Addressing Nigeria’s Crisis: The Urgent Need for Government Action on Drought and Flood Mitigation
The Incessant and increasing cases of drought and flood in Nigeria are very looming, and disappointingly little or nothing has been done. A lot of persons have been displaced most especially in the Southern part of Nigeria which faces perennial seasonal floods, unlike the Northern part of Nigeria where drought is undoubtedly a major challenge too. These challenges as it hasn’t gotten any responsible response from state actors and non-state actors and has enormously led to the shortage of food as agricultural activities have been deformed in most parts of Nigeria. We might be pushed to ask what kind of future we are looking for regarding where we stand now in overcoming the challenges of flood and drought. Of course, the future can’t be committed without the present being worked upon. The government has not created an encouraging long-term plan; though the consciousness about the environmental crisis and its challenges is gaining more steam in every corner of Nigeria. I believe if the present condition of some of the challenges of flood and drought we encounter and long-term strategies are put into deliberation we will develop an enabling future that would not be burdened with the environmental crisis. There is a sole reason why we should plan highly on energy transition, mitigation and other encouraging steps to meet and create the future that we deserve. I strongly agree with late Prof. Wangari Maathai on his resounding prophecy that “nature is unforgiving”, and conceivably we don’t have a second earth; so this calls for a considerate action to meet up with the out-of-the-hand challenges that we are already facing about flood and drought. Taking proper measures is a good route to brace up for stringent times.
These problems posed by drought and flood have appeared as what we are not willing to tackle because we envisage no functional government plan and no infrastructure evolution to tackle this. The problem of flood and drought becomes secondary as we are always faced with pressing political and economic instability. The government has a lot of roles to play to alleviate this; the government needs to understand what the difficulty is, and what the basis of the crisis of drought and flood is all about. The environmental crisis is “alien” to the government whose action and weak response have made people believe that such is “normal and natural” even when a whole town becomes displaced. There is no silver bullet or magic pills to this challenge other than for the government to buckle down and resort to the right philosophy for approaching problems of this category and most importantly, pursue the critical expertise to ameliorate these. Drought and flood have impacted men and women differently. From the background I have gathered so far, women and children are always affected most in everything that turns out to be an environmental predicament; they are the most vulnerable. For the women it leads to the loss of their petty businesses and economic displacement, and for the men, especially the young ones it bullies them out of school. A general peculiarity of the harsh consequence of drought and flood in Nigeria remains its direct and sudden impact on its ever-growing population; as any sign of these hazards leads to a low scale in the production of food and shortage of resources cum “Sky-high prices” of food and scarcity of other domestic resources.
Nevertheless, the Nigeria agricultural scene which is primarily made up of herders and farmers has greatly been impacted by the drought-flood factor. The Herders-farmers situation and adaptation have been a concern of national challenge as a lot of security and ethnic conflicts in Nigeria have been fueled by the Herders-farmers situation.
Drought in the North has led the Herders in continuous search of “scarce” resources (water and pasture) in the Southern part of Nigeria; the South hasn’t been spared too, as flood leaves them with little or nothing during harvest. Both the Farmers and Herders have remained at loggerheads as no one dialogues about adaptation until the government-neglected conflict is resolved. Drought and flood have contributed to increased community conflicts; any scenario that creates displacement and shortage of resources will construct conflict. Drought and flooding in Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria respectively, have created too many conflicts and precisely countless casualties. Displacement upon displacement and the search for scarce resources has sometimes brewed ethnic and religious tension here in Nigeria.
There is a need for resilience as we can mitigate the effects of these environmental hazards through technological and cultural means. The role of Technology can’t be overemphasized when implemented and most importantly “maintained”. The application of technology can help resolve the issues associated with power and energy substitution & implementation to clean cheap and renewable energy and sustainable water supply. To solve the problems of flood and drought to a “reasonable extent” it is required we resort to cheap alternative energy and energy-efficient machines like solar-powered pumps for efficient access to water at all seasons, and solar panel systems to facilitate irrigation. Technology is also a good medium to survey and forecast future problems or weather conditions we might face; early planning becomes of the essence. Yet, some tasks can be adopted and viable prototypes that can be implemented here, from other parts of the world if only the institution in charge is “ready and willing”. First is climate education and sensitization; this will prompt individuals to take action; as such consciousness will be elevated as we already have in Europe. Secondly, proper siting of infrastructure like drainage and functional irrigation systems are to be adopted just like we see in America and other developed states. These will dress up proper channelling of water to prevent flood and proper irrigation of farmland to prevent drought.
Rethinking Climate 
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