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By Daniel Adaji
Urban planner and immediate past president of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Dr. Nathaniel Atebije, has blamed recurring floods in Nigeria on the failure of the government to fulfill a crucial dam agreement with the Republic of Cameroon.
According to him, this singular neglect, compounded by widespread corruption and poor urban planning, continues to endanger millions of Nigerian lives annually.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Pointblanknews.com on Thursday , Atebije pointed to the unfulfilled bilateral dam agreement as a recurring disaster that exposes downstream communities in Nigeria to devastating floods every year.
“We had an agreement with the Republic of Cameroon, where there is a bigger dam on the River Benue. It was agreed that there should be a middle-level dam to be constructed between Adamawa and Taraba States to contain flooding from Cameroon any time water is released,” he said.
“Now, these things are not done. These medium-level dams are not done. And so, whenever water is released from the dams, the people who are downstream will greatly suffer flooding. It has taken so many lives. It has destroyed millions or billions of infrastructure. It has destroyed billions of food crops and has thrown quite a lot of places into lack of food,” Atebije added.
Despite receiving over N600bn in ecological funds between 2012 and 2025, many Nigerian state governments have failed to put necessary flood mitigation infrastructure in place.
Documents obtained by Pointblanknews.com from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative website show that states got N276.5bn between 2012 and 2016.
Additionally, the states received N300bn from 2017 to 2022, N39.62bn between June 2023 and June 2024, and N6.03bn in February 2025, according to FAAC records.
Yet,flooding remains a recurring tragedy.
Atebije blames the situation on the absence of urban planning, failed development control, deforestation, and institutional corruption.
“Flooding, in my understanding, can be described as a natural or man-made environmental catastrophe caused by the carelessness of man to organize his environment through rational physical planning,” he said.
“Urbanization is on the increase, population is on the increase, and the activities of human beings are on the increase, but we do not seem to care to organize this environment. So water is not guided to pass through the places it should go; therefore, they overrun their bounds,” he warned.
He added that even where land use plans exist, “the need for the control of development becomes very, very important. We make sure that wrong things are not built to block water channels. We make sure that development is properly guided through development control.”
Atebije also noted that poor waste management worsens flooding. “We throw our solid wastes and refuse into drainage channels. And when they block the channels, it becomes difficult for water to flow. And when it cannot flow, flooding occurs,” he said.
On environmental degradation, Atebije lamented deforestation and unchecked siltation.
“The River Niger has collected quite a lot of silt over the years. For example, some time ago, there was a contract given for desilting or dredging of the River Niger. I don’t know how far we have gone with it, but to date, it appears as if the job has not been finished. Almost every year now there is flooding,” he said.
He attributed the institutional failures to deep-rooted corruption. “We have a very weak institutional response, which is capped off by corruption. So many institutions have been created either in the name of environment, watershed management, or migration management. A lot of budget is given to them every year, but only God knows how well this is applied,” he said.
The Ecological Fund, established in 1981, was designed to be a first-line charge to address serious ecological problems like erosion, desertification, oil spills, and floods. However, despite the legal and financial structure in place, including its distribution among federal, state, and local governments, implementation has remained poor.
To stop the cycle of disaster, Atebije, who is also the founder of the Nathaniel Atebije Foundation for Policy Advocacy, called for urgent reforms.
“If we want to ensure that we minimize flooding, it is important that we embark on urban planning. Let our urban areas be planned by professionals. Let us set up institutions that will manage the process of development, and let the institutions be empowered with political backing and funds. When these things are done, we shall have fewer of these challenges of flooding,” he said.