AS flood and windstorm increasingly impact Plateau State, many affected families desperately need assistance.  However, the Plateau State Emergency Management Agency (PLASEMA) and the Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA) often fail to deliver timely relief and execute effective ecological projects.

Thirteen years have passed since Zakariyahu Kabiru’s wife, Hawau and six children drowned in a devastating flood that submerged the densely-populated neighbouring Rikkos and Gangare communities in Jos North local government area of Plateau state.  

Kabiru, 55, and his daughter Aisha, were the only survivors from their family at the time. The flood, which eyewitnesses said killed more than fifty persons and displaced over two thousand others, not only robbed him of his loved ones but also shattered his faith in the Plateau state government’s ability to help victims recover from ecological disasters.

Kabiru recalls how displaced persons, like himself, were temporarily sheltered in a local school that was used as an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp. However, the camp was closed after a few weeks, leaving victims without shelter. For ten years, Kabiru says he didn’t have a place to call home.  

“I cry each time I remember what happened to us because that day, I lost seven people. I lost my property and everything I had gathered in this life. I have nothing left,” he grieved.

In 2022, Kabiru resettled on his property in Gangare, now an uncompleted building, despite recurrences of flood. The Gangare narrow waterway, a primary cause of flooding in the area, has not been dredged, worsening the risk of overflow during heavy rains.  

In July, 2024, another flood, although considered a minor one in Gangare, killed a ten-year-old boy, Umar Umar, about one kilometre away from Kabiru’s residence.  “My son was swallowed by water and his body was not found,” says his father, Umar Sarkin Pawa.

“We are scared whenever it rains. I am calling on the government to dredge the waterways to save our lives and properties,” Umar pleads.

As ecological disasters like floods and windstorms increasingly impact Plateau communities, the Plateau State Emergency Management Agency (PLASEMA) and The Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA) often fall short in delivering timely relief and executing effective ecological projects, leaving vulnerable communities reeling from perennial losses.

“Climate disasters politicised in Plateau state,” community leader

In June 2024, some officials of PLASEMA paid Miango community a visit after windstorms destroyed over 400 houses that displaced thousands of residents. Miango, a community in Bassa local government area of the state faces a growing vulnerability to windstorms due factors which includes to a lack of windbreaker trees.

The public relations officer of the community’s association Nuhu Bitrus, who was on the tour with PLASEMA officials said the disaster left thousands of residents, including women and children displaced, and others injured. 

After assessing the damage, the officials of the state emergency agency promised affected persons urgent relief materials. More than four months later when The ICIR visited in October last year, that promise has not been fulfilled, dashing hopes of members of the community.

During the visit to the community last year, on October 9, The ICIR confirmed that a 70-year-old woman, Gbata Gula, who sustained head injuries from a block that fell on her head as a result of the windstorm had died three months earlier in the hospital.

A community leader, Daniel Geh, says climate issues have been “politicised” in Plateau state.

“All we got was an impression that they care and would do something about our plight. But they never came back with any support till today,” Geh says.

He says for the past seven years, the people of Miango have faced a relentless cycle of environmental challenges, particularly devastating flooding of farmlands and destructive windstorms that level homes.

Without an intervention from PLASEMA, several residents affected by the ecological challenges are left to grapple with the consequences largely on their own.

Some displaced persons have sought refuge in the homes of family and friends. In Geh’s house lives Elizabeth Bitrus, a 20 year old lady, her younger sister and mother. Their house was destroyed by a windstorm in 2022.

“We are grateful to our host, but we can’t wait to return home,” Bitrus tells The ICIR. To support her mother as they plan to rebuild their home, she recently began selling goat meat in a local market.

In 2012, the Plateau state government passed into law the bill establishing PLASEMA with the primary responsibility of coordinating resources towards efficient and effective disaster prevention preparedness, mitigation, response and community resilience to disaster in the state.

It is also responsible for collaborating with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) when damages and need assessment are considered beyond the capacity of the state.

The ICIR submitted a letter requesting an interview with Sunday Abdul, the executive secretary of PLASEMA. During a visit on October 11, Abdu was not on seat. After several calls, he picked but declined to comment on the story.

“I have already spoken to some journalists on this issue, and I don’t want to speak further on it,” he says. When the reporter pressed further, Abdul gave the number of the deputy director of search and rescue, simply identified as Ashomz, who neither picked calls nor returned them.

200 pupils saved from flood, windstorm but forced out-of-school

Having lived in a flood-prone area for more than 35 years, Munir Abdulrasheed, the founder of Hiltop International Schools located in the Rikkos area of Jos North says he was conscious of rain patterns. This skill proved invaluable in June 2020 when, sensing an impending flood, he quickly dismissed over two hundred pupils. That decision saved the children from the flooding disaster that levelled down the classroom blocks on that fateful afternoon.

Abdulrasheed says he feels a sense of relief for saving the lives of the children but “helpless for many children who never returned to school.” 

Taking a tour of the cramped makeshift tents, he now uses as classrooms, The ICIR saw many children loitering and begging on the waterlogged streets. Abdulrasheed says some of the children were his pupils before the flood destroyed the classroom blocks.  

“I founded the school not to make profit but to fill the gap. It is meant for the less privileged children and the school fee is N1,000 only. But since that incident, I have not been able to get another space to accommodate all of them. Only 50 pupils resumed here,” says Abdulrasheed.

In Bassa LGA, the Atinga Dekki Memorial Secondary School was also not spared by a windstorm that struck in May 2024. The proprietor, Abel Atinga, says the students were on vacation when the incident occurred. Counting his losses, he says the “wreck” forced some children out of school.

“The challenge is that we are still struggling to rebuild and unless the government intervenes by supporting school owners, the problem of out-of-school children will continue. It is the future of our children we are talking about.” 

A UNICEF report says 10 million children of primary school age and eight million of secondary school age in Nigeria are out-of-school.

The National Mass Education Programme Initiative (NMPI) 2022 data puts Plateau among states with top aged six to 15 children that are out of school across the country with 23.2 per cent. 

The UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) further says children “living in Nigeria are among those most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education and protection.”

The CCRI, which uses data to generate new global evidence on how children are exposed to climate and environmental hazards, further notes that “investments in social services, particularly child health, nutrition and education, can make a significant difference in our ability to safeguard their futures from the impacts of climate change.”

Over 1.4 billion ecological funds received in 13 months 

Since assuming office, the administration of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, has received over N1.4 billion, (1,455,149,134.12815) for the state government and its 17 local government areas. This is according to an analysis of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) from June 2023 to July 2024.

The breakdown shows that while the state government received over N839.9 million, the 17 local governments received over N615.17 million.

Established in 1981, the ecological fund is a federal revenue allocation, specifically designated to address various environmental challenges nationwide, including flooding, erosion, desertification, oil spills, and drought. The fund is drawn from the Federation Account at a rate of two per cent.

Meanwhile, Plateau is one of the 27 states under probe by the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) over alleged mismanagement of ecological funds. The panel named ‘Case Conference on Ecological Funding’ is chaired by the Federal Commissioner representing Ekiti, Olukayode Bamisile.

 “The investigation is not a witch-hunting exercise but a fact-finding mission on the utilisation of the ecological funds by state governments following the plethora of complaints received by the commission from members of the public facing numerous ecological challenges like deforestation, desertification, erosion, flooding, etc,” Bamisile says as reported by Daily Trust.

The committee notes that while the citizens were complaining of low or no impact of the ecological funds in communities, “state governors appeared to be operating in their comfort zones as no such agitation had been raised by them concerning the fund.”

No bailouts for victims – PEPSA

Hopes for government support among climate-stricken communities to rebuild their houses or relocate to safe areas may have been dashed.

Samuel Dapiya, the director general of PEPSA says the agency is currently focusing more on advocacy rather than direct assistance.

During separate interviews with the ICIR, some victims of ecological disasters said since assistance was not forthcoming from government, they bear consequences on their own.

“The (Plateau) State government does not give bailout for constructions and there is no land set aside anywhere to construct houses or make-shifts for these people (internally displaced persons) to reside,” Dapiya says.

Reacting, Deborah Gana, a resident in Miango and the executive director of Claire Aid Foundation says “the blame game rises and stops on the table of the government.”  Claire Aid is a non-governmental agency that provides shelter and education for internally displaced children in the state.

“Climate disasters are real. There are people who cannot rebuild their houses without some form of intervention. We cannot overemphasise the fact that the government needs to step up and provide relief for victims of disasters that are beyond their control,” she says.

She adds that PLASEMA and other agencies, “were created for a reason.

“All we are asking is that they do their job. Let the policies be implemented.”

Ex-Plateau governor served jail term for diverting ecological fund

In 2018, a federal high court in Abuja found former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, guilty of diverting N1.162 billion state ecological funds.

Dariye, who governed between 1999 and 2007 and as senator representing Plateau central at the time, was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by Justice Adebukola Banjoko.

However, in 2022, he, along with other convicts were released from the correctional facility in Kuje council area, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a few months after the Council of State meeting presided over by former President Buhari approved a pardon.

“Our problem in Nigeria,” Kabiru (a resident earlier mentioned) says, “is that when disaster occurs, the relief from the government is not always distributed where it’s most needed. Instead, a few people end up spending the money that was meant for the public good.”