The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, says flood killed about 68 people, while the devastating impact affected 35 States of the federation including Federal Capital Territory FCT, 320 Local Government Areas, with over 129,000 people affected.

The Director General of NEMA, Muhammadu Muhammed stated this at the opening of the 2020 flood After Action Review Technical meeting’ with State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) and other key stakeholders in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Muhammed explained that the incident also posed a big threat to the nation as it washed away farm lands leaving their owners to grapple with the attendant losses.

To address the challenge, a flood after action Review Technical meeting was organised in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital to proffer solutions to the challenges facing the emergency sector related to flood disaster and management in Nigeria.

According to Muhammed, the meeting is a platform to enhance disaster risk reduction governance.

” The technical meeting therefore is planned to review various activities carried out in respect of 2020 flood preparedness, mitigation and response with a view to capturing lessons learnt and to make recommendations that can improve the ability of our Institutions to coordinate actions that will guide future actions on flooding in Nigeria. An after action review also geared towards improving performance by reflecting on activities, thereby avoiding past mistakes and replicating successes, capture lesson learned and identify recommended changes for implementation,’’ he explained.

Muhammed reiterated the agency’s commitment to support State Emergency Management Agency, SEMAs to build their capacities and enhance their response capacity.

“I wish to say that we are aware of the challenges some of SEMAs are facing such as low capacity and use of ad-hoc staff causing inconsistency in response coordination with NEMA and other relevant stakeholders. Let me reiterate that we are determined to support SEMAs to build their capacities and enhance their response capacity,’’ the NEMA boss stated.

The Director General, Nigeria Hydrological Agency NIHSA, Clement Nzeh, said that there was need to develop plans that would help to build resilience among venerable communities.

Nzeh said; “The year 2020 has been particularly significant, flood had affected all the states in the country causing loss of life, property and livelihood. The impact of flooding on farm lands and farming activities posed a big threat to food security. 

“We are all aware of the imputation to farm lands and critical Infrastructure in Kebbi and Jigawa State and by extension to other part of the country, despite the issuance of flood early warning information by NISAH and response measures that were put in place by NEMA and SEMAs. This experience is point to the fact that emergency and disaster preparedness and response is a dynamic circles. Flood disasters are highly prone to climate change and further supported by human activity on the environment. Hence the realisation for an integrated approach to flood management and the need to build the resilience of the vulnerable communities is inevitable,’’

On behalf of the SEMA’s Executives, the Chairman SEMA Kebbi State, Mr. Sani Doododo, noted that the meeting would broaden the understanding of states emergency agencies in responding to flood related crisis.

“Flooding has come and now subsided so we have to look at the aftermath of it. What are the consequences that we have seen so that we can go back to our drawing board and see what we can do to solve the problem in the future? Honestly we have seen a lot of devastating flood this year, coming here today we are going to reason together with all the stakeholders and come up with a strategic plan to tackle the issue.

“Now Harmattan season is approaching, this when we have a lot of fire outbreak disasters, you see we are yet to deal with Covid-19 Pandemic, the flooding is also here and now harmattan is around the corner…All these are serious issues so coming here gives us the opportunity to reason and get ideas  one another especially from  experts, then go back home and implement what we have learnt.’’

Stakeholders were urged to focus more on coordination, policy and procedures, strategic level multi-agency coordination and decision making as well as training and staffing, preparedness and contingency planning, information and data collection.

Mercy Chukwudiebere

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has been on a humanitarian visit to Gwoza towns of Ngoshe, Warabe and Pulka, all in Gwoza Local Government Area of Southern Borno.

While in Ngoshe, Governor Zulum supervised the distribution of food items and 24 million naira in cash to 1, 200 vulnerable citizens of the town, who returned from Pulka and Maiduguri.

Each household received a 50 kilograms bag of maize, 1 bag of 50 kilograms of sorghum, a 25 kilograms bag of beans, a 12.5 kilograms bag of rice, 5 litres of cooking oil, other condiments and 20,000 naira cash.

Resettled communities

During the distribution, Governor Zulum said the intervention was aimed at continually supporting resettled communities before the rainy season, during which they would be expected to undertake agricultural activities in safety in farmlands as part of livelihoods.

It will be recalled that the returnees to Ngoshe went back on October 15, 2020, after due clearance from the military.

The Borno State Governor also assessedsome basic amenities in the town and immediately ordered the State Universal Basic Education Board to urgently provide furniture and ensure the reopening of the Ngoshe Central Primary School within the next two weeks.

The school project is currently at 95 percent completion level.

Governor Zulum also visited an ongoing Ngoshe Primary Healthcare Centre, where he charged the contractor to accelerate efforts and ensure its completion, to enable health workers provide services to the community.

After leaving Ngoshe, Governor Zulum traveled to Warabe, where he also inspected 350 houses being built for residents whose homes were destroyed by insurgents.

The Borno State Governor also visited Pulka and inspected the construction of a mega secondary school.

Lateefah Ibrahim

The Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, Professor Noah Yusuf has appealed to the Federal Government to provide grants for private Universities in order to enhance the quality of their infrastructure and services.

Professor Yusuf made the appeal on Saturday during the 10th Convocation ceremony of the University, where he underscored the need for such grants, explaining that the current Covid-19 pandemic has shown the desirability of government grants to private Universities in Nigeria.

Critical partners
According to him, Private Universities are critical partners with governments at all levels in the training of Nigerian youths and the production of manpower for the employment market.

“Private Universities are governed by the same government regulations and rules that govern the operations of public Universities. Their academic programmes and mode of operation are subject to the regulations of the National Universities Commission, a body that employs the same rules in accrediting and supervising the academic programmes and curricular of both Private and Public Universities.

” If Private Universities are under the same regulatory agency as the Public Universities, why can they not enjoy the same benefits that are given to public Universities?”

Professor Yusuf who became the Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University in July 2020, also called for a total overhaul of University education in Nigeria to make Nigerian graduates become job creators rather than job seekers.

“...So that our universities will stop training graduates for non-existent civil service jobs,” he said.

The Al-Hikmah University boss said University education these days should incorporate entrepreneurial skills beyond the level currently provided by the General Studies programme in the University curriculum.

The Vice Chancellor, however stated that the University was graduating 751 students at the undergraduate level, 18 of the figure were in First Class Honours, 240 in Second Class Upper Division, and 402 in Second Class Lower Division, while 91 came out with Third Class.

He said that 60 students graduated with Postgraduate (Masters) and 82 students in Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) category.

However, the Vice Chancellor of the Kwara State University (KWASU), Professor Muhammed Mustapaha Akanbi SAN, who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration, Professor Omololu Oladele Fapojuwo, congratulated the management of Al-Hikmah University on the 10th year Convocation ceremony.

He particularly commended the leadership role of the institution for it’s initiative in organising the virtual Convocation ceremony and wished the new graduands the very best in life as they were about entering labour market.

Also present at the event were the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem who is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, another former Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Professor Musbau Akanji, traditional rulers across kwara state, government functionaries among others.

Lateefah Ibrahim