Daniel Otera
Under the cover of night, while emergency officials in Abuja were winding down a national meeting on how to avert deadly floods, tragedy was already unfolding in Mokwa, a commercial town in Niger State. Hours after the high-level session ended, torrents of water surged into Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa communities, submerging homes and killing at least 21 people, many of them women and children before dawn.
The coincidence was as jarring as it was symbolic: a country rallying on paper to tackle a recurring menace, yet helpless to prevent the very kind of disaster it was strategising against.
On Thursday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) held a flagship event of its 2025 National Disaster Preparedness and Response Campaign (NDPRC) in Abuja. Themed “Strengthening Resilience, Enhancing Preparedness and Response”, the campaign was designed to enhance local and federal synergy in tackling floods, a recurring nightmare in Nigeria’s rainy season.
Attended by stakeholders from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), and state emergency management bodies, the campaign focused on early warning systems, grassroots mobilisation, and proactive response.
In her speech delivered by North-west Zonal Director Ishaya Chonoko NEMA Director-General Zubaida Umar emphasised the importance of preparing flood-prone communities in advance. “We must step up our game and take a different approach from what has been done in the past,” she said, noting that teams would soon be deployed to engage vulnerable areas directly.
But by the time that message was being echoed in the conference room, residents of Mokwa were already caught in rising waters with no warning, no alarm, and no escape.
The disaster followed a torrential midnight rainfall that lasted more than five hours. According to reports, the downpour overwhelmed a small dam in nearby New Bussa, leading to its collapse. Water from the broken dam surged into neighbouring Mokwa town, flattening homes and dragging unsuspecting residents into the depths.
At least 21 people were confirmed dead by the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA). Among the dead were several children and a pregnant woman.
The bodies were recovered from flood waters over the next day. At least 10 others were still missing as of Friday evening, with local divers and volunteers assisting in ongoing search and rescue efforts.
According to NSEMA, over 50 houses were swept away, displacing dozens and leaving survivors traumatised. A woman and her two children were pulled from the wreckage alive and taken to Mokwa General Hospital for treatment.
The tragedy affected primarily Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa, two communities nestled within Mokwa Local Government Area, a region listed in NiMET’s 2025 seasonal climate prediction as highly vulnerable to flooding. The paradox of a national flood preparedness campaign being followed almost immediately by a deadly flood is not lost on observers. While NEMA officials laid out bold plans for disaster mitigation, the tragedy in Mokwa exposed a deep structural flaw: a persistent gap between policy design and real-time execution.
Despite annual campaigns, predictive data from NiMET, and ongoing warnings from hydrological agencies, floods continue to claim lives with alarming regularity in Nigeria. In 2022, Nigeria witnessed its worst flood disaster in over a decade, with more than 600 people killed and over 2.5 million displaced across 33 states, according to figures released by the Federal Government and corroborated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
The widespread devastation, described as unprecedented, also submerged hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland and left over 1.3 million people homeless, UNICEF said in a separate report.
For years, experts have emphasised the need for early warning systems, community drills, dam maintenance, local evacuation plans, and robust inter-agency coordination. Yet, the response in many rural areas remains reactive rather than preventive.
In Mokwa, residents say no warnings were issued prior to the disaster, and no emergency alerts reached the town, despite its known risk.
Niger State is no stranger to floods. Situated at the confluence of the Niger and Kaduna rivers, and home to several dams including Kainji Dam and Shiroro Dam, the state frequently ranks among the worst-hit during Nigeria’s flood seasons.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Nigeria’s 2022 floods the worst in over a decade affected more than 2.8 million people across 33 states. While specific data for Niger State was not disaggregated in the report, the state was among the worst hit. The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal targeting at least 500,000 vulnerable people nationwide for immediate humanitarian assistance.
In Niger State, repeated complaints from residents centre on dam overflows, poor infrastructure maintenance, blocked drainages, and delayed government responses factors that exacerbate flood risks each year. The Mokwa incident fits a familiar pattern: communities suffer quietly until a catastrophe strikes, then receive a short burst of attention before the cycle resumes the following year.
With the 2025 rainy season just beginning, the National Disaster Preparedness and Response Campaign faces a steep credibility test.
