Nkeiruka Okoroafor – Famished, Flooded, Fed Up. The Story of an Expectant Mother Who Lost Her Livelihood in Imo Flooding
Nkeiruka Okoroafor is a 30-year-old pregnant baker who lives with her aged father and mother-in-law in Ngegwu village in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. She complements her baking with farming. But a massive flood that started in late August and has ravaged 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states destroyed her baking shop and two farms, her sources of livelihood.
Nkeiruka came home from church service on Sunday, October 9, 2022, to see their compound in Ngegwu, in Oguta Local Government of Imo State flooded. When she spoke to Neusroom on October 13, 2022, she had sought refuge in a neighbouring community, taking her four-year-old daughter and her father and mother-in-law with her.
“We went to church in the morning and came back and saw water. It didn’t rain. We now slept and woke up to see water in the house. This happened this Sunday/Monday. Shops and farms have been damaged,” Nkeiruka said.
With over 300,000 homes partially or completely destroyed, while 1.4 people have been internally displaced, the 2022 flooding is only comparable to the 2012 flooding disaster where over 300 people died. According to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the death toll as of October 24, 2022, has risen to 612.
Nkeiruka’s kiosk where she bakes egg rolls, meat pie and buns was submerged, leaving her cartons of indomie, flour and other baking ingredients completely destroyed.
The flood has destroyed over 390,000 hectares of farmland, an area three times the size of Lagos State, leaving farmers destitute. Food prices are expected to surge in the coming months, a situation that will further strain the country’s economy. As the country battles with unemployment, which is at 33.3 per cent (as of September 2022), many have been pushed to agriculture as last resort. 70 per cent of households in Nigeria engage in crop farming. While agriculture contributes 24 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, many are subsistent farmers living below the poverty line of $2 a day (less than ₦900).
The two farms Nkeiruka cultivated earlier in the year were destroyed by the flood. While she has that to worry about, she’s pregnant and has her daughter to care for too. Her response to the question ‘how are you?’ was “I’m not fine. We are hungry!”
Root Cause of the 2022 flooding in Nigeria: An Avoidable Disaster
Infrastructural deficit, corruption, negligence, and years of mismanagement by the government are largely to be blamed for the ravaging flood in the country that has claimed lives and destroyed properties worth millions.
The flood endemic in Nigeria can be traced to 1977 when the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo signed an agreement with the then President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo. The Cameroonian government had proposed to build a dam, Lagdo dam, at the River Benue and it was foretold that the reservoir will have a downstream effect in Nigeria. To mitigate flooding when water from the dam in Cameroon is released, Nigeria agreed to build a ‘shock-absorber’ dam called the Dasin Hausa Dam in Benue State. In five years, between 1977 and 1982, the Lagdo dam was completed which now generates about 72 MW of electricity to Northern Cameroon. Awarded to a Brazilian company in 1982, the Dasin Hausa Dam situated in Adamawa State is expected to generate 300 MW of electricity, irrigate 15,000 hectares of land and provide an estimated 400,000 jobs. It’s been 40 years and the project is yet to be completed.
In 2012, Cameroon released excess water from the Lagdo dam, and more than 10,000 hectares of farmlands were flooded in Makurdi, the Benue State capital. A decade after the 2012 flood and 40 years after initiating the Dasin Hausa Dam, the inability of the Nigerian government to take proactive measures, and complete the project, has resulted in the loss of over 1000 lives.
However, experts are saying that more attention should be paid to climate change. Olumide Idowu, a climate change activist, told Neusroom that climate financing should drive innovation to mitigate future occurrences.
“Looking at the situation of the flood, a lot of people say it is the dam that was opened in Cameroon. But the truth about it is that it is the impact of climate change.”
In the oil-rich River State, a neighbouring state, floods have sacked communities in Ahoada West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government. Speaking with Ajie Roseline, a flood victim from Ogbogu Community in Ogba/Egbema Local Government, River State, she narrated how their compound was submerged on October 12, 2022. A large family of 12, they managed to escape, leaving their belongings: foam, sofa chairs, kitchen utensils, electrical appliances, valuable documents, and ₦200,000 in cash behind.
Farming allows Nkeiruka to produce some of her food without buying goods like garri in the market at exorbitant prices. Unable to watch his family starve, her husband, an unskilled “builder,” whom she married in 2018, left the village searching for greener pastures.
“My husband is not around now. He went out of the village to go and hustle. He left because he said he couldn’t stand and watch us get hungry. I have one child, and I’m pregnant. We are suffering.”
But with the persistent rain, few buildings are currently under construction, dashing the chances of her husband getting a meaningful daily-waged job. Nkeiruka is left to care for her four-year daughter alone.
A late Warming that cost lives
Yearly, when the water in the Lagdo dam rises to 216 meters, the excess water in the reservoir is released, which often leaves communities along the River Benue, and its tributaries flooded. On August 6, 2015, the National Management Agency (NEMA) alerted the state governments and communities along River Benue in Nigeria of possible flooding following the release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam. This year, the ‘red alert’ came on September 19, after 29 states were already impacted by heavy precipitation from the Benue river.
However, nothing prepared Nkeiruka for the disaster that was to befell her. Even before NEMA’s warming, many parts of her community were already flooded.
It is the worst flooding she has ever experienced. Schools in the community were closed. Markets submerged for days, with people’s shops, goods, and farmlands, damaged.
“Even the market in Ngegwu has been flooded with water. No road to school. My daughter has not been going to school. If you want to buy something, you take a boat and come out to where the water did not reach.”
The improvised means of transportation have further caused hardship as “we use money meant for feeding to enter a boat in other to get to where we can get food.”
With the loss of her livelihood, daily meals have become extremely difficult.
Neighbouring villages were not spared.
In Opuoma Autonomous Community in Egbema Local Government of Imo State, thousands of people were also displaced.
Godswill Nwakibea, the youth leader of the Opuoma community, told Neusroom that the villagers are starving following the destruction of their farmlands.
“Over here, we base in agriculture. There is no industry here, so what we focus on is farming.”
A graduate of Biotechnology from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nwakibea took to farming after several unsuccessful attempts to secure a white-collar job. Married with five children, feeding is becoming extremely difficult for Nwakibea and his family as 20 plots of his farmlands were destroyed by the flood.
“The water that entered my house is reaching to my waist, and the flood, as of yesterday (October 13, 2022), kept rising, entering more houses and farmlands”.
Nwakibea noticed that the water level by the roadside refused to subside after a heavy downpour on October 8, 2022. He began to move his family to a friend’s place in the nearby community, wading through the rapidly increasing flood. Nwakibea said that the flood can cover four to five kilometres within hours. While he was unable to move his mattress, television, chairs and other belongings, it was the destruction of his farmland, the only source of his livelihood, that is rendering him destitute.
“Both my cassava and yam farm is about 20 plots. All were flooded. We are praying for the water to come down because it is from those farms that we get what we eat.”
“People are starving here. You can’t harvest your cassava because of the flood. We need government intervention. They should come and assist us.”
Without mechanisation, it is both labour and cost intensive to cultivate 20 plots of land.
While displaced villagers have sought refuge in neighbouring communities that are yet to be affected by the flood and Internally Displaced Person camps (IDP), the victims Neusroom spoke with said they are yet to receive government intervention.
Government Intervention to victims of the 2022 flooding disaster
Ahmed Mustapha Habib, Director-General National Emergency Management Agency 9NEMA), announced on October 13, 2022, that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the release of 12,000 metric tonnes of grain from the National Strategic Reserve for flood victims.
However, Nkeiruka and Nwakibea said they are yet to receive any relief material from the government.
“Tell the government to come to our aid. We are not asking for billions. We are really suffering here. Government should help us,” Nkeiruka said.
Climate change is a global issue, and if actions are not taken, future occurrences are imminent.
While Nigeria is a party to the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, which agreed on climate change mitigation, adaptation and financing, little has been done. Peter Obi, one of Nigeria’s leading presidential candidates ahead of the 2023 general elections said he does not know anything about climate change. Another presidential aspirant, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said that if the ‘West’ doesn’t “guarantee our finances and work with us, we are not going to comply with your climate change.”
Idowu told Neusroom that while Nigeria needs to reach a bilateral agreement with the government of Cameroon, more proactive actions on climate change are needed to mitigate future occurrences.
“The government needs to invest in urban planning. Government need to invest in data. Data is very important as we can it to drive the solution we are looking at concerning this flooding issue.”
