The director-general of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, has expressed fear and worry over the damaging effects of the flood currently ravaging parts of the country will bring.
This is even as he said, the country had lost $140million worth of farm products to flood that is ravaging the North.
To this end, he called on government to set up a functional government’s disaster risk management agency that could help in fighting and curbing effects of disasters.
Oyerinde, who made this known to NATIONAL ECONOMY, stated that, the flood needs urgent attention and restrospect from all and sundry in order to save the country from food insecurity that would be witnessed as many crops and farmlands have been washed away by the flood.
He stated that the consequences of the flood on the already fragile economy and pauperised citizens can only be imagined.
Lamenting the effects the flood will be having on the country, if urgent steps are not taken to curb it, Oyerinde said, “The destruction of personal and economic infrastructure has invariably created circumstantial economic refugees. While the cause of the floods remains controversial, the reality of billions of naira lost and lives prematurely wiped away cannot be denied.”
Furthermore, the DG stressed that, as the citizens grapple with high inflation rate, high cost of living, increasing cost of gas and businesses forced to operate in an increasingly hostile regulatory environment, he added that the flood has further compounded the situation, compelling many to migrate from their abode to other higher grounds with various social, economic and unemployment consequences.
The NECA boss, in addition, said, the economic loss of the flood is massive, highlighting the devastating loss of a 100 hectares of rice farm in Nasarawa owned by Olam Agric, worth over $140million, offices and shops washed away, as well as the imminent food and unemployment crisis that these portend.
Noting the inactiveness and lack of preventive measures by the leadership of the country to issues, Oyerinde blamed the government, saying, “Historically, Nigeria has been more focused on post-disaster flood response than control. Reducing and addressing exposure to flood risk should now be a national priority in the government’s disaster risk management agenda.”
He called on relevant ministries and agencies of government to rally round and support businesses and citizens in ameliorating the loss, while designing appropriate policies in addressing the climate change effects in order to meet the 2050 United Nations (UN) declaration on global warming.
