GOVERNOR Willie Obiano of Anambra State on August 29, toured the riverine areas of Onitsha, Ogbaru and Omambala to sensitise the people of an impending flood. This was in response to the warning by the Director General of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), Clement Nze, 20 days eralier of imminent flooding in areas around the Rivers Niger and Benue.
The warning by the agency was not peculiar to Anambra state as the flooding is expected to affect many states with the same issue of flood plain. According to Premium Times, an online publication, “no fewer than 74 local government areas in 30 states in Nigeria would experience severe flooding in September”. The paper equally reported NIHSA as urging governments to pull down structures built on flood plains while expressing disappointment that previous warnings were not heeded.
So far only Anambra state out of the 30 states has responded to the warning and mobilised to sites. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has been fully activated and kept on the ready. Items of need for such emergencies like drugs, tents, blankets, buckets, mosquito nets etc have also been procured and would be made available to those who heed the warning. Medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals are ready to be mobilized to any areas flooded.
This is not the first time the Obiano administration is taking measures to stave off looming disaster in the state. Taking proactive measure is consistent with his administration’s policy of averting potentially dangerous situations. But it is taking a boat ride in torrent of troubled waters to these areas of flood plain – which on a good day are not accessible – that was too risky. It was a tad too selfless and bespeaks of leadership by example. Any governor not as committed to the welfare of the citizens would jolly well assign the task to another. But Obiano has shown on occasion that he is empathic and feels the vicarious pains of those he leads.
One or two examples of the proactive measures undertaken by his government and his own personal touch to emergencies will suffice here. The fire of February 16, 2017, that gutted the Mobil Filling Station at the DMGS Roundabout in Onitsha saw his government enact a policy that forbids the building of new petrol stations within distance of both human and commercial activities as well as the removal of old ones. But it was his reaction to the station fire that marked him out as leading by example. He had already boarded a flight at Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu for the Council of State meeting in Abuja when the news of the accident reached him. He hurriedly disembarked and sped off to Onitsha to attend to the situation. He later visited the victims at the hospitals, paying the entire medical bills.
Ejike Anyaduba
Anambra State