think the nation was supposed to take a major standard at that point when you remember that flooding in that flood incident that affected more than 30 States you're supposed to take a stand at that point that was exactly when they set out that eological fund so that states should begin to prepare but we didn't see lots of States even with neyar you know neyar making all the making all the you know uh complaints and then also even the meterological agencies you know shouting above their voices talking about states that we're going to see floods and you know we didn't see most of these states proactive measures put in place and right now people there are people who are stranded they can't get to some of this present and it's very very it's it's very it's very bad you know there are some Graves that you know have been exed washed off due to you know due to the flooding there are you know sewage systems have been washed off due to you know due to flooding I saw that for myself even at the University teaching hospital and when you begin to question issues concerning hygiene in a hospital as major as the university teaching Hospital well the medical director did say that they were you know were the clean the cleaning measures you know the cleaning have started but then it wasn't just about cleaning you also have to disinfect before they could even bring in people so even when casualties were coming in you know they just couldn't accept them all and that's because where do they take them they had to evacuate the down flors and then take them to the second floor and so a whole lot more needs to be done but I think you did hit the nail on the head when you talked about proactive measures we have to be proactive that Dam you know you know showed signs our correspondent structural Integrity Str Integrity the dam showed signs even as far back as you know a couple of months back and we're supposed to ask questions but unfortunately well we are asking the questions now and we hope something will be done uh you know drastically about this situation uh yeah hopefully of course we're having thema next and they should be able to respond some of these questions Ferdinand Roa as always thank you very much for your work [Music]