Sam Amadi, public affairs expert has said the ecological fund are rarely well used, oftentimes less than 30% of the fund gets to the people involved in terms of building the right kind of structures and good infrastructures that will mitigate the impact of those problems.
He said the natural disasters in Niger are compounded by lack of foresight, although natural there are in terms of failure critical infrastructure failure around that area.
He added that the key stage in tackling these natural disaster is community engagement, addressing their vulnerability and level of advocacy.
However, the quality of governance plays a key role citing that the people have a pattern of predicting danger which climate change has made unpredictable
Speaking in an interview on ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, he pointed out that a lasting solution must be made, though it’s natural disaster it’s perennial.
“Now, they say to be forewarned is to be forearmed. What do you think those affected states that have been identified and properly named should do to provide the kind of tragedy we have witnessed in Mokwa? Because this flooding occurs perennially, and anytime it happens, we just lament, and we move on until the next rainy season. There are some disasters. That’s what we call natural. We know that the rains might be heavy this year. We can’t stop them from being heavy.
“But we can now go around building plans, look at our infrastructure, look at our communities, look at things that have to be done, and even the preparedness and coordination drills so that those who are going to intervene, think about flooding, and it takes you like four hours to intervene.”
He added, “By the time you intervene, for example, the escape routes have been closed. It becomes more difficult to evacuate people and to save lives or to prevent loss of property. So the point is that we are still, we lack the capabilities that we need if we don’t prepare ahead of time, and the capacity to trigger that capability at the right time.”
According to him, the level of intelligence and preparedness needs to improve, owning degrees in meteorology and science does not connote to efficiency.
“These states that I indicated that they’re going to have problems, do they have, you know, units that are studying this? Do they have even scientific reports that tell them the severity, that shows them their vulnerability? There was an office in the VP’s office last election, last government, I don’t know why it’s still there, headed by one smart guy, which is called the Climatic Preparedness Unit. Are we deployed, are we invested in knowledge systems that tell us our vulnerabilities in very clear actionable points?”
He highlighted the necessity for the government to revisit conversations on climate change. He argued that the former VP, Yemi Osinbajo had genuine concern for global discourse in sustainability and the current government should focus on Nigeria’s economic and social development rather than ‘politicking’.
“And again, Professor Osinbajo has the intelligence to really understand the conversations globally and had the interest. And like I said, he had an office. He brought an office that was basically around preparedness. Genuine commitment, genuine concern, and enough intelligence to follow the conversation and understand what it means long-term for Nigeria’s economic and social sustainability.”
“So I think that’s what is missing now is that the kind of politics or the governance focus is more around politicking to perhaps deal with many more constraints in terms of there’s not enough bandwidth in my understanding, dealing with these other hardcore issues around sustainability. Again, I think the Buhari administration had less concern about maybe political prospects. Buhari was a little bit more secured electorally than the current government.”
Boluwatife Oyaniyi
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