The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, has come under fire for her remarks regarding the recent floods that have wracked numerous states across the nation, but the Presidency has rejected the requests for her resignation.
In response to Mrs. Farouq’s remarks that Jigawa state is the state most severely impacted by the recent flood calamity, the Niger Delta Caucus in the House of Representatives has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss her.
This newspaper had claimed that the MPs had accused the minister of politicizing the flood calamity.
According to Channels television reports, Edwin Clark, a senior citizen and former federal commissioner for information who is also the president of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), pleaded with the federal government to intervene and save the flood victims in the area rather than abandoning them.
One of the states in the area most severely affected by the destructive flood is Bayelsa State.
But in response to Mr. Clerk’s assertions, Ms. Farouq said State House reporters on Thursday that, in her ministry’s estimation, Bayelsa was not among the top 10 states most negatively impacted by the recent floods.
Jigawa state is the state that is most impacted, Ms. Farouq informed reporters.
According to Channels television’s report, 166, 076 people in Jigawa and 257, 913 in Bayelsa were affected by the floods as of October 24th, according to data from the federal government.
Federal MPs from the Niger Delta demanded that she be fired as a result of her comments.
President Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, responded to the calls for the minister to be fired by saying that the scale of the devastation “has clearly exceeded disaster management measures.”
Calls for Ms. Farouq’s resignation, he claimed, “are not suitable in this context.”
While expressing sympathy for Bayelsa state’s flood victims, the Presidency noted that “nearly every state in Nigeria has been hit” and indicated that federal relief was being delivered to the state in stages.
“All these initiatives are being made in advance of the report of the committee that was established by the President ‘to fashion out solutions and then escalate their conclusions to the Federal Government, to alleviate the plight of people currently being ravaged by flood around the country’ under the auspices of the Nigerian Governors Forum.
As the nation contends with its worst flooding in decades, more is being anticipated from the international response and how much of a difference support from businesses and organizations can make.
“We hope that everyone—federal agencies, states, and local governments—will pay more attention to the difficulties posed by climate change.
“As more and more resources are made available to organizations dealing with this issue, the central government will continue to do more for Bayelsa and for all states so afflicted.” stated Mr. Shehu.
