From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Oba of Ogbaland, Nwachukwu Nnam Obi, has expressed delight at Governor Nyesom Wike’s responsiveness and human disposition in tackling the ravaging effects of flood in Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) and by extension the Orashi region of Rivers State.
Obi, who is the 12th monarch of Ogbaland, has also commended members of the interventionist committee on flood for visiting the affected communities in ONELGA to get first-hand report about the flood.
The king expressed this on Saturday evening, when members of the Rivers State Taskforce on Flood Management led by the chairman, George Nwaeke, visited him at his palace in Omoku, after they had visited communities submerged by flood in the ONELGA.
He noted: “We understand that it is a duty entrusted upon you. And we also understand that it is not so many who are responsible as to carry out duties in ways and manners they should be carried out with that promptness that is required. We thank you for hitting the ground and running.
“Let me first register the appropriation of our people to the governor of the state (Nyesom Wike) for his response and humane disposition that he constituted a body and that he has also tried to reach us while we are weeping.
“It is good and fitting that you went round before coming here, because when we speak, to somebody who has not seen firsthand, it is like a tale being told after centuries. It only becomes a fable that many will even argue never happened. But, I am sure that when you go back, that you are in a position to better report what we cried for whether it was wolf or it was real.
“I think responsible leadership is responding to situations timely. I think it is about hearing the cries of the people. Weeping when they weep, may be dancing and singing when it the time for that.”
He said Federal Government agencies ought to have visited the affected areas to ascertain the extent damage, and expressed their willingness to partner with Rivers government to achieve its mandate in cushioning the effect of the flood
“If I say the Fedaral Government should come here, I am not sure I will be speaking too much. NEMA ought to be here, the Ministry of Humanitarian Service should be in this state to have a first hand feel of what it is like here.”
Meanwhile, members of the committee had commenced the first leg of their mandate by visiting some flash points in Ahoada East LGA in orashi region of the state, in order to ascertain the extent of damaged done and to empathise with flood victims.
Chairman of the Taskforce committee, Nwaeke, who is the Permanent Secretary Special Services Bureau (SSB) in the Office of the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, expressed shock at the extent of the havoc the flood had wrecked, noting that the entire Ahoada West council of the state was inaccessible and submerged by water.
Nwaeke thanked governor Wike, for his timely intervention by appropriating N1 billion to cushion the effect of the flood, and for identifying with the people at hard time.
He assured the flood victims of the governor’s intentions, noting that Wike had taken proactive steps to ensure the situation did not get to a state of helplessness.
He said: “I’m here as the chairman of the committee set up by His Excellency, to see how we can bring solution to the people of the affected region namely Ahoada West Local Government Area, Ahoada East, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Abua/Odual (LGAs.)
“Honestly, we are short of words because we have come here and seen the level of devastation that this has caused this region.
“I want to assure the people of this Area, that the Excellency feels their pain and that is why he has put together this committee very timely.
“And we have come here today, to see on the spot what is happening, but we are not able to get to Ahoada West because we are cut off by the flood; where we are is Ihuke community still very far from Ahoada West and there is no way we can reach there because the road is cut off.