Nze insisted that weather predictions were out early enough to set the tone for what to expect in the course of the year.
Several state governments and local authorities that are currently ravaged by flooding were adequately and timely warned about the impending crisis but they failed to take action, the Nigeria Hydrological Services (NIHSA) has said.
NIHSA Director General, Clement Nze, who stated this on Saturday while featuring on Channels TV programme, regretted that had the authorities especially at the state and local levels adhered to weather advisories issued by the various Federal Government agencies such as NIHSA and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the 2022 flood disaster would have been averted.
“If our predictions were heeded by relevant sub-nationals, we will not have been where we are today," said Nze noting that maybe this year's flood disaster across the land would reshape their thinking of sub-national leaders in 2023.
"I am believing that following this year’s flood disaster across the land, the consciousness of relevant actors especially sub-nationals will be awakened to do the needful once they receive all these advisories,” he added.
He also said the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, earlier in the year wrote letters to state governors informing them of the impending devastating floods of 2022 but some of the governors did not heed the warning.
Nze insisted that weather predictions were out early enough to set the tone for what to expect in the course of the year.
"The Nigerian Meteorological Agency came out with February 15 to paint the picture of what to expect most likely and my own agency, Nigeria Hydrological Services, later followed suit.
“The Minister of Water Resources that gave the unveiling of the prediction, the annual flood outlook, issued warnings, issued letters to each state government in Nigeria and relevant ministries like agriculture, environment and aviation, informing them the specific locations in their states they should watch out for during the rainy season.
“The letters were authored by him (minister), signed and sent to the governors, they were informed and the necessary measures they ought to take.”
SaharaReporters had been reporting massive flooding across the country with devastating and harrowing experiences of Nigerians living in many coastal and non-coastal lines.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), over 300 people had been killed by devastating floods across Nigeria in 2022.
Also hundreds of communities have been submerged in Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Kogi, Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto, amongst others with thousands of residents displaced and hectares of farmlands washed away, a development that analysts have opined could aggravate food crisis.
NEMA had also warned that the 2022 flood disaster will be worse than that of 2012 when at least 363 people were killed and over 2.1 million people were displaced by floods.