By King Bubaraye Dakolo
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While ordinarily nobody or group should jostle to be numbered amongst those who are in a bad state, one would have no choice but to do so when one is honestly and obviously in a far worse state than those who are so labelled. More so when payment for rehabilitation efforts would invariably come from our oil and gas resources.
Do you know that as a Nigerian who attended primary and secondary schools in the south south of Nigeria, but had tertiary education in Kaduna and has over the years traversed all parts of this country of ours, it is most disappointing that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq, would draw conclusions on a subject as serious as the most devastating flooding ever to hit Bayelsa State anchored on ignorance? Ignorance is nauseating when one could have removed the blinding veil by simply visiting to see for one’s self.
Is it not surprising to note that our Honourable Minister does not seem to know that there cannot be what is adjudged as a devastating flood up there at Taraba or Jigawa or Benue and then it would not be worse in Bayelsa where the huge volumes of water from all those states ultimately empty into before reaching the Atlantic Ocean? Where the water pass na? Someone should show me where else the fast-flowing floodwaters passed please!
Our dear Minister does not seem to know that road access from Delta to Bayelsa was completely cut off on the 10th of October by the devastating flood ever. Similarly on the 13th of October road access from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa on the East West Road was cut off and has remained unusable till this minute.
Children and adults who do not swim have drowned, some in their own vehicles and in their bedrooms.
Maybe someone should tell our dear Honourable Minister that when the floodwaters recede in the States she has described as the most hit in the upland, is when the combined volume of water from the Benue and Niger river systems flow down with their crushing overwhelming impact, displacing every community and every individual who live in them. That is the fate of Bayelsa State every year.
This year’s flood has been so bad that there is no farm, crop or animal, that is spared in Bayelsa. Properties worth multiples of billions of Naira have been submerged. Can you believe that houses have been submerged to their rooftops. Properties in their billions of Naira were swept off, just like that when we were helplessly scampering for our lives and those of our children. This is the bitter truth!
You are not seeing our tears because they are drowned in the fast-flowing floodwaters as we cry and they colour the same more or less.
Has our Minister heard that in my Kingdom of Ekpetiama a toddler drowned right in his own flooded bedroom a week before the flood unleashed its worst in terms of volume and speed?
To say I perched on a tall tree branch in front of my home in my hometown to survive this deluge is the naked fact and my survival secret. Not everyone could have perched on a tree branch you know? If not, e for be another story o!
I wish the Honourable Minister could tell Nigerians when her aides came to Bayelsa State, tell us the route they passed to come and conclude their armchair evaluation of the flood in Bayelsa. She may also need to show us which other route the huge volume of floodwaters took to the Atlantic Ocean. Or could it be that there is a deep invisible crater dug by the ministry of Humanitarian Services or NEMA, or Red Cross somewhere where the entire floodwaters quickly drained into and disappeared after unleashing havoc in the ten States on the course of our river valleys thereby sparing Bayelsa from flooding badly?
It is just so laughable, when we do not take our jobs so seriously. No, no, no! Not good at all. Simple logic should lead anyone to act right! Could someone tell our dear Minister to pay us a visit even now? Come to Bayelsa State please. At least the Bayelsa International Airport is here.
Some persons died, drowning after being swept away by the fast-flowing floodwaters. We are not all dead is because most of us are natural swimmers and then most deaths are not properly reported as the appropriate Federal Government agencies are still denying the extent of the devastation. If anyone should know, this is the worst flood disaster ever in Bayelsa State. Every single Bayelsan is internally displaced! The State Government is already overwhelmed having deployed over a billion Naira and still counting, plus private efforts from humanitarians.
Why should Nigerians tend to hesitate in spending our oil money in our oil producing states? Wonder, wonder, wonder!
I think no one should continue to aspire to wear ignorance as a proud badge of honour. No! Not good. At least not when people have lost so much and are grieving. All Abuja dwellers should come see for themselves.
