The Managing Director (MD) of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Aliyu Abdulhameed, has blamed poor railway infrastructure for the recent devastating flood in Mokwa, Niger State.
The flood claimed over 200 lives, with property worth billions of naira destroyed.
Abdulhameed stated this on Thursday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Hydrological Services and the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, chaired by Paschal Agbodike.
Addressing the Committee, the NIRSAL boss said, ‘What happened in Mokwa, in particular, was caused mainly by the railway in the area.
‘There is a railway embankment, up to about four meters high, that was stopping the water from draining into the River Niger.
‘That was the major reason; it had nothing to do with Kainji Dam, it had nothing to do with Jebba Dam. Both are downstream’, he said.
According to him, the railway line, believed to have been renovated between 2018 and 2019, initially had drainage systems running through it to allow water to flow freely into the river, adding after the reconstruction, those drainage outlets were completely blocked.
‘What happened was after the inauguration, they blocked those drainage systems that are supposed to allow the water to drain into River Niger. So, the water piled up over the years.
‘Since 2023, based on my visitations, most of the people in the Mokwa settlement have lost their farms due to the accumulation of water upstream, trapped behind the railway embankment’, he said.
He added that the embankment itself lacked the necessary engineering integrity to withstand the mounting pressure, being constructed entirely of soil without any structural framework to reinforce it.
‘It has been eating up that embankment because it is purely soil. It started losing its strength to hold back the water.
‘Then that fearful night, it gave way. The water punctured it, and that was why it came with a huge cost and swept through the settlement on that river’.
He also identified human activity as a compounding factor, stressing that over time, people began to settle along the dry river in Dingin, mistaking it for permanently reclaimed land since no water had flowed through it in years.
‘Certainly, there are a lot of anthropogenic activities where people have settled on that same river.
‘Why? Because over the years, after the embankment was built and water stopped flowing, people found it convenient to just settle there. That was a major cause of that particular flood’, he said.
To prevent a recurrence of such disasters, the NIRSAL boss revealed that he had held high-level discussions with the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), with both agencies resolving to launch a nationwide investigation into railway constructions and their impact on natural waterways.
‘I had a long meeting with the MD of Nigeria Railway Corporation, and we are putting up a team to probe all railway lines. I noticed a lot of other places apart from Mokwa where the same practice is being repeated.
‘So to avoid future occurrences, we are probing all the railway lines, including all the federal highways I have been to, to ensure that waterways are maintained’, he said.
The committee summoned the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa and the Minister of Transportation, Saidu Alkali, to appear before it over their alleged role in the devastating floods.
Agbodike said that the NRC’s role, through its railway construction, had raised serious questions that demanded answers, especially since the incident had resulted in the loss of lives, property, and farmlands.
‘For natural disasters, it seems we are always waiting for them to happen before we start talking about remediation. We cannot let that continue any longer.
‘This committee is hereby inviting the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation and the Minister of Transportation to appear before us. They must come and explain why they undertook a project that directly led to the loss of lives and property.
‘We will not tolerate any loss of life as a result of flood again in this country, any ministry or agency that is responsible will be seriously dealt with’, he said.
Earlier in an address, Agbodike called for a coordinated national response to the growing threat of flood disasters in Nigeria.
‘Flooding has become a recurrent problem in Nigeria. Our goal today is to explore effective measures to mitigate the risks, improve preparedness, and strengthen disaster response systems nationwide.
‘The Mokwa, Kainji, and Jebba dams are key to our national water and energy systems, but when mismanaged or left unattended, they pose enormous danger’, he warned.
