Floods of water and money

In the days before the ill-effects of climate change and unplanned urban development brought about new environmental problems, Nigeria was spared from devastating natural disasters such as volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, or large-scale flooding.  Back then, the trending joke was that the only natural disaster Nigeria routinely suffered from was poor governance! The recent devastating […]

In the days before the ill-effects of climate change and unplanned urban development brought about new environmental problems, Nigeria was spared from devastating natural disasters such as volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, or large-scale flooding.  Back then, the trending joke was that the only natural disaster Nigeria routinely suffered from was poor governance! The recent devastating floods in Mokwa, Niger State, are ample evidence that things have changed. The loss of life is tragic as bodies are still being discovered and the human death toll remains undetermined. Yet nobody should be surprised.

In the past decade, the North has suffered from flash floods with devastating results. It’s simply not good enough for the relevant authorities to point to flooding in countries like USA, Netherlands and parts of Indonesia so as to disassociate themselves from responsibility. Those countries are taking proactive steps to ameliorate future occurrences.

In Nigeria both federal and state governments have failed to take proactive measures despite having access to ecological intervention funds. Providing institutionalised social services has never been a priority of Nigerian governments. Serial administrations have preferred to adopt a fire-brigade approach of waiting until disasters happen then throwing money and palliatives at the problem. Rather than invest in advanced weather and flood warning technologies which give sufficient time for safe evacuations, Nigerians predict that federal government is more likely to give bags of rice to the victims! Government’s expression of “profound sorrow” is simply not good enough.

Former President Buhari, who did virtually nothing to address environmental risks, extended his condolences to the families affected by the Mokwa floods and ironically, after wasting eight years without developing the North, urged efforts to improve public safety and disaster preparedness!

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Countries routinely affected by flooding are putting in place technologies to predict future natural disasters which should reasonably be expected due to global warming and inappropriate infrastructural development. It’s imperative that the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) be far better funded and with adequate manpower to liaise with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) not only to predict flooding, but also carry out necessary evacuations.

Floodwater in Mokwa submerged and washed away residential houses, bridges and even dams, further worsening the lives of citizens already suffering from poverty and insecurity, and likely to suffer increased malaria and typhoid deaths in the absence of emergency medical treatment. As far as the “natural disaster” of poor governance is concerned, in addition to flood water Nigeria is, with the approval of the National Assembly, about to be flooded once again with foreign debt.

President Tinubu has allegedly requested the National Assembly to approve fresh loans of $21.5 billion, 15 billion Japanese Yen and 51 million euros which all together will increase the nation’s debt to N189 trillion! Not only is there no mention of how the money will be repaid but a portion of it will be used to pay off current debts. In effect, our government is digging a hole to fill another hole!

The phrase “Never a borrower or lender be” is based upon the belief that borrowing can lead to future financial difficulties and a lack of financial discipline. Although extreme, the advice highlights the importance of managing finances and avoiding excessive reliance on borrowing.

Failing to live according to earnings and cut expenditure to fit income is the ultimate in fiscal indiscipline and evidence abounds of unnecessary wasteful spending on mansions, jets, government houses, international gallivanting etc. The overriding consideration is never to borrow except you have the means to repay which Nigeria does not have.

Economics experts continuously call for Nigeria to end its dependence on borrowing simply to fund a bloated and inefficient government. It is fiscally irresponsible, economically unjust, and morally indefensible, especially in light of refusal to implement the Oronsaye Report, and findings that 70 per cent of public capital projects are abandoned or unproductive.

The Socio–Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a law suit against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over N500 billion whose whereabouts in “unknown”! World Bank sources state that only N600 billion out of N1.1 trillion revenue from crude oil sales was remitted leaving N500 billion unaccounted for.

Added to the outrageous fraud committed by the former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emeifele, and others too numerous to mention here, it’s evident that there is a system in place in Nigeria that makes it easy for those in power to loot the treasury at will.

Undoubtedly the initiatives of generating employment, promoting skill acquisition, fostering entrepreneurship, reducing poverty and enhancing food security which the new loan is supposed to finance are laudable but a major problem with government is the abuse of borrowed funds.

Furthermore “generating”, “promoting”, “fostering, and “enhancing” are immeasurable qualitative subjective assessments not quantitative measurable statements. Nigerians are not the least bit interested in government spewing out economic analysis of macroeconomic instability, increasing debt servicing burdens, reduced fiscal space for social spending or vulnerability to external shocks, they simply want to know how this borrowing will improve their lives, and the truth is that it probably will not!

The money is likely to end up subsidising the luxuries of political office holders or in private hands via over-inflated contracts, corrupt embezzlement or fraud. Nigeria has floods of both water and money and in truth must learn to deal properly with both  of them!