For most of September, locals living on the outskirts of Makurdi metropolis, the Benue State capital, agonized over the impending flood predicted by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the cost of inundating their farmlands. By early October, their fears were confirmed as floodwaters gushed from the Lagdo Dam in the Northern Province of Cameroon, meandering down hundreds of kilometers along the Benue River course and submerging hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland situated along the alluvial plains on the southeastern bank of the river around Makurdi LGA.
Communities sprawling along the Makurdi-Gboko road—at least 18 kilometers from the capital town—were severely affected. Just after the Nigerian Air Force Base in Makurdi are Tyo-Mu, Akile, Abua, and Angbaaye, whose inhabitants are predominantly farmers. They are now counting their losses in billions of naira as their cassava, rice, maize, beans, and vegetable farms are washed away by the flood.
Residents Cracking Under the Disastrous Impact of Flooding
A youth leader in Akile, Japhet Aondoaseer, stated that residents of these communities lack farmlands on high ground, and because of the fertility of the alluvial plains, they have no option but to farm there year in and year out despite the constant damage caused to their crops by flooding. He emphasized that climate change has exacerbated the flooding in recent years, intensifying the destruction of their crops and threats to their livelihoods.
He noted that the deadly impacts of the disaster on their lives are driving many individuals to mental health challenges. According to him, many people are now living on edge, with some turning to excessive drinking and smoking—mostly men—while women have taken to visiting prayer houses for miracles.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change increasingly impacts mental health and psychosocial well-being, calling on member countries in the Global South to strengthen mental health systems and services to address this growing challenge.
“Climate change exacerbates many social, environmental, and economic risk factors for mental health and psychosocial well-being. Among WHO regions, South-East Asia is most vulnerable to this,” said Ms. Saima Wazed, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia, in her opening remarks at a regional workshop for ‘Strengthening Capacity of Countries to Address the Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health,’ held from August 12 to 14.
The Regional Director stated that in many countries, significant gaps exist between mental health needs and the availability and accessibility of mental health systems and services. The increase in mental health and psychosocial problems stemming from climate change is putting an extra burden on health systems.
“There is a large gap in both knowledge of and response to climate change’s impact on mental health. There is an evident need to bring together climate and mental health officials from member states to ensure accelerated action to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts and prevent further widening of this gap,” Ms. Wazed said.
A Long History of Abandonment and Neglect
For Tersoo Iortim, the vice president of Ipusu Youth, who lives in Angbaaye, these communities have been abandoned and neglected by previous governments. Even the present government, led by Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has not shown any indication that it will provide succor to the affected residents. Collaborating with Aondoaseer, he stated that the sense of abandonment and neglect felt by the people must have driven them to a state of mental health crisis.
“We have suffered for so long; it feels as if we are all on our own. Starting from 1995, when there was the Tiv-Jukun crisis in Abetse that spilled over to these communities, no government has ever given us palliatives when we are in need. Most recently, between 2020 and 2021, there were communal crises affecting all four communities, in which houses were razed, farmlands destroyed, and scores killed, but no government official came to donate even a pinch of salt to any member of these communities. We were expecting that since President Bola Tinubu is running his government on palliatives, we too would be remembered this time around, but nothing has reached us,” Iortim lamented, adding that even Pure Biotech Nigeria Limited, situated in his domain, has not deemed it fit to carry out its corporate social responsibility to these communities, which are all negatively impacted by its operations.
“We didn’t even have drinking water in Angbaaye since the Chinese company started operations here. It took the intervention of this writer, whose report held them accountable (https://dailytrust.com/were-battling-with-pollution-makurdi-communities-cry-out), to provide a borehole for us to compensate for the pollution it is causing here.”
Aondoaseer also mentioned that the feeling of abandonment and neglect runs deep in the veins of community members, as they have proven to be key battlegrounds during elections.
“Since the time of Aper Aku, according to stories told by elders, these communities have been key battlegrounds for politicians. I started witnessing it myself, even though I was a child during the aborted Third Republic when Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu won the governorship, right up to the time of Gov. Gabriel Suswam. So when this flood disaster happened, as one of the youth leaders, I got the mobile number of Hon. Dickson Tarkighir, representing Makurdi/Guma on the ticket of the ruling party APC in the House of Representatives, and called him, also sending a message, but he didn’t reply to any of them. I did the same with Hon. Douglas Akya, who represents Makurdi South in the State Assembly, but it was also to no avail. So the weight of the challenges in these communities is squarely and burdensomely on our shoulders,” he said.
A Glimmer of Hope Flickers on the Horizon
Aondoaseer, however, said a brewery currently being constructed by the Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) between Akile and Abua offers them hope for a better future. He anticipates that residents will be employed massively, reducing their sole dependence on farming. “We sincerely hope BIPC will not treat us the way Pure Biotech, the Chinese firm, has treated the locals—denying them employment opportunities and reluctantly carrying out its CSR.”
Urgent Climate Action Needed
Now it is time for the authorities in Benue State, at all levels, to pool their resources together and salvage a people sinking under waves of extreme climate change impacts. There’s an urgent need to help the people build resilience to cope with these increasing threats to their livelihoods and health—which, as a popular axiom says, is wealth. The state government and representatives of the people at both national and state levels can start by providing incentives for farmers to engage productively in dry season farming to make up for their losses.
It should also be a wake-up call to the Fr. Alia-led government that rain-fed agriculture is increasingly becoming unsustainable in this climate change era, and that communities need nature-based solutions to the debilitating climate change crisis gnawing at every fiber of human endeavor. The government, working with CSOs, CBOs, development partners, and experts in the field of climate change, can lead the way in searching for these solutions.
- Terkula Igidi is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience in investigative and climate change reporting.
