•••URGES HER TO RESIGN
The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has told the the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, that she is unfit to be made minister.
PANDEF said that the minister has shown by the irrationality of her inciting utterances on the flood situation that she is not fit to be minister and should resign immediately or be sacked.
PANDEF was reacting to the startling remarks by the minister on the debilitating flood situation in the country.
Ken Robinson, National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, said in a statement on Friday that the Minister’s comment that Jigawa was the most affected state by the flood while Bayelsa is not among the first 10 “is a brazen assault on the sensibilities of Nigerians and an attack on logic. It is indeed provocative.”
Robinson lamented that the minister in her response to the innocuous observation by Elder Statesman and PANDEF National Leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark over the slow response of the federal government to the flood disaster in the states of the Niger Delta “decided to throw caution to the wind and descended into the gutters of absurdity.”
The statement reproduced the observation of the PANDEF leader which obviously made the minister to downplay the unprecedented flood devastation in Bayelsa State.
“In the area of life ravaging flood, I don’t even think that the President is aware of the magnitude of the national crisis the nation is being threatened with, when he had not found it necessary to hold the children who look for forlorn, to give them hope and assurance that the nation truly cares for them. People are dying in the flood, people are starving. No water for them to drink, and yet, the President does not care, where is the milk of human kindness in him?”
“We have a Minister of Humanitarian Affairs who is not humane, who was only active to carry out school feeding for school children who were confined to their homes during Covid-19. In such a period of ravaging flood, she has decided on disconcerting silence. Bodies like National Emergency Management Agency were not able to take proactive action. Where is the mother of the nation, the First Lady, Aisha Buhari? Her fellow women are in deep agony, seeing their children dying of starvation and mild illnesses because there was no medication.”
“Is it not an irony that as President Buhari abandoned us to travel to South Korea without visiting the flood-ravaged communities, his departure from that country was met with a similar accident there (a stampede) in which 150 people died? Immediately, the President of that country arrived at the scene in Seoul to commiserate with the survivors and victims. South Korea even declared a national mourning period for the deceased. Likewise, at about the same time, there was the collapse of a bridge in India, resulting in the death of 100 persons, which occasioned the immediate visit of the Indian Prime Minister.
“On both occasions, our own President was kind enough to send condolence messages to the two countries and the people, but President and the government here, at home, had kept mute over what our people are passing through in the Niger Delta and a few other places. ” Clark had observed
The PANDEF Spokesman in the statement described the conclusions of the minister on the flooding in the country as reckless, morbid and ridiculous.
Robinson said that the minister’s comments were a reflection of the arrogance and the disdain with which issues involving the Niger Delta are treated by Federal Government.
He said further, “PANDEF is worried that the Minister’s assertions could heighten the feelings of alienation and dissension in the country. Her remarks have been greeted with spontaneous reactions and widespread condemnation across the Niger Delta, particularly Bayelsa State, where the government and the people have been grappling with the massive devastation caused by the floods.
“PANDEF notes that the Minister had earlier claimed that only four Local Government Areas of Bayelsa state were impacted by the unprecedented flood.
“The crass irrationality displayed by Sadiya Umar Farouq makes her unfit for the office of Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. She should, therefore, resign immediately or be sacked.
“How can a state up North, like Jigawa, be worst impacted when indeed Bayelsa State has the unfortunate responsibility of receiving the flood water that ran through more than 15 states? As it has been rightly queried.
PANDEF concedes that the floods had ravaged several states of the country, however, it has been admitted by those entrusted with knowledge on this matter, including experts from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Nigeria Meteorological Services Agency, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency and intellectuals that the States of the Niger Delta, being the final point where all flood water gathers are most impacted and submerged.
“As a matter of fact, in a State such as Bayelsa, almost every part was reportedly submerged and people in most communities were helplessly displaced. For a period now going on to one month, entire communities are underwater, tens of people dead, millions of people displaced and unquantifiable levels of farmlands, fish farms and properties destroyed, and schools have closed.
“From first-hand reports, the Bayelsa State has been cut off from the rest of the country because the ravaging floods had cut off the East-West Road on the Patani axis from the West at 2 spots and the East at 3 spots on the Mbiama – Ahoada axis, making it impossible for commuters to ply the road. Today, Bayelsa State can only be accessed via the waterways or by air.
“What is most shocking is that despite the great publicity on the destruction caused by the floods, our President, the “Father” of the Nation, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, has refused to visit the affected States in the country, and it would appear, has no interest at all to do so, to show empathy and give succour and moral boosting to our people. Sadly, neither the Vice President nor the Senate President, Speaker, House of Representatives or Secretary to the Government of the Federation has found it necessary to even make a casual visit.
“Worse even, the Minister of Water Resources or the “almighty” and untouchable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development or their colleague, the Minister of Environment whose ministries have direct relevance to the situation, have not thought it fit to visit the affected communities in the Niger Delta. This is shocking and nearly unbelievable.
“Given the apparent abandonment by the Federal Government and its agencies, PANDEF profoundly unduly commends the Government and people of Bayelsa State, and communities in Delta, Rivers and other States of the Niger Delta affected by the floods, for their resilience. The Niger Delta region continues to be the goose that lays the golden egg including providing the funds that enable the President to travel around the world and other top officials of the Federal Government in Abuja, including the Minister of the so-called ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, in running their exaggerated programmes. Yet, we are being neglected.
“A humongous sum of money has been, reportedly, approved to fix sections of the East-West Road that were severed by the floods, we hope that there will be value for money this time.
“Conclusively, the assertions by Sadiya Umar Farouq further reflect the uncouth arrogance and callous disregard being accorded to issues about the Niger Delta region and its people, by the federal government.
“As the tears of pain and grieve over the great loss of loved ones and the unbearable level of human suffering and destruction of properties sweep across the Niger Delta, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) on behalf of the Elders, Leaders and People of the South-South geopolitical region, the most impacted in the country from the ravaging flood 2022, is asking:
“Why has President Muhammadu Buhari abandoned the victims of the floods, especially in the Niger Delta?
“Why has the Federal Government neglected our people, even at this time?”
