Barrister Chika Rita Okwuosah Foundation (BCROF) with support from RISE UP is out to change the narrative and set a new dimensional tone in emergency programme.
Their approach is to draw attention to the annual flood crisis that ravages the riverine communities of the state that reside along the River Niger; Anambra-East, Anambra-West, Ayamelum, Onitsha-North, Onitsha-South, Ogbaru
Their strategy is to employ advocacy as a wheel of engagement in order to attract the attention of the Anambra State House of Assembly to the plight of the citizens to the ravaging effect of the flood on annual basis.
Their motive is that since flooding has become an annual occurrence, it has now culminated into a situation where there is need for the government of the state to take the case of flooding very seriously and device ways of mitigating the hardship, sorrow, tears and blood that it brings upon the people.
Already, there is an Act that set up National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as a prompt response to disaster management, nationwide, the same proviso established the state arms, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to operate along side at the state level with their budget domicile at the office of the state governor but the provision has not yielded any desired result.
Therefore, the salient approach devised by BCROF is to through advocacy, bring to the notice of the Anambra State House of Assembly to review and amend the Act that set up SEMA, especially, Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (ANSEMA) and bring it up to the current realities where flooding in the state has become an annual crisis.
This review and amendment of the ASEMA Law will create explicitly, an equitable annual budget to holistically contain natural disaster of any sort in the state, so that flooding and its devastating effect will be budgeted for.
so that whoever there is natural disaster and annual flood in particular, there will be prompt management of the crisis because fund would have been voted for such disaster and discourage the prevailing condition where state government will have to wait for NEMA and well spirited Nigerians before responding to natural disaster.
Consequently, this approach will eventually lead to the creation of a ministry for natural disaster at the state level, using Anambra State as a model, instead of leaving it for emergency programme or Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs that is not specifically created just for natural disaster as an excise function.
Consciously, BCROF focus is centred on the issues surrounding and concerning flood crisis, its challenges, and its devastating effects economically, socially and humanistically on the state and women in particular.
As a step is preparing for the task ahead, BCROF organised a one-day seminar for its volunteers and partners so that there will be a unification of purpose and message that will express the mission of the foundation and what it is out to achieve.
Continuing, the BCROF Programme Manager, Mrs Anasthesia Ezeolisa, in her opening address pointed out that since the first flood occurrence of 2012 that resulted from the opening of Cameroonian dam that devastated Nigeria, flood effected that has destroyed many parts of the state annually, with many losing properties and loved ones, the situation has neither changed nor been ameliorated by both the federal and the state government in bringing a lasting solution.
Looking at the wanton destructions, especially at the Ogbaru Local Government Area, the foundation empathetically took the responsibility of support and bringing to the fore, the plight of the victims of flood in the River Niger basin, especially in Anambra State.
She explained that the founder, Sir Dozie Okwuosa floated the foundation in the loving memory of his daughter, to immortalize her by supporting people who has so suffered as a result of flood.
“Barr Chika Rita Okwuosa had the passion of helping the less privileged, the indigent and the vulnerable, but along the line, she died at a very young age.
“So, the parents want to advance her dream, set up a foundation in her memory, she said.
The works the Foundation hasd undertaken, according to her, was initially self-funded before we began to attract funding.
“With this campaign, we are not saying that the state government is not trying. Yes, they are trying, but their intervention is based on palliatives.
“So, we are saying that they should streamline the support to these sufferers of annual flood by reviewing the ANSEMA Law, to have a more impactful intervention. If there is a budget line, the mitigation efforts will be more fruitful and impactful.”
According to Nkechi Odunukwe, the lead facilitator, “we found out that ANSEMA is not able to do as much as it should do because it doesn’t have the law that supports the government to create a budget line for flooding.
“So, we feel the only way to achieve that is to begin to advocate to critical stakeholders such as the legislature and the executive so that there can be a review of the ANSEMA Law to create budget for flooding in the LGAs most affected by flood.
“We also think that there need to be a clear-cut budget line within the ANSEMA law that clearly tackles the issue of empowering women and girls because they are the most vulnerable when the flood comes.
“We feel there should be a way of empowering them because there are so many things they battling when flood occurs.”
Odunukwe further spoke categorically in her lecture on the need for thorough research and analysis of the problems and challenges that arise from flood at the local government level, and present them coherently in a way that their voices can make the desired impact in order to bring about the expected result.
