More than one million people were displaced by flooding in Nigeria as at October 24, statistics from Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development Ministry showed.
This is as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, named Jigawa as the worst affected state by flood in the country.
Farouq who was reacting to a question from a journalist during media chat, noted that Bayelsa state is not the most affected.
Read also
- Flood impact: East-West Road gets N506b variation
- Floods: Investigate Ecological Fund spending– SERAP tells FG
- Flood: Residents face epidemic, starvation, homelessness in Bayelsa
Farouq and her ministry officials gave these explanations when they appeared on the Ministerial Media Briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Her explanations, comes just as Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri had recently accused the Federal Government of neglecting the state in response to the floods despite being the nation’s cash cow.
Her reactions also comes contrary to perceptions held in some quarters that Bayelsa may be the worst hit, especially as the state is mostly below sea level.
It also contradicted claims recently made by the Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, that as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, she was not humane over the treatment of areas hit by floods in Bayelsa and other parts of the South, she said it is Jigawa that is the most affected by the current floods.
Recall that Clark had said: “We have a humanitarian minister that is not humane, who was only active to carryout school feeding of school children who were confined to their homes during the Covid-19 lockdown.
In her response, Mrs Farouq said the Ministry had taken relief materials to Bayelsa through the Nigerian Air Force.
She said it is not true that she is inhumane, noting that the flood disaster is a national issue and she is performing her duty to the best of her ability.
“Bayelsa is not among the top 10 most hit states by recent floods,” she responded.
“Jigawa is number one,” she added.
According to news from Channels, the ministry explained that it arrived at this conclusion based on the following assessments:
- Number of deaths recorded
- Displaced persons per state
- Number of injuries
- partially damaged houses
- houses totally damaged
- farmlands partially and totally damaged
According to federal government, flood data as at October 24, 2022 shows:
257,913 persons were affected in Bayelsa while 166,076 persons were affected in Jigawa.
Displaced people in Bayelsa stood at 219,471 while Jigawa has 68,883 persons.
The number of injured persons in Bayelsa is 81 and 148 in Jigawa State respectively.
Also, the ministry recorded 58 deaths in Bayelsa while Jigawa stands at 91.
The number of houses partially damaged by floods in Bayelsa is 26,509 and 1,564 for Jigawa while 703 farmlands were partially damaged in Bayelsa and 3,849 in Jigawa.
Flood numbers for Nigeria
- Flood affected 36 states in the country and FCT
- 612 persons died from the flood in FCT
- Over three million people were affected by flood
- Over one million people were displaced
- 2,776 persons were injured
- 181,600 houses partially damaged
- 123,807 houses totally damaged
- 176,852 hectares of farm land partially damaged
- 392,300 hectares of farm land totally destroyed
- NEMA reached out to over one million people in 28 states and FCT.
Flood is expected to continue until the end of November 2022.
Nigeria is used to seasonal flooding, but this year’s worse than others.
Government, therefore, blamed the unusual heavy rain and climate change.
