From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
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Rather than blaming President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for removing the fuel subsidy, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has heaped the whole blame on President Muhammadu Buhari for removing the subsidy from the budget without putting mitigating mechanisms in place.
President of the society, Engineer Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil, who disclosed this in Abuja, stated that the announcement of plans for palliatives at this point that Nigerians are already in penury is ill-conceived.
“However, the debates and conversations that trailed the subsidy removal pronouncement sprouted the idea of conversion of sources of fuelling from premium motor spirit (PMS) to Compessed Natural Gas (CNG). The conversation of PMS engines to CNG is of immense interest to NSE as a professional organisation,” he said.
On how the flooding should be mitigated should Cameroon opens its dam, Gidari-Wudil suggested that dams should be constructed in different parts of Nigeria.
“Therefore, in response to the recurrent menace and especially as the rains are here with us again this year, the NSE Council deemed it necessary for the society to make an informed statement on the mitigating measures for flooding. Floods cannot be prevented; they can only be managed to reduce their devastating consequences.
“It has become necessary for us to re-echo the strong suggestions made as we have begun to see flooding incidences around Nigeria and even within the Federal Capital Territory” NSE noted.
He regretted that after the devastating 2012 flooding, committees were set up and those committees have made their reports.
Unfortunately, their recommendations have not been implemented.
“After the 2012 flooding incident, several committees were set up by governments at the federal level and the respective states affected by the flood. Also, in November 2022, the Federal Government inaugurated a Presidential Committee on Flood Disasters. The mandate of the committees was to conduct research and develop comprehensive action plans for preventing flood disasters in Nigeria. As it stands today, the recommendations of studies conducted by the committees are yet to be fully implemented.
“Floods are among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, claiming lives and causing damage to property and infrastructure. In Nigeria, flood affects and displaces more people than any other disaster yearly,” he said.