Bayelsa Flood Disaster: Royal Fathers Say People Left To Fate

By Ayodele Oni

Still sweating from hardship and loses suffered from flooding this year, royal fathers in Bayelsa state, under the aegis of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council have  condemned delayed response of the Federal Government and multinational oil companies to the plight of the people.

The traditional rulers stated that not less than one million victims were affected by this year’s flood disaster in Bayelsa State.

The royal fathers, in a statement read by the Bayelsa State Chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council, King Bubaraye Dakolo, in Yenagoa, noted that public infrastructure were also damaged by the ravaging flood.

According to Dakolo, it has become absolutely necessary for the Monarchs to speak out in order to set the records straight, given the wrong public perception of this year’s flood, which is undoubtedly the worst ever to have affected the people of Bayelsa State.

He pointed out that as a result of the flood, major Federal Government and State infrastructure such as roads, electricity, bridges have been badly damaged in addition to private properties such as houses, cars, farms and businesses worth multiple of billions of Naira destroyed.

He noted that the flood destroyed the access road leading to the state thereby isolating state completely from the rest of the country forcing  prices of goods and services to skyrocket.

“We the royal fathers of Bayelsa State, have observed that not only did the 2022 flood unleash unprecedented havoc in Bayelsa State and beyond, it also opened the floodgates of ignorance on the subject of the misery floodwaters could unleash on a people who live on the flat arcuate lowlands adjacent the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

“We believe, and strongly so, that the misinformation we have been confronted with this season, may have directly led to the observed extremely slow, and almost shameful response by statutory agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the plight of the over one million victims of the 2022 flood disaster in Bayelsa State.

“Giving the wrong public perception of this year’s flood which is unarguably the worst ever to occur in the lives of the Ijaws of Bayelsa State, and perhaps others too, it has become absolutely necessary for the Royal Fathers of the State to speak out loud, so as to straighten the crooked records, and above all, jolt all concerned to do the work for which they are paid.

“In the recent meeting of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council (BYS TRC) we took turns in expressing the extreme ordeals we had to endure together with our subjects for over a month.

“We did not mince words in condemning the complete absence of agents of statutory Federal Government Agencies and Ministries saddled with the job of rendering assistance in our domains at times such as these.

“Rather we were seeing oil workers in their coveralls safe in their shuttles, going about their greasy, oily business, all over our flood ravaged State.

“Pitiably there is no evidence yet about any intervention from the oil industry to the flood ravaged people of Bayelsa State also.

“Could it be that they also wished us all dead? Well, being natural swimmers, though distressed and displaced like never before, most us are still alive!

“While this type of calamity had never befallen our people, we had never imagined that this degree of extreme insensitivity and lack of interest would be displayed with respect to the survival and welfare of our peace people who are all fellow citizens of this great country for all to see at a time like this. So brazenly ugly!

“While the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has not furnished the traditional rulers of Bayelsa State with the actual monetary value of a human life in this country of ours, suffice it to say that numerous lives of future leaders have already been lost, and many may still be lost in our Kingdoms as a consequence of the flood if the Federal Government does not quickly lend a hand to support the efforts of the Bayelsa State government in ameliorating the citizen’s plight.”