By Patrick Abbah
United States President Barak Obama once said a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals.
Perhaps, President Goodluck Jonathan had this in mind when, on October 11, 2012, inaugurated a 34-man Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation (PCFRR) in the aftermath of the floods that wreaked parts of the country that year.
The committee, co-chaired by business mogul, Aliko Dangote, and a foremost legal giant, Olisa Agbakoba, was mandated to, amongst others, generate funds, particularly from the private sector, to assist those that were affected by the floods with 12-month duration.
Even critics hailed the ingenuity of President Jonathan in looking in the direction of the moneybags to bring relief to the victims in addition to putting in place measures at ensuring that a devastation of such magnitude does not happen again.
The emergence of the committee did not mean that the government had shelved its responsibility of providing, in times of disasters, relief materials for the affected; it was aimed at complementing government’s efforts.
Despite its obvious advantages, public analysts, as well as informed Nigerians, doubted that it would bring the desired succour to the affected, not considering the innovativeness or uniqueness of this effort.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had disclosed that the disaster cost the country N2.29 trillion as losses and damages, and rendered 3.8 million people homeless.
Its Director-General, Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi, had said: “The recent flood disaster in the country is still fresh.
“According to the 2012 Post Disaster Needs Assessment report, 363 people were killed; 5,851 injured; 3,891,394 affected and 3,871,530 displaced due to the resulting floods.”
He had further told the committee that they were put together because the government believed that they would not wait for it to get duty tour allowances before they discharged their responsibilities, saying that they were all selected “based on your credentials” and “what you have been doing before.”
“All of you, in one way or the other, have been involved in philanthropic duties because this is an assignment that you need people with empathy, not people that will see it as a privilege of touring or getting allowances for travels.”
But how would the nation’s businessmen and businesses respond? With a target of N100 billion, the 34-man committee, which had a 12-month assignment, held a fund-raising dinner where initial donations and pledges made by prominent Nigerians amounted to N11.35 billion.
Dangote and the federal government made the highest donation of N2.5 billion each, while the Chairman of Visafone, Jim Ovia, and Tony Elumelu pledged N1 billion each. In their contributions, the Ministers of Petroleum and Telecommunications, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and Omobola Johnson, respectively, pledged to mobilise the indigenous oil companies and telecommunications firms to make donations. Dangote said, as captains of industries and business magnates, people like him on the Committee, and the others, as citizens, had benefitted from the government and people of the country, so they were duty-bound to reciprocate that gesture.
He said: “We are targeting N100 billion minimum. We do not want to look at it as a government issue. For some of us when there were disasters in other countries we helped and so we expect people to help us.
Government is doing its best, but we, as a private sector, are very serious, because we are donating our money out of our own good will.”
The watching world was awe-struck by this singular gesture as the usual practice had always been for non-profit organisations, charities and development partners to help victims get over disasters.
So, this new thinking, new direction of getting profit-making organisations to get involved in assisting victims of disasters and mishaps drew commendations from within and outside the country.
In fact, some Americans, who couldn’t believe this Nigerian innovation, travelled all the way down to critically take a look at the blueprint.
However, to achieve the task was not going to be a knee jerk reaction for donors; for instance, in June, last year, Dangote and Agbakoba had to threaten to expose defaulting pledge-donors, giving them three weeks to redeem their pledges.
After overcoming this initial hitch, the committee promptly announced its plans to build new houses for the victims. It consequently invited reputable companies to build the houses, in addition to providing essential amenities in the 22 affected states.
The states are Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba.
The project includes building units of two-bedroom flats, three-bedroom flats and community centres. It also includes procurement and installation of mobile solar powered packaged water treatment plant and mobile generator powered water treatment plant, procurement and installation of solar-powered hand pumps and rehabilitation of existing water boreholes.
As a result of the ever-increasing cases of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), brought about by the recent spate of violence across the country, the PCFRR voluntarily added responsibility to its original mandate.
Therefore, in April, this year, it set up a Relief Implementation Team for victims of the latest conflicts in 24 states. Victims are victims, whether of natural or human disaster, it opined.
Dangote said the 11-man team is headed by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Members include the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri; the Director-General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi.
He said: “We didn’t have much flooding in 2013, and rainy season has not reached its peak yet, this year.
“We believe that millions of Nigerians are in need; and that is what calls for the need to provide between N750 million to N800 million to assist them.”
He said the committee was still trying very hard to persuade those who were yet to fulfill their pledges, after the deadline, to do so. This, according to him, would enable it to provide “foods and non-food materials” for victims.
He gave the assurance that the committee was prepared to “build more shelters ahead of this year’s rainy season.”
Abbah wrote from Makurdi, Benue state