The Second Flood is Coming While We Watch And Mourn
President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR)
@officialABAT
Vice President Sen. Kashim Shettima
@KashimSM
Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi
Minister of Information, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, fnipr
@HMMohammedIdris
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster Management
DG, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
@nemanigeria
Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers,
As you read this, the rest of Nigeria is breaking bread. Goats are being slaughtered. Children in new clothes are running from compound to compound shouting “Barka de Sallah!”
But here in Mokwa? We are not celebrating.
We are standing on dry ground that was underwater a year ago. And we are watching. Every elder, every mother, every child has their eyes fixed on the distant horizon of the river. The water is not waiting for your condolences. It is rising again. Same river. Same broken earth. Same unprotected village.
While you prayed in Abuja, we listened to the sound of our own heartbeat, asking: Will it be tonight? Will it be tomorrow?
We are having an emotional meltdown. Not a protest. A meltdown. Because what do you do when the whole country is rejoicing and you are simply waiting to be drowned again?
On May 29, 2025, the flood that swept through Mokwa did not just take homes. It exposed a question that has now become a bitter wound in our throats.
Where is the bridge?
In the last year, the Federal Government released Sixteen Point Seven Billion Naira (₦16.7 billion) for the construction of a major drainage-critical bridge and road reinforcement in this corridor. We have seen the allocation. We have seen the budget line. We have seen the contractors’ names.
But when the flood came on May 29, the water did not find a bridge. It found a scar. It found uncompleted earthworks. It found concrete that was poured and abandoned. It found a gully where a foundation should have been.
So we ask, with all due respect to your offices:
Where did the ₦16.7 billion go?
We are not asking for a prayer breakfast. We are asking for a forensic investigation. Publish the photographs of the bridge. Show us the payment milestones. Name the supervising engineer who signed off on a bridge that does not exist when water arrives.
If you do not investigate this now, then the next flood will not just wash away our houses. It will wash away whatever faith we have left in public accountability.
His Excellency Umaru Mohammed Bago
@HonBago, you came on television. You nodded. You looked sad. You promised:
“Emergency relief within 72 hours.” – We are still waiting.
“One Million naira per household as temporary support.” – Most household has not seen a kobo.
“Rebuilding of destroyed shelters before the next rain cycle.” – The next rain cycle is now. There are no shelters.
Where are the bulldozers? Where are the bags of cement? Where are the NFIs (Non-Food Items)?
We are not beggars. We are citizens. And we are tired of being treated like a photo opportunity for a press release that is forgotten as soon as the camera battery dies.
This is the part that makes us want to tear our clothes.
When the flood happened, Nigerians – your own citizens – opened their hearts. Private citizens. Churches. Mosques. Corporate organisations. Even market women sent their savings. The total donated to the Niger State “Mokwa Flood Victims Relief Fund” (managed by the office of the Governor of Niger State) stood at Five Point Two Eight Eight Billion Naira (₦5.288 billion).
We have the bank statements. We have the donation alerts. We have the names.
But the governor has not accounted for one naira. Not one.
The victims have received nothing from that fund. Not a bag of rice. Not a mat. Not a single zinc sheet.
So where is the money? Did it dry up? Did it fly? Or was it siphoned into the next political campaign, into “consultancy fees,” into the pockets of men who have never seen a flood except on a television screen?