Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi State commissioner for information and communications, has said that the state needs help as heavy flooding has displaced about two million people.

Fanwo mentioned that the state was already overwhelmed, and he was urgently calling for the intervention of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

However, checks by FIJ showed that the state government might have been ill-prepared for proper flood control and management, given the low funds allocated for that purpose in its 2024 fiscal document.

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The state’s budget estimate was N258 billion. Out of this, N420 million was dedicated to flood control and related matters.

“We are in a dire emergency situation at the moment and this is sad. The flood disaster here is devastating and over 200 communities have already been submerged and close to two million people displaced,” Fanwo said on Monday.

“As we speak, nine of the 21 Local Government Areas in the state are affected which is almost 50% of the number of Local Government Areas. We have opened about 68 IDP camps but they can’t hold that massive population.

“Schools, hospitals and other infrastructure have been destroyed completely. Seeing the aged and little children in this kind of distress is a horrible sight. We did not lose any life because we activated the early warning and enlightenment plan.

“We are expending huge resources daily but it is inadequate. We call on the Federal Government, International Donor Agencies, NGOs and philanthropists to come to our aid.”

WHAT’S IN THE BUDGET?

A review of the budget showed that flood and related matters appeared in different line items. Summing these line items together, FIJ arrived at a total of N420 million allocated to flood management.

To break it down, “erosion and flood control” represented by line item 2304012 bore different amounts of money on different pages. These amounts included N40 million, N50 million, N10 million, N50 million, N50 million, N10 million and another N10 million.

An allocation of N100 million for the procurement of emergency tender for flood related disaster appeared twice in the budget.

This was not the first time flood would affect the state on a large scale.

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In 2022, FIJ reported how the excess water volume released from Cameroon’s Lagdo Dam flushed away people and physical assets in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

Beyond Kogi, some other states have been at the mercy of destructive flood in 2024, prominent among which was Maiduguri. The Maiduguri flood was caused by the decrepit Alau Dam which the federal government had failed to repair for years despite yearly allocations.