Water is the genesis and the cradle of life. However, its functionality rests on the situation, circumstances or happenstances surrounding its movement or location. It is constructive at the same time destructive. It can be a source of energy and a destructive element as well. It can save and can take a life too. No living thing exists without it. In fact, humans are about 67 percent water and the blood on which our lives survive is 90 percent water. Viz, if we are to identify with our body components in proportion to quantity ratio, we can as well be referred to as water beings.
There might be millions of ideologies, but the one that counts for human advancement is the one coupled with facts. The fact concerning the root cause of the present killer flood, bulldozing the lives and properties of innocent Nigerians is the misplaced priorities due to corruption and negligence on the government’s part and the enthronement of clowns to manage our societal wellbeing as a result of ignorance on the part of the public.
The severe flood ravaging our societies is as a result of the excess water released from LAGDO DAM in Northern Cameroon. The released water cascades down through River Benue to Nigeria, inundating communities through its river banks and tributaries.
There was a mutual agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon to construct two dams, the Lagdo Dam by Cameroon and the Dasin Hausa Dam by Nigeria. Dasin Hausa Dam was to be in the position to contain the water released from Lagdo Dam and which is to be two and half times bigger than the Lagdo Dam. Cameroon government started the construction of Lagdo Dam in 1977 and completed it in 1982. And Nigeria Government, as usual, failed in their responsibility to build Dasin Hausa Dam, which resulted to the existence of past and present monstrous diluvian, sweeping away roads, bridges, farms, houses; shutting down businesses, schools, hospitals and destroying lives and properties like the waters of Noah.
In the days of Noah, an ark was built to remedy the destructive effects of a great flood in the same way the Dasin Hausa Dam would have saved us from the destructive effects of the excess water released from Lagdo Dam in Northern Cameroon.
Dasin Hausa Dam, which was to be built in Adamawa State, would have been producing at least 300 megawatts of electricity and also serve as a source of irrigation to many farms, generating food, employments and money to both government and individuals that would come across the tentacles of its productive effects. But who will bail the cat as Noah did in the days of old? Our political leaders’ visions and missions around the corridors of power centered at feeding their insatiable greed for public wealth. Politicians will make their personal interests appear like national or regional interests.
The degree of desperation with which they struggle for power is a revelation of their criminal intentions towards the masses. If one is actually going there to serve, why the violence and the spending of so much money, which is far much more than the salaries and the allowances one is constitutionally given for the period of a whole four years? In the course of electoral competitions, politicians will spend huge amount of money to sponsor violence against the same people they want to serve. They will set fire in the secret and call for water in the open. It is a pity that the will of the majority halfwit individuals always outshine that of the infinitesimal wise ones in Nigeria, which in turn, empowers clowns to sit in the positions of headmasters.
It is so demoralizing to hear politicians, who operate in support of the government that be, refer to the avoidable flood from the released water of LAGDO Dam in Northern Cameroon as natural disaster, instead of leadership failures.
Please underline this: WHERE CRIMINALS ARE TOWN CRIERS, MISLEADING INFORMATION BECOMES THE DEFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC.
Amb. Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie is the author of the book ‘The Enemy Called Corruption’, an Award Winning Best Columnist Of The Year 2020/Giant In Security Support among other local and international awards. He is the Founder/President of Peace Ambassadors Global.