Year in Review: Disasters that struck Nigeria in 2022

Disaster according to Wikipedia as "a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life."

In 2022, in Nigeria, flooding was a natural disaster that took prominence.

Apart from taking prominence, flooding has been the constant natural disaster that has been plaguing Nigeria in the past decade.

There is no state in Nigeria that has not been affected by this disaster.

Also, the collapse of the nation's power became the new normal as month in and month out, the Federal Government announced the collapse of the nation's power grid.

Floods:

Flooding in Nigeria has been recurring both in part to negligence on the part of government, recklessness of Nigerians and as away 22 natural disaster.

The agency charged with the responsibility of monitoring the weather and giving early warning to Nigerians, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has not slacked in its duties but the lack of will and capacity has always left Nigerians at the receiving end.

The agency also responsible for disaster management, the National Emergency Agency (NEMA) and the counterparts in the state and local governments across the country have been up to the heels in trying to provide succor for disaster victims when such occurred.

Flooding has been a recurrent decimal in Nigeria but the flooding of 2022 was on a scale of epic proportions.

Compared to 2012, the last time such occurred, the flood of 2022 which has not receded in many states as at November, information revealed was predicted and adequate warnings issued to both the federal and state governments.

The Lagdo Dam in Cameroon it was alleged after it was opened added to the matter of the flooding in Nigeria, however not after warning has been issued time and time again that Nigeria would experience flooding.

States located in the lower basin of the Niger and other states in the North especially Kogi which seats atop the two main rivers in Nigeria was virtually swallowed by water.

Bayelsa State was another which experienced a nightmare as burial grounds in the state was flooded and corpses left floating.

The same also was experienced in Delta State as many low lying towns and many were forced to relocate to refugee camps.

Power grid collapse:

When the power structure was collapsed into the generating, transmission and distribution companies, Nigerians thought all was well with power supply in the country.

The bane is that these companies have been operating on the old system and old equipment and the case of the power grid collapse experienced in the country.

It is in record that the national grid collapsed 98 times under Buhari amid N1.52 trillion bailout and Nigeria experienced seven national grid power collapse in 2022 with the last being on September 25, 2022, when power generation on the system crashed from over 3,700MW to as low as 38MW.

On July 20, 2022, Nigeria's power grid saw the sixth collapse in 2022, while on June 13, there was another grid collapse according to The Punch newspaper.

The nation’s power system collapsed twice in March and twice again in April, 2022.

To curb the national grid collapse, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had in its Fourth Quarter 2021 report stated that to ensure grid stability, it would continue “to enforce and monitor compliance by Discos and TCN with respect to the execution of Service Level Agreements to ensure further grid discipline.

Building collapse:

Building collapse in Nigeria is not new but the dimension it assumed in 2021 and the extent of the damege became news again.

The first news filtered into town about the Ikoyi building Kate in 2021.

The latest data from Lagos State Emergency Management Agency showed that between January and July, 2022, Lagos recorded 24 cases of total building collapses.
Six of them were partial collapse and one of impending collapse.

Eighty-four Lagosians were also killed asa result of building collapse incidents in the last two years in Lagos State alone.

According to a report by Vanguard Newspaper, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, yesterday, revealed that at least 30 collapsed buildings were recorded in various incidents which occurred between January and July 2022 in Lagos State.

In August, CNN reported that at least one person was killed after a multiple-story building collapsed in Kano city.

In the wake of the collapse, a life was lost and many others feared trapped inside, according to the local fire service.

The media organisation also reported that 8 people had been rescued from the rubble including a person who was declared dead at a local hospital.
Nura Abdullahi, Kano State Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said one person was critically injured while six others were taken to hospital and then discharged.