By Austin Ogwuda, Asaba

THE disturbing issue of flooding in the country, especially in the coastal areas of Delta State, has curiously been engendering mixed feelings of sadness and joy in some quarters. Whilst some of the flood victims are counting their losses, for some others, it is an opportunity to hug the limelight as they get to meet certain important personalities they have long nursed the expectations to encounter in more auspicious circumstances.

ICE camp comes alive, courtesy of Aki and Paw Paw:

A typical example occurred on Monday when displaced persons at the ICE rehabilitation camp in Asaba had cause to cheer in theatrical fashion when two renowned Nollywood actors, Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme popularly known as Aki and Paw Paw, respectively appeared at the camp to stir up their spirit. Their arrival at the camp created a lot of excitement, with both young and old, especially children visibly over joyous as the two actors thrilled them.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan  had, while inaugurating the Justice France Tabai-led Post-flooding Rehabilitation Committee, explained that when he personally visited the ICE camp at about 11 pm few days before inviting the TV actors. The displaced persons were at the time engrossed on the television programme which incidentally featured Aki and Paw Paw.

*Chief Ogoro’s house surrounded by flood

“I tried to to attract their attention . Some looked at me (Governor) and greeted me but they turned to continue watching the television. When I looked at the television, I saw it was Aki and Paw Paw and Ibu that they were watching. That was why I invited them (Aki and Paw Paw) to go to the different camps as motivational speakers because the victims require a lot of motivation”.

Uduaghan had a week ago celebrated his 58th birthday with the displaced persons at the camp which elicited similar joyous outpouring.

Why my elder brother cannot be buried:

But while there seems to be a temporary, even dramatic relief for the displaced persons to ease tension, the traumatic experience of the flooding is one which a former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Stella Omu is yet to come to terms with.

She  told Vanguard Metro, VM, that “as we are talking about flood victims there are some people who have lost loved ones. And as I am talking to you now my elder brother, my brother Chris Ogoro, a giant in electrical engineering, is still in the mortuary because there is no land to bury him; even no church to take him to as everywhere is submerged. But we are still praying that as the flood recedes so that we will be able to give him a befitting burial”.

We are in a dilemma:

Stella Omu further said that: “In all these areas there are a  lot of youths. Remember during the amnesty thing, most of the Isoko youths were not benefitting from this high profile amnesty because they are law abiding citizens; they were not in the arms struggle and you know if you are not registered with your arms, you will not benefit from the amnesty thing. And we had a lot of them who were going around saying, ‘Oh, you mean it is because we did not carry arms that is why we are not being taken care of. So, some of us have to go into appealing to them. Take for example now like General (her husband).

“He is into fishery, piggery and so on. He produces a lot of fingerlings. We have to encourage these youths and said okay instead of going into arms and so on, start a fish pond, start your poultry. A lot of them are into fishery, poultry, piggery. Unfortunately, all these are gone because the flood wiped all their poultry, fish farms; wiped away all their piggery  along with  the fingerlings and hatchery; everything has been wiped out.

“So, we are even in a dilemma now. It means we are going to begin again. How to assist these youths again to come up. Unfortunately, if the flood did not come this is the time the activities would be in high gear because they have to start growing fish, chicken, piggery for the Christmas. But now there is nothing, so we are going to be in trouble.

We now have to sit down to re-calculate on how to handle these youths. As I said, we are farmers, all the cassavas are gone  and I wonder what will happen to the women and the people from that area when the flood recedes while we should now try to look at how to get seedlings, cassava stems, fingerlings, piglets . All these things have to be put in place which means there is a lot of work from the Ministry of Agriculture in order to get our youths back into action, in order to get the women back into action. It’s a lot of work and we are worried” .