“And We (Allah) caused streams to spring from the earth. Therefore, the waters from the earth and the heavens joined for a matter predetermined (long before)” – The Holy Qur’an (54:12)

IF a disaster of such magnitude had happened in China, President Xi Jinping himself and members of the Communist Party of China, CPC, Politburo would have been there to make on-the-spot assessment. Convoys of thousands of vehicles laden with provisions and medical supplies would have reached the spot of the disaster by now. The People’s Liberation Army, PLA, would have been mobilised and deployed to the disaster area to provide support and succour to the victims. A million people would have been evacuated and moved away for resettlement in safer zones in neighbouring states.

Plans would have been activated towards post-disaster recovery, resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected areas. Prevention mechanisms and disaster response strategies would have been discussed and activated. The CPC would have initiated a national appeal fund towards the provision of relief to the victims of the natural disaster that would neither be touched by corrupt hands nor misapplied by responsible officials. Everything would go like clock work and according to established procedures and plans. Culprits, if any, would be punished either for commission or omission in exacerbating the disaster. 

Being Nigeria, however, our ways of doing things are perhaps different and maybe less perceptive than in other countries. Perhaps also, the appellation of “Third World” aptly applies to us in the way we organise, manage and respond to challenges. Lesser endowed countries would have reacted sharply and much more robustly to a disaster of such scope and extent that dwarfed anything ever experienced anywhere in this country. Too little and too late, delivered too reluctantly, might be used to describe the reactions to the catastrophe that overtook the sprawling city of Maiduguri and its citizens.

Beyond the floods, however, the feared but imminent outbreak of an epidemic that could spread to other parts of Nigeria and the neighbouring countries should be anticipated. But in all honesty, the people of Borno State and Maiduguri in particular, are used to being abandoned to their devises to endure their fate for long. Fifteen years of Boko Haram mayhem and indiscriminate terrorism were borne by them alone while the world looked on. Today, they are displaced, dispersed and made disconsolate by the forces of nature whose advent could be foreseen but could not be prevented.

It was exactly one week, yesterday, when the capital of Borno State, Maiduguri, was over taken by a disaster of epic proportions precisely 30 years since a similar phenomena was last witnessed there on a Tuesday morning in September 1994. The indiscriminate nature of the suffering wrought by the deluge in Maiduguri is overpowering and sobering at the same time. My childhood friend, Shettima Usman Marte, and his entire family evacuated themselves from their flooded home at Gwange Ward around 2:00 am that fateful Tuesday morning, but they had nowhere to go. 

For a week since then, the family alongside several others, huddled together on the newly constructed flyover of Gamboru/Custom area. There, under the relentless rains, sunshine, mosquitoes and general deprivations, they slept, ate whatever meagre meals they could scrape together, met the call of nature, and mulled over their misfortune. Similarly, a short distance away from Shettima, my friend Mustapha Bukar Shuaib, a retired Immigration officer, also fell victim to the flood. He was forced to leave his comfortable dwelling to seek shelter at an abandoned IDP camp alongside countless other displaced masses across the city.

Millions of other residents of Maiduguri shared the same unfortunate fate. No one was spared the ordeal and the trauma. From the most illustrious citizen, His Royal Highness the Shehu of Borno and his family, to the humblest inhabitants across the city, all were overwhelmed and displaced by the blind fury of nature in the form of swift and turbulent waters of the flood. If there is anything like a fate worse than death, what overtook Maiduguri on the morning of 10th September, 2024, was such a fate.

Death in the form of rising waters came upon the residents of a city of nearly four million people and left them in dreadful shock and terrible mourning. Like a thief in the night, silently crept the waters upon the unsuspecting populace of Maiduguri feeling secure in their homes and abodes. By daybreak, the gargantuan scale of the inundation overwhelmed everything and everybody, leaving the city of Maiduguri under water and in deep shock and mourning. 

I left Maiduguri on Monday evening of September 9, 2024, after spending nearly two weeks at home. During that time, I went around the entire city area alone and also in the company of the State Commissioner of Health and my childhood friend, Professor Baba Mallam Gana, to see things for myself. I travelled from the city centre in the GRA area to Maimalari Barracks along Baga Road and back. I also took the Bama Road to the University of Maiduguri and entered the vast premises of the institution and that of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH.

I then drove along Dikwa Road and passed the Farm Centre, the College of Agriculture, the Lake Chad Research Institute, the Lake Chad Basin Development Authority, CBDA, Headquarters right up to Muna and Ngowom areas. In the other direction, I travelled to Njim Tilo area past the Borno State University, entered the Borno State Teaching Hospital and Medical College both under construction and returned via the road to Damboa through the Depot area down Alhaji Muhammad Indimi Road.

I followed virtually all the major streets of the city fanning out from Dandal Way to all corners of the city. In my several days of peregrination, I took in the situation across Maiduguri and I was left with a premonition of looming danger and impending catastrophe. The foreboding sense of hopelessness of the situation and the fate awaiting the city and its inhabitants was overwhelming and depressing indeed.

The signs of impending danger were all there for even the most casual observer to see. Over crowdedness was a palpable factor and an overbearing reality in the city. Destitution and joblessness were widespread and debilitating conditions that exposed the majority of the population to every sort of danger, deprivations and vulnerability. Ill-advised residential construction and unplanned urbanisation were also remarkably noticeable everywhere I went. 

From Modu Ganari to Bulabulin Ngarannam to Bulabulin Alajiri, from Gwange and Gamboru to London Ciki, from the Cattle Market to Madinatu area close to Maiduguri Village, from Flour Mill to the Fish Market along Baga Road, from Jiddari Polo area to Giwa Barracks and down to Galtimari and as far away as Fori, and from Dalori back down to Gwange/Gamboru Wards, the spectacles of unplanned or distorted planning were evident across the city.

The most disturbing scene was the runaway construction of ramshackle and rickety dwellings everywhere, especially adjacent to the waterways that criss-crossed Maiduguri. I noticed how narrow and congested the bed of the Kumodugu Gana had become after Dalori towards Lagos Street Bridge, where construction of houses encroached right up to the river’s bed. 

The spectacle was the same at Gwange behind the residence of Dr. Bukar Shuaib where the Gamboru Bridge and Flyover met with the bustling confusion of the Gamboru Market.

Beyond this point to Muna and the Farm Centre, the bed of the river has become shallow and constricted due to human activities like dumping of refuse and illegal construction of structures. The pathway for the passage of the river to escape to its natural destination towards Zabarmari in the Jere Rice Bowl area therefore, became clogged with the debris and refuse of human unconcern.

The situation was also the same with the Ngada Bul (White Stream) that flowed through Maiduguri from the other end of the city. Its flow was constricted and disturbed by uncontrolled settlement as far back as from behind Bulumkuttu area down to the road to Damboa around Mashidimami Business area and Kano Motor Park. The passage of the river was blocked by farms, houses and leftover debris of human activities.

The situation continued to Modu Ganari and the School of Nursing and Midwifery area past the Sanda Kyarimi Zoological Garden and Park, down to the Borno Radio and Television Corporation Headquarters to El-Kanemi Cinema and Bulabulin Ward. All these places were filled up with excess human activities that affected the natural flow of the river waters. Having all its passes blocked and with no escape routes available, the increasing volumes of water from the Alau Dam overflow and the heavy downpours of several weeks combined to form the deluge that broke over Maiduguri and overwhelmed everything in its wake.

The topography of Maiduguri makes the city prone to flooding. There are no natural barriers like hills or bushes around the entire area to shield the city from the fury of rising tides and excessive rain fall. Virtually all the drainage systems inside the city were filled up and left with indifferent unconcern. The city itself is located on a completely open and flat terrain composed of loose sandy soil and Firki clay lands. While the sandy soil absorbed water fast, the clay soil retained it for long, thereby making floods possible around the outskirts of the city in places like Jiddari Polo, Maiduguri Village, and surrounded areas.

Now that the inevitable has happened, what remains to be done is to respond to the crisis by taking sober and deliberate measures to mitigate the conditions of the victims by providing them with immediate relief and also by planning towards post-disaster recovery and resettlement. Immediate and medium term plans are required to respond to the challenge of flooding. These should include catering for the affected population through relocation, food delivery and supply of clean drinking water.

The urgent needs of women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities should be considered as a priority. Shelters for displaced people should be provided especially in view of the continued rain fall and flooded grounds across the city area. It is absolutely essential that emergency medical supplies are provided so as to prevent the outbreak of dangerous diseases like cholera and typoid. Strategies for the distribution of relief materials should be developed and implemented conscientiously and efficiently. Restoration of electricity at this time is vital also.

Security measures to protect sensitive and key facilities including government offices, businesses, homes etc, should be put in place while liaison committees and support groups should be activated to provide guidance to the affected victims. There should be post-disaster recovery plans and strategies that would guide a phased and coordinated  implementation of all rehabilitation, resettlement and feeding of affected people.

Provision of means of livelihood to victims should be factored into the recovery plans. The long and painful task of sanitizing and cleaning up of an entire city the size of Maiduguri must seem a daunting challenge but it has to be done if the city is to come back to life. Afterwards, the long haul job of reconstruction of all edifices affected by the deluge and construction of new facilities like drainage channels can be contemplated.

At a time when hope is fading fast and despair is taking its place, the people of Borno should be thankful that they have a leader in their Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, who relentlessly pushes himself beyond human endurance to meet their needs and salve their wounds. Do all that he could, he will still require more assistance from the federal and state governments to ameliorate the situation of his people. Borno needs trillions and not billions of Naira to recover. The country should not begrudge the state these funds to bounce back from this unprecedented disaster.