WE CAN JOINTLY CONTAIN THE ANNUAL FLOODS AND SAVE PRECIOUS LIVES

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 7. NO 266. 16th September, 2018.] “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

WE CAN JOINTLY CONTAIN THE ANNUAL FLOODS AND SAVE PRECIOUS LIVES

Nigeria's annual deluge had been devoid of the accompaniment of hurricane/typhoon or severe tropical cyclone storms as being regularly experienced in the Far East, China/Japan and presently in the United States/United Kingdom.
According to latest reports about 1.7 million people on the US East Coast were being told to evacuate ahead of the Super Typhoon Mangkhut, considered the strongest storm so far this season, YET, adequate measures were always put in place in those climes unlike in Nigeria, to save the precious lives of their citizens through regular typhoon-tracking-devices and maps!

Another terrible Super Typhoon Jebi, (said to be the strongest on earth), which travelled at 170 miles per hour (mph), hit Japan, but with all  the resistant measures put in place, only eleven unfortunate deaths were recorded!

First, their hydrological and meteorological agencies were kept at RED ALERT all-year round to release, promptly and urgently regular weather forecasts and information on the movement of the EARTH vis-a-vis tropical cyclone ocean storms, which could be very dangerous and devastating both on the land and the seas when and where they occurred! In view of their promptness and civil obedience to early warnings, many lives were saved while immobile properties would suffer the colossal damages instead!

Second, the governments of those countries, value the life of every citizen with utmost dedication and patriotic passion and in view of the co-operation on both sides in cases of national emergencies - whether it be natural disasters/calamities or even wars, the ratio of citizens response to national calls with instructions on how avoid or reduce casualty figures to the barest minimum is classic and worthy of emulation!

Weather phenomenon has been present since the creation of the EARTH and Man who has divine authority to take DOMINION and SUBDUE all negative eventualities must live up to the task because all the forces of the world are subjected to his authority if he applied godly wisdom! If Man could discover other planets outside of the SUN, and had actually travelled to the MOON through scientific inventions/discoveries/expertise, he should also be sufficiently knowledgeable to save his own planet and population from extinction!
In Nigeria's 2018 floodings predicted would affect 35 States, about 141  deaths had been recorded according to official reports by Nigeria Hydrological Agency (NHSA), 19,369 people displaced, 5,732 houses destroyed, with Katsina, worst hit with 61 deaths!  In 2012, the nation suffered and unprecented flood casualties when an estimated 363 lives were lost, 2.1 million people displaced in 30 of the 36 States and properties worth billions of naira were lost due to several untenable factors, including the large volume of waters unguardedly released from the LAGDO DAM of Cameroon and ECONOMIC LOSSES WAS PUT AT N2.5. TRILLION!
As usual, panicky measures were taken by all affected States and the Federal Government to provide succour to unfortunate victims and with assurances that history would never repeat itself! But in spite of the predictions/forecasts of the Weather Agencies the flooding debacle has become an annual ritual from 2012 to date because, they were ignored and unheeded by the generality of both rural and urban dwellers! The unabated flood disasters of the past FIVE years since 2012 has led credence to the fact that, all efforts by both Federal and State Governments to assuage the massive annual loss of precious human lives and properties have been sheer shadow boxing!
In particular, the year 2015 re-enacted the unsavoury episode of a flooded nation that was gradually being sub-merged under a deluge of waters when Adamawa and Benue States which had the greatest casualty figures in 2012, turned out to be the hardest hit with alarming disaster statistics as the rains began in torrents!
As far back as the month of May, 2018, NHSA, through the Minister of Water Resource released information on flood outlooks in 35 States of the Federation with stern warnings to all coastal dwellers to move upland to avoid the dangers of loss of lives and properties during the impending floodings!

Presently, Adamawa and Benue States which had the greatest casualty figures in 2012 have again turned out be the worst hit as both have recorded alarming statistics of disaster since the rains began in torrents. In that year, nine, out of 21 Adamawa's Local Government Areas (LGAs),  were flooded, over 50 communities submerged in Kiri Dam while not less than 10 persons drowned and about one million people would be affected as malnutrition had also hit the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp in the State!
In Benue State, the situation was virtually identical, as several LGAs have equally been submerged in Makurdi, Gboko in the ensuing deluge with over 3.000 houses submerged, lives and properties running into billions of naira having been lost and thousands of IDPs languishing in various improvised camps!
And in 2018, the loss is still humongous because rural waterways and river basins dwellers’ did not believe in weather forecasts and flood alerts by professional meteorologists in respect of weather conditions during the wet seasons! 
Unlike the year 2012 when Nigeria recorded one of the heaviest down-pour in history coupled with the sudden unannounced and unprecedented release of excess water from neighbouring Republic of Cameroon’s LAGDO DAM, there were early warnings by both National and States Emergency Management Agencies (NEMAs), of another flooding of several States during the 2018 rainy season!
Why would survivors of the 2012 national flooding disaster return to dwell on the waterways having lost their loved ones, properties and farmlands in the past in spite of the much publicised monetary and structural palliatives appropriated by both the National and State Governments to relocate and alleviate their plight and sufferings?
Victims of the unfortunate deluge who moved upland were treated like some undeserving internally displaced persons for a few weeks and later abandoned to their fate afterwards! Some who were interviewed in Kogi State confessed that their occupation as farmers and fishermen would always keep them nearest the waterways and basins where they could afford cheap accommodation commensurate to their livelihood since government would not provide alternative domicile abode for them!
We were aware that some billions of naira was appropriated by the Federal Government to the States as intervention funds to succour and alleviate the plight of flood victims while donor agencies also contributed financially to support the helpless and hapless citizens of the unfortunate flood to build low-cost houses for them, but from various negative reports in respect of the disbursements, it has become imperative for the new government of President Buhari to institute and inquiry to authenticate whether the funds actually served the intended purposes or not!

THERE IS A FRESH RED ALERT THAT LAGDO DAM WOULD BE RELEASED THIS WEEK-END 16-17TH SEPTEMBER, 2018
A Dam is built as barrier across a river to hold back the water for variety of reasons namely:
(1) Control flooding;
(2) Store water for drinking and irrigation;
(3) To improve navigation or produce thermal power; and
(4) To create artificial lakes and reservoirs as refuge for wildlife and also for recreation.

When the Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam was constructed on River Benue, south of the city of Garoua between 1977 and 1982, it was intended to supply electricity to the Northern part of the country and also to allow for irrigation of about 15.000 hectares of farmland crops downstream. According to its construction statistics, Lagdo Dam which is 308m long, 40m in height and 9m thick had performed optimally until the year 2012 when it had to suddenly discharge excess waters without prior notice or warning to Nigerian authorities! Could the Cameroon government be totally blamed for that disaster even when Nigeria was advised to build a BUFFER DAM downstream (precisely in present day Adamawa State) in the early 80s while Lagdo was still under construction to counter excess waters when it began operation? Thirty-three years down the line Adamawa State could only boast of some dredging and excavations at Dasin Hausa site and not a Buffer Dam!
It is however gratifying that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), was signed between Nigeria and Cameroon in 2013 to share information on rainfall and how to manage excess water without leading to flood disasters. The Agreement also stipulated that before excess water could be released from Lagdo Dam, Nigeria should have been adequately warned in order to put proactive measures in place to prevent destruction of lives and properties. Cameroon authorities have kept their word in respect of the MOU because alert of impending release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam in 2018, had already been communicated to Nigerian authorities and all stakeholders – especially- the National and States Emergency Management Agencies who have swung into action since early May, 2018 to warn communities along Rivers Niger and Benue of possible flood between early August/September to November 2018!
States likely to be affected this year by river flooding apart from Adamawa, Benue and Kogi are Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi, Sokoto and Anambra States while coastal flooding resulting from sea level rise and tidal surges will likely occur in Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers and Lagos States and flash floods could be experienced in some urban locations such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Birnin Kebbi, Ibadan, Abeokuta and other towns along the country’s coast line.

After exiting Cameroon, River Benue proceeds West, south of the Mandara Mountains passing the city of Yola (Jimeta) to Makurdi, prior to discharging to the River Niger at Lokoja, the confluence city. The way forward in the interim is for the new Federal Government to complete the abandoned Dasin Hausa buffer dam in Adamawa State and also repair the submerged  1.2 kilometre Kiri Dam in Guyak LGA, damming  the Gongola  River, while long term measures should include more buffer dams along Rivers Benue and Katsina –Ala as a permanent solution to the persistent and perennial flooding along the banks of the two rivers and mutual collaboration between all government agencies involved in  environmental sanitation assignments! Since there would be further rising water level with the continuous release of Lagdo Dam excess water in September, 2018, there should be stricter compliance of the mitigating measures of MAN-MADE activities to ensure that wastes and refuse were not dumped into canals and drainages for free flow of flood waters!
Citizens MUST become environmentally conscious to comply with weather predictions through NASA, NiMET, Fire Brigade, Police, NSCDC, the Armed Forces including, NGO's and other agencies which are committed to save precious lives at all times! Strong punitive measures, by law-enforcement agencies, not excluding prosecution and jail sentences, should also be employed on citizens who fail to obey meteorological RED ALERTS henceforth to serve as deterrents to STIFF-NECKED AND INCURABLY STUBBORN people who are bent on committing SUICIDE!
There must be a greater bond between this CHANGE administration and all patriotic citizens to avoid the annual wastages of precious human lives in Nigeria!

WHERE THERE IS A CONSENSUS WILL, THERE WILL SURELY BE A WAY OUT OF EVERY QUAGMIRE!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.