By Muhammad Abubakar
The news of the severe flooding in Jigawa State is depressing and alarming. I initially thought the report had reached every nook and cranny of the country. But the reverse is, unfortunately, the case. I was amazed to realize that the news has not gone very far in the country. Worse still, it is said that the state governor himself is currently out of the state.
I recently checked a couple of our local media sites to know more about the ongoing flooding, only to find out that; most of the news updates there have nothing to do with this deplorable disaster currently ravaging the state. It’s heartbreaking how many on-and off-line news outlets pay only lukewarm attention to this issue, although it should be discussed more than any other.
Jigawa State has never experienced such an alluvial disaster in its history. Many houses and villages collapsed; properties submerged; roads, bridges and farmlands were washed away, and crops ruined. Some have become orphans all due to this flooding!
The situation has reached the extent that the people of the affected areas can no longer move into their towns or travel out of the villages because their roads are not motorable. Also, thousands of people in the affected communities have been displaced. Canoes capsized. Lives were lost. Almost anywhere in the state has been negatively affected.
The most affected areas include Gumel, Mallam Madori, Auyo, Kaugama and Kafin Hausa local government areas. The flood has not only stopped here, but it also touched almost every part of the state. But yet, no tangible action has been taken on that by the government.
The federal government should therefore join hands with the state government to do the needful; deliver food, clothes, drugs and other useful items to the victims. May God, the omnipotent and omnipresent, end all the hardships we are going through in this country and the world.
Muhammad Abubakar wrote from Jos, Plateau State, via muhammadabubakar01002@gmail.com.