VP Shettima on Ground in Borno as Floods Wreak Havoc
Nigeria's Vice President Kashim Shettima has been tasked with a critical mission by President Bola Tinubu to personally assess the widespread damage caused by the recent catastrophic flooding in Maiduguri, Borno State. The President's directive came in the wake of incessant rainfall, which triggered the overflow of the Alau Dam, leading to devastating consequences for the residents of the area. The Vice President's visit aims to provide firsthand observation and facilitate immediate governmental response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
The intense rainfall that has plagued Borno State in recent days has brought about a calamity of unprecedented proportions. The torrential downpour overwhelmed the Alau Dam, causing it to overflow and flood extensive areas of Maiduguri and its surroundings. The flooding has led to the displacement of thousands of individuals, the deaths of numerous livestock, and the cessation of business operations and schooling in the heavily affected regions. Concrete plans for reconstruction and recovery are now at the forefront of the federal and state governments' agendas.
Federal Government Pledges Support
Recognizing the dire situation, President Bola Tinubu has swiftly committed federal support to the beleaguered region. He has ordered the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to deploy its resources immediately to assist the affected residents. This intervention aims to provide essential relief items, improve living conditions in temporary shelters, and ensure the safety of the displaced populations.
Moreover, President Tinubu has extended his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Borno State, particularly those who have suffered the loss of their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones. He reaffirmed the Federal Government's resolve to work collaboratively with the state administration to address the urgent needs of flood victims. The directive also includes a call for the immediate evacuation of individuals residing in the most critically affected zones to prevent further casualties.
A Community in Crisis
The aftermath of the Borno floods has been nothing short of catastrophic. Thousands of residents find themselves uprooted from their homes, now seeking refuge in makeshift shelters with limited access to basic necessities. The economic impact has been severe, with numerous businesses forced to halt operations, leading to a loss of income for many families. Educational institutions have also experienced closures, causing a significant disruption in the academic calendar for countless students.
Crucial facilities within Maiduguri, such as the Post Office and the Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, have not been spared by the floodwaters. Damage to these key infrastructures hinders the delivery of essential services, exacerbating the challenges faced by the local population. The Vice President's visit aims to highlight these urgent issues and ensure that remedial measures are promptly undertaken.
Immediate and Long-Term Actions
In addressing this monumental disaster, the Federal Government's immediate priorities include the provision of emergency aid and the establishment of temporary shelters equipped with adequate facilities. NEMA's intervention focuses on delivering food, clean water, medical supplies, and sanitation services to the affected individuals. Efforts are also being made to ensure that displaced families have access to healthcare and psychosocial support.
Looking beyond the immediate crisis, there's a concerted effort to implement long-term strategies aimed at rebuilding and fortifying the affected communities. Plans are underway to repair damaged infrastructure, rehabilitate schools and healthcare facilities, and re-establish economic activities by supporting local businesses. Special attention is being directed towards implementing flood prevention measures to mitigate the impact of future rainfall events.
Community Voices and Resilience
Amidst the turmoil, the resilience of the Maiduguri community shines through. Local leaders and residents have rallied together, organizing grassroots efforts to assist their neighbors in need. Volunteers have been instrumental in distributing relief materials, providing shelter, and offering moral support to those who have suffered losses. This communal solidarity underscores the spirit of unity and the determination to overcome adversity.
One resident, Amina Abdullahi, shared her story of loss and hope. "We lost everything to the floods, but we have each other," she said. "The government’s support is crucial, but we also rely on our community to rebuild our lives." Stories like Amina's resonate deeply, highlighting the human aspect of the disaster and the collective strength of the people of Maiduguri.
A Path Forward
As Vice President Shettima conducts his on-the-spot assessment, it's clear that the road to recovery will be long and challenging. However, the combined efforts of federal, state, and local authorities, coupled with the unwavering resilience of the affected residents, provide a foundation for hope. The commitment to rebuilding Maiduguri and supporting its inhabitants remains steadfast, aiming to restore normalcy and ensure a more resilient community in the face of future natural disasters.
The journey to recovery is just beginning, but with continued support and solidarity, Maiduguri will rise stronger from the ashes of this calamity. The Vice President's intervention marks a pivotal moment in this process, as the government’s actions in the coming days and months will significantly influence the pace and effectiveness of the recovery efforts. Together, the community and the government will forge a path forward, determined to rebuild and rise above the challenges posed by the Borno floods.
15 Comments
Joshua Gucilatar
September 12, 2024 AT 07:26 AMThe Alau Dam failure wasn't just a natural disaster-it was a systemic failure of civil engineering oversight. Nigeria's infrastructure budget has been misallocated for decades, prioritizing vanity projects over flood control. The dam's spillway capacity was calculated using 1980s rainfall models, ignoring climate change projections that have increased annual precipitation by 37% in the Lake Chad basin since 2000. This wasn't an act of God; it was negligence dressed in bureaucracy.
And let's not pretend the federal response is anything but performative. NEMA's 'immediate deployment' is always a euphemism for 'we'll show up after the cameras leave.' Real resilience requires permanent drainage systems, elevated housing, and community-led early-warning networks-not press releases and photo ops with VP Shettima holding a waterlogged shoe.
The real story? The residents of Maiduguri have been warning authorities for years. Local hydrologists published papers in 2018 predicting this exact scenario. They were ignored. Now we're treating survivors like props in a political drama instead of stakeholders in their own recovery.
Let me be clear: no amount of condolence speeches will rebuild a single home. What's needed is transparent, audited reconstruction contracts, community oversight boards, and a complete overhaul of the National Flood Risk Management Act. Until then, this is just another chapter in Nigeria's long history of disaster capitalism.
And yes, I've consulted the World Bank's 2022 Urban Resilience Index. The data doesn't lie. Nigeria ranks 142nd out of 145 for flood preparedness. We're not just behind-we're in the basement.
Stop glorifying symbolism. Start funding solutions.
jesse pinlac
September 12, 2024 AT 20:25 PMHow utterly predictable. The Nigerian state, in its infinite wisdom, has once again demonstrated its capacity for theatrical governance. The Vice President's visit is less a humanitarian intervention and more a stage-managed spectacle designed to assuage the consciences of foreign donors and domestic elites. One cannot help but notice the conspicuous absence of any mention of the structural corruption that has siphoned billions from infrastructure funds over the past decade.
Indeed, the Alau Dam's collapse was not merely a failure of engineering, but of moral imagination. Where are the accountability mechanisms? Where are the prosecutions of the contractors who used substandard concrete? Where is the parliamentary inquiry into the 2017 audit that flagged the dam’s vulnerabilities? The silence is deafening.
And yet, the narrative is crafted with the precision of a propaganda pamphlet: ‘resilient community,’ ‘unity,’ ‘hope.’ How convenient that the suffering of the poor becomes a canvas for national virtue signaling. One wonders if the President’s condolences were handwritten-or merely dictated by a speechwriter who has never set foot in Borno.
This is not governance. It is necropolitics dressed in the garb of compassion.
Jess Bryan
September 13, 2024 AT 18:09 PMThey say it’s floods. I say it’s bioweapons. The Alau Dam didn’t just overflow-it was breached. Why? Because someone wanted to depopulate the northeast. Look at the timing. Right after the election. Right after the oil pipeline sabotage. And who benefits? The same people who control the NDLEA and the NAFDAC. They’ve been testing climate manipulation tech since 2019. The UN’s secret weather modification program? It’s real. They’re using HAARP satellites to trigger monsoons. You think this is coincidence? Wake up.
The hospital and post office were hit? Of course. They’re infrastructure targets. They don’t want people getting medical care or sending mail to expose the truth. They want silence. They want you to think it’s ‘natural.’
And don’t fall for the ‘community resilience’ nonsense. That’s just the government’s way of saying ‘we’re not paying you to rebuild.’ They’re letting you suffer so you stop asking questions. The VP? He’s part of the machine. Don’t be fooled by the suit.
They’re watching you right now. Check your phone. Your camera’s on. They know you read this.
Ronda Onstad
September 14, 2024 AT 19:33 PMI just want to say how deeply moved I am by the quiet strength of the people in Maiduguri. You know, it’s easy to read about disasters in headlines and think of them as statistics-thousands displaced, hundreds dead-but when you hear Amina say, ‘We lost everything to the floods, but we have each other,’ it hits differently. It’s not just about government aid or emergency shelters-it’s about human connection in the face of chaos.
I’ve been following this for weeks now, and honestly, the most powerful thing I’ve seen isn’t the VP’s visit or NEMA’s trucks-it’s the women in the temporary camps teaching kids to read under tarps, the men sharing their last sacks of rice with neighbors who lost everything, the teenagers organizing WhatsApp groups to coordinate clean water drops. That’s the real infrastructure here.
And yeah, the system’s broken, sure. The dam should’ve been fixed. The warnings were ignored. But if we only focus on the failures, we miss the miracle: people choosing kindness when everything’s falling apart. That’s not luck. That’s courage. And that’s what’s going to rebuild Maiduguri-not the politicians, not the contracts, not even the money. It’s the people. Always the people.
So if you’re reading this and thinking, ‘What can I do?’-start by sharing their stories. Not the political ones. The human ones. The ones where hope isn’t a slogan. It’s a shared bowl of soup at 3 a.m. That’s the stuff that lasts.
Steven Rodriguez
September 15, 2024 AT 21:20 PMLet’s be blunt-this is what happens when you let a third-world country pretend it’s a modern state. Nigeria has no business having dams, roads, or hospitals because its leadership is a revolving door of corrupt bureaucrats who treat public funds like their personal ATM. The Alau Dam wasn’t just poorly maintained-it was looted. Every dollar meant for reinforcement was siphoned into offshore accounts by senators’ cousins.
And now we’re supposed to be impressed because the VP showed up? Please. If this were America, the governor would’ve been impeached before the water receded. But here? We get a photo op with a man in a suit holding a muddy clipboard. That’s not leadership. That’s theater for the BBC.
The real solution? Cut off all federal aid to Borno until the state government audits every contract from the last 15 years. Freeze the governor’s assets. Arrest the engineers who signed off on that dam. And then, and only then, consider rebuilding.
Until then, stop pretending this is a tragedy. It’s a crime. And the criminals are still in power.
And don’t even get me started on the ‘community resilience’ narrative. That’s just the media’s way of saying ‘we don’t have to fix anything because the poor will just suffer quietly.’
Zara Lawrence
September 17, 2024 AT 14:22 PMOne cannot help but observe the grotesque irony of a Vice President, ostensibly representing the Federal Government of Nigeria, conducting a ‘field assessment’ in a region where the very notion of federal authority is, in practice, a distant memory. The Alau Dam, a monument to colonial-era engineering inadequacies, has now become a metaphor for the Nigerian state’s inability to transcend its own contradictions.
One must also interrogate the selective deployment of NEMA resources: why does the Federal Government mobilize with such urgency for floods in Borno, yet remains conspicuously inert in the face of the persistent insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin? Is the humanitarian crisis merely a pretext for increased surveillance and control?
Furthermore, the narrative of ‘community resilience’ is not merely romantic-it is dangerous. It absolves the state of its duty to provide security, infrastructure, and justice. The people of Maiduguri are not ‘resilient’ because they are noble; they are resilient because they have no other choice.
And yet, one cannot ignore the unsettling parallels with the 2012 flood response in Lagos, where similar rhetoric was deployed to mask systemic neglect. History does not repeat itself-it echoes. And this echo is deafening.
Ashley Hasselman
September 18, 2024 AT 14:36 PMOh wow. The VP flew in. Cue the national anthem. What a hero. Did he bring a new dam? A magic wand? Or just a press release and a selfie with a crying kid?
Let me guess-the ‘long-term strategies’ include a 3-year ‘recovery plan’ that gets buried under a new budget cycle in 2026. Meanwhile, the same contractors who built the crumbling dam are already bidding on the ‘reconstruction’ contracts. Classic.
And don’t even get me started on Amina’s quote. ‘We lost everything but we have each other.’ Cute. Real cute. That’s what they say when the government abandons you. ‘We’re strong!’ Yeah, you’re strong because you’ve got nothing left to lose.
Meanwhile, the guy who signed off on the dam’s safety inspection? Probably got a promotion. Or a villa in Abuja.
Save the inspirational quotes. Fix the damn dam first.
Kelly Ellzey
September 19, 2024 AT 11:37 AMOkay, I just want to say… I’m crying a little. Not because of the politics (though, ugh, that’s a whole other rant), but because of Amina. She said, ‘We lost everything to the floods, but we have each other.’ And that? That’s the whole point, isn’t it? We think recovery is about money or buildings or government programs-but it’s not. It’s about someone handing you a blanket when you’re shivering. It’s about a neighbor sharing their last piece of bread. It’s about holding someone’s hand when they can’t stop shaking.
And yeah, the dam should’ve been fixed. The government should’ve listened. But right now? Right now, the real heroes aren’t the ones in suits. They’re the ones in muddy boots, carrying water, teaching kids to write on cardboard, singing lullabies in tents.
I don’t know how to fix Nigeria’s infrastructure. But I know how to be kind. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the first step. We don’t need to fix everything at once. We just need to show up. For each other. Again and again.
And if you’re reading this and you’re not sure what to do? Send a message to someone in Maiduguri. Just say, ‘I see you.’ That’s more than the government’s done so far.
Love you, Maiduguri. We’re with you. Always.
maggie barnes
September 20, 2024 AT 12:58 PMTypical. Another disaster, another photo op. They don’t care about us. They care about the headlines. The dam failed because the engineers were paid in bribes, not expertise. The hospital? Collapsed because the last inspection was a joke. The ‘recovery plan’? A PowerPoint deck that’ll gather dust until the next election.
And now they want us to be ‘resilient’? Resilient? We’re not resilient-we’re exhausted. We’ve been lied to for decades. Every time it rains, we brace for the next betrayal.
Stop glorifying suffering. Start punishing the thieves.
And don’t even start with ‘community strength.’ That’s just code for ‘we’re not paying you.’
I’m tired of being told to be strong when the system is broken.
They’re not coming to help. They’re coming to watch.
Lewis Hardy
September 21, 2024 AT 18:48 PMI’ve been thinking about this all day. Not the politics. Not the dam. Not even the VP. I’ve been thinking about Amina. About what it means to lose everything and still say, ‘We have each other.’
That’s not just hope. That’s defiance. That’s the kind of quiet strength that doesn’t make headlines but changes the world.
I don’t know how to fix Nigeria’s infrastructure. But I know how to listen. And I think we need to start there. Not with policy papers. Not with press releases. With stories. With silence. With presence.
Maybe the answer isn’t in Abuja. Maybe it’s in the kitchen of a flooded house where someone is boiling water for tea and telling a child a story to keep them from crying.
I don’t have a solution. But I’m here. And I’m listening.
Thank you, Maiduguri. For reminding us what matters.
Prakash.s Peter
September 23, 2024 AT 03:13 AMLet us be clear: the Alau Dam collapse is a direct consequence of the incompetence and moral decay of the Nigerian political class. The dam was constructed in the 1970s with Soviet assistance; its design parameters were never updated to account for the climatic shifts of the Anthropocene. Yet, the Nigerian state, in its characteristic negligence, has failed to allocate even the most minimal maintenance budget. The result? Catastrophe.
Moreover, the invocation of ‘community resilience’ is a rhetorical device designed to absolve the state of its fiduciary duties. The people of Maiduguri are not ‘resilient’ because they are virtuous-they are resilient because they have no alternative. This is not heroism; it is survival under systemic abandonment.
The Vice President’s visit is a performative gesture. It will be documented, broadcast, and forgotten. The real work-audit, accountability, infrastructure overhaul-will be deferred until the next crisis.
And yet, one must acknowledge: the Nigerian state, however flawed, remains the only institution capable of mobilizing resources at scale. The alternative? Chaos. Therefore, we must demand excellence from a broken system-not abandon it.
But do not mistake compassion for competence.
And do not mistake silence for consent.
ria ariyani
September 24, 2024 AT 01:32 AMOkay but did you SEE the photos?? The VP’s shoes?? 😭😭😭 I mean, come ON. He’s standing in the mud like it’s a fashion show and his loafers are ruined?? 🤡 And the way he’s holding that clipboard like it’s a sacred relic?? Bro. He didn’t even get his suit wet. Meanwhile, families are sleeping in schools with no blankets. I’m not even mad. I’m just… disappointed. Like, is this a movie? Is this real life? Did they film this for Netflix? ‘The Dam: A Political Thriller’? 🎥 #FloodGlowUp #VPInMudButStillFancy
Also, Amina’s quote? SO CUTE. But why is it always the women who say the emotional stuff? Where are the men crying? Why is resilience always a female trait? 🤔
Also-did the dam have insurance? Who’s paying? Who’s getting rich off this? I smell a scandal. I smell a Nigerian scandal. And I’m here for it. 🕵️♀️
Emily Nguyen
September 24, 2024 AT 23:35 PMLet’s cut through the PR fluff. This isn’t a flood-it’s a supply chain collapse. The Alau Dam failure didn’t just displace people-it broke the entire regional logistics network. No water. No medicine. No fuel. No food. And now NEMA is trying to patch it with bottled water and tents? That’s not relief. That’s triage.
The real issue? Nigeria’s entire northern infrastructure is a single point of failure. One dam bursts, and the whole system collapses. No redundancy. No backup. No resilience. Just dependency.
What we need is decentralized microgrids, mobile clinics, and community water purification units-not federal helicopters dropping supplies from 10,000 feet.
This isn’t about aid. It’s about architecture. And Nigeria’s architecture is broken.
Stop treating symptoms. Fix the system.
And yes, I’ve consulted the World Bank’s 2023 Infrastructure Resilience Index. Nigeria’s score? 2.1/10. We’re not just behind. We’re in a ditch.
Ruben Figueroa
September 25, 2024 AT 02:51 AMVP Shettima’s visit? 🤡😂 Look at his face like he just walked into a Walmart during Black Friday. "Oh no, the floods!" Meanwhile, his security detail has 17 SUVs and a drone. The people? Sleeping on wet concrete. 🤦♂️
And the "community resilience" narrative? Bro. That’s just the government’s way of saying "we’re not fixing this." You don’t praise people for surviving your negligence. You fix the damn dam.
Also-why is the hospital down but the VP’s helicopter’s still running? 🚁💸
And Amina’s quote? Cute. But it’s not inspirational. It’s tragic. Because she shouldn’t have to say that. She should be living in a house. Not a tent. With clean water. Not muddy puddles.
Stop turning suffering into a hashtag. Start fixing the system. Or shut up.
😭🇺🇸
Joshua Gucilatar
September 25, 2024 AT 13:21 PMLet me respond to the ‘community resilience’ crowd. Yes, the people of Maiduguri are extraordinary. But admiration without accountability is just emotional voyeurism.
When you romanticize survival, you normalize suffering. You tell people: ‘It’s okay that you lost everything because you’re strong enough to endure it.’ That’s not compassion. That’s oppression dressed in empathy.
The real question isn’t ‘How are they holding up?’ The question is: ‘Why were they left to hold up a broken system?’
And to the conspiracy theorists: no, HAARP didn’t do this. But the same people who cut corners on the dam? They’re the ones who benefit from chaos. They profit from the emergency contracts. They profit from the silence.
Don’t let the truth get lost in the noise.
Fix the dam. Prosecute the corrupt. Fund the future. Or stop pretending you care.