"More haste, less speed" - English proverb
THERE are no quick fixes in respond ing to a calamity of such a magnitude. Deliberate and systematic approaches must be taken towards remedying the situations as they unfold. Cool heads, stout hearts and solid visions of the future are needed, especially from the leadership and all those concerned in this tragedy. More haste, but with less speed, is also required right now in dealing with the calamity that fell upon Maiduguri recently. A calamity of the scale and magnitude such as this is beyond comprehension or simple analogy. It was an apocalyptic event that left nothing and no one untouched. It was a disaster that overwhelmed everything opposed to it that can only be comprehended by refraining from rationalising it in our limited mental capacities.
Try as we may, the scale of the devastation is so comprehensive, so encompassing and so overwhelming, that we can only be stupefied by it and left clutching for hope from the thin air of despondency and hopelessness. Channels TV "Earth File" anchored by Ayoola Kassim that aired on Sunday morning of September 22, 2024, provided an extended coverage of the Maiduguri flood disaster. The scope and extent of the calamity was revealed by the graphic aerial and ground level video footages of the affected areas that virtually encompassed the entire city of about four million people. Watching the presentation and listening to the interviews of victims was so heart wrenching. But a detached perspective should provide us with a sobering atmosphere of the extent to which efforts would be needed to rebuild an entire city and restore people to their previous situation.
That, too, is actually more of a hope than any reasonable expectation, because life for the people of Maiduguri even before the deluge was one of grinding poverty, hardship and total resignation to elemental forces beyond their comprehension. Despite this, the idea of reconstruction and redevelopment of the city must take hold of the minds of the government leaders in Maiduguri and Abuja. The tireless efforts of the State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, should be seconded and indeed, superceded, by the assistance of the Federal Government and the personal commitments of both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima Mustapha, to the reconstruction of Maiduguri.
The pledges that they made towards overcoming the situation in Maiduguri should be redeemed as soon as conditions permit, so as to begin the grim and arduous task of cleaning and clearing up the city and restoring life back to normalcy. Efforts towards the reconstruction and redevelopment of the city of Maiduguri must begin right away at the conceptual stages. Plans to these effect should be conceived and kept in view. Implementation committees and other ancillary bodies should be put in place made up of persons of proven competence, experience, expertise, trustworthiness and integrity. Persons with the requisite knowledge of the evolution of the city and its growth should be consulted. Experts from all relevant fields should be sourced from the universities and other institutions across the country.
Young people with the necessary aptitude and competence in technology and computer graphics should be employed towards providing answers to the myriad of questions that will arise from the aftermath of this disaster. Artificial intelligence and satellite mapping as well as drone technologies should be employed towards creating the maximum and most cost effective designs for the new arrangements to be envisaged for the city. More especially, officials to be charged with the tasks of restoring Maiduguri to a better condition must be seized with the enormity of the task at hand and appreciate the significance of the assignments to be given to them.
Political power is the most important factor in development, when properly understood and effectively utilised. The moment has come when this altruism must be applied to Borno State in the inevitable reconstruction and redevelopment of its capital city, Maiduguri. Without the conscious and deliberate deployment of all the ingredients of power, including competent administration of resources and seizing of opportunities, the systematic restoration of the capital city would become a mirage and a forlorn hope. Recalling past experiences here will be vital to this undertaking. In the 1960s and 1970s, Maiduguri was a sleepy backwater just begining to modernise.
Efforts were made to ensure that its modernisation was not haphazard or unplanned but done along scientific and predetermined lines. The renowned firm of urban planners, Max Lock Group, was engaged to redesign the envisaged city and plan for its reconstruction. Max Lock went to work and produced a brilliant plan that saw to the phased and gradual growth of the city. In the 1980s, especially during the administration of the late Governor Muhammad Goni, progress was made in expanding the city. The development of Lagos Street and its environs captured the drama of the moment and the integrity and honesty of purpose of the main actors of the time.
Mohammed Abba-Gana, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as the then State Commissioner for Works and Housing, conceived the expansion of the city by the construction of a street that would traverse the river and join the road to Bama. His proposal was accepted by Governor Goni and the State Executive Council. The job was entrusted to the State Chief Civil Engineer Grema Mustapha and other highly talented officials. At the end of it all, at the cost of a mere N2.1 million, Lagos Street was constructed which included the bridge across the river. It was finally commissioned by the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande, then Governor of Lagos State.
In the same vein, the road from the Post Office Round About to the Government House was undertaken when Mallam Kaumi Damboa, my late Headmaster at Mafoni Primary School, was the Commissioner for Land and Survey and Colonel Abdulmuminu Aminu was the Governor. The project was executed at the cost of just N1 million at the time which expanded access to various parts of Maiduguri. The much talked about Alau Dam was designed and constructed at the cost of a mere N15 million between 1984 and 1986 under the supervision of talented and renowned engineers like the late Bunu Sherif Musa, the late Ibrahim Babbaji, Baba Gana Zanna, and others working with the Chad Basin Development Authority, CBDA. Some of these engineers are still alive and active today.
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The reconstruction of Maiduguri following the devastating floods will require a similar measure of discipline, commitment, selfless service and a high degree of integrity. Persons and institutions who have contributed to ameliorating the suffering of the victims will be apprehensive about the proper utilisation of their donations. As such a practical demonstration of the transparent handling of all resources received should be made. Under the circumstances, it is of considerable significance that the active presence of Governor Zulum and the committee that he has established to handle donations will suffice in giving assurance that monies contributed will not be diverted to other purposes but towards their intended objectives.
Maiduguri today is on its knees. A proud and vibrant city that could not be subdued by 15 years of Boko Haram terrorism has been humbled by a night's flow of water with such terrible consequences as to remove any hopes of normalcy from the inhabitants' expectations. But it is this despondency that must be fought and overcome. Other cities have emerged from near total devastation to become refreshed and reinvigorated. They were left in ruins but were restored through the diligence of men and women and the deployment of state power. Maiduguri's fate will not be sealed by this deluge terrible and overwhelming though it is. The city must rise from its submerged state to shine once more as the beacon of the North-East.
