 Very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on the run-up. My name is Nyamgul Agadji and my name is Uche Chuku Onoda Okay, today we have lined up for your enjoyment If you may call it that way some issues that are at the front burner in our country One of those issues is the flood that is ravaging the states 32 states are affected out of the 36 states So one way or the other one person is affected right now watching us And I'm sure that maybe their families back home or Themselves are affected because even in Lagos we've seen flooding ravaging The people and the places in Lagos and it's usually never a very good sight to see And we also are going to be looking at holding political Office holders accountable. This is a conversation that often comes up and The blame game usually takes a huge part of this conversation And we're going to be looking at it later on on the show So you want to stick around for that and then we also have a surprise guest that is coming yesterday We were supposed to bring him on but because we were pressed for time We couldn't bring him on but you know sometimes things just happen By divine intervention so today will be a very good day to bring him But we are not going to let the cut out of the bag And we're hoping that you're going to be there until that time that we bring him on but the show Promises to be great. Let's take a short break and when we return we begin with our first guest This year there has been unprecedented flooding in many parts of Nigeria According to Sadia Omar Farouk Nigeria's minister for humanitarian affairs and disaster management 603 persons have so far died due to the disaster caused by the floods while 2407 persons have been injured with another one million three hundred thousand persons Currently displaced the federal government further announced that 82,000 houses have been destroyed 108,000 hectares of farmland and infrastructure on 332,000 hectares of land have been damaged Every year various parts of Nigerian federation get affected by floods despite warnings by the Nigerian meteorological agency NEMET for example in August this year the National Imagency Management Agency NEMMA Wants that 233 local government areas in 32 states of the federation would experience flooding Situating that prediction on the report issued by NEMET and asking state authorities to take preventive action NEMMA also provided advisory letters and risk maps to states to help them in designing and implementing mitigation measures When the floods came as predicted however it caught states local governments and communities napping Resulting in the calamity sighted at the top of this background story While global warming undoubtedly accounts for the increased flooding and its frightening large-scale impact in Nigeria and elsewhere it must be stressed that there are other Contributory factors for example during excessive rainfall Some of the dams in this country are opened when filled beyond their limits in order to avoid them bursting And further aggravating the environmental problem caused by the downpour Communities living along the watercourse of such dams get immediately overwhelmed because persons living in these places do not evacuate It has also been observed that rivers that have shrunk over the years are rapidly filled during torrential rainfall Resulting in this rivers reoccupying their seemingly dried up riverbeds In situations where those riverbeds have been encroached upon by developers the houses built are almost instantly submerged Leading to deaths, displacement and injury to members of the affected communities The action of some communities may also invariably result in flooding For instance, when the build houses directly on dried riverbeds When they throw refuse into rivers and wetlands Or when they indiscriminately throw waste materials into canals All of such action, as these have been identified as being partly or largely responsible for flooding Or exacerbating the disaster caused by global warming Of equal importance is the action or inaction of neighboring countries who are members together with Nigeria Of the various water governing authorities such as the Niger Basin Commission established in 1963 And comprising of Bene, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Niger In either adhering or not adhering to the water governing protocols of the commission Any illegal construction of dams on main rivers or their tributaries As well as release of water from those dams without warning or notice to downstream countries Has often resulted in devastating flooding of riparian states While the current flooding in the middle belt of Nigeria has not been attributed to any neighboring country It is instructive to observe that the release of water from the Lakdodam in Cameroon in July and October 2012 Affected Benwe and Kogi states in Nigeria, resulting in 431 persons dead and 1.3 million displaced As in that case, water release from that dam usually flooded communities in Nigeria along the River Benwe drainage basin It should be mentioned too that the River Benwe originates from Cameroon and at 183 km is the longest tributary of the River Niger It is saddening to observe that many states and local government authorities do little or nothing to prevent encroachment on river banks Or construction of houses in low lying areas that are prone to flooding When disasters invariably occur and to mitigate the impact of such environmental calamity The Nigerian constitution provides for an ecological fund, domiciled under the exclusive legislative list And being therefore administered by the federal government Many states have benefited from the federal intervention in the disbursement of this fund But some observers worry that such financial support may not have been judiciously utilized by some beneficiary states Just as they also decried a lack of preventive measures by such states to stop the type of calamity We have witnessed so far this year as a result of flooding Glad to know you're still there watching us It's still the run up and we're moving straight to our next part of the show as it is, I don't want to spoil this segment Mr. Agro Benson is the director of the NRSC Disaster management headquarters in Abuja and we're so glad to have him join us Good morning Mr. Benson Hello Mr. Benson, are you there? Good morning sir Good morning, how are you? We're doing great, thank you so much for joining us this morning on the run up Thank you for having us Alright, so it's not news that there's been a lot of flooding ravaging the entire country for a couple of months now We would like to know what is your organization doing to help mitigate the current situation in the country Thank you so much, the Nigeria Red Cross is doing great A lot of the activities are going on since the flood started We all know what happened during from around the 13th of September when the flood started from the northern part of the country Our volunteers are everywhere We are aware that the Nigeria Red Cross is operational in all the 36th and the FCT So we have people in all the branches So when it started the first thing they did was to join the process of search and rescue A lot of the branches went to work with the state emergency management agencies and other government agencies who were involved They don't work alone And they brought up people who were all over the place Who were hanging on trees Some of them were in their houses flooded Those who have a story duty were top of the... A lot of things And we also have, we have what we call the emergency system Who made sure that those who were injured are treated Minor wounds caused here and there And those you can save from the water To prevent drowning also Okay, well we are wondering how much of these people you have been able to cover In 32 states we are hearing that are being affected So how much of these have you covered so far in your intervention? Are you still there Mr. Benson? I'm here So how many of these areas have you been able to cover? And what are the current realities of the flooding in these areas? Like I told you we are present in all these states And if my job in some states are more active We call them branches The Red Cross branches in each of these states And in the local government we also have what we call the division So a lot of these people have been treated And what we have is a special way You are here at Abuja for instance And then you have this report coming in from different parts of the country Tell you what they are doing and the actions they are taking They are helping people who are in need Alright, thank you so much Mr. Benson But I'd like to ask you this question What has been the biggest challenge that you faced In the course of doing the good work that you are doing? Well, there are so many But first and foremost was the issue of access When I say access not because of any other thing But you know the flood and how it started So a lot of issues you will have noticed Even in the media and the social media How our volunteers in Kobe were there moving from one place to another Even in water We are in a life jacket So there are some areas that are so flooded Even the record members Having betrayed are able to reach And so we had to work with some other agencies Like NEMA, like the Ministry of Interior To have all the access to go into such places And then secondly the issue of resources Yes, human capital we have there We have more than 800,000 of jobs all over the country But you are doing that to mobilize this We couldn't let us talk to Mr. Benson But I think he made the major point He pointed out and answered most of the questions I know that it is not their responsibility But I would have loved to know in this interaction with other agencies Whether they are doing something to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore In our country Because a lot of lives have been lost Exactly And it's a natural disaster But some other things have been listed as well As things that might cause this flooding For instance like in Lagos People like to drop things inside the canals And waterways and all that So when water comes It's very easy to get into the streets And lives could be lost Maybe we should talk more about The attitude of people towards the environment And now that we are already in this situation What would be the way for these questions I would have wanted to answer about that Thank you so much to Mr. Benson For answering us in the first place The run-up will continue After this quick break Stay with us and go anyway