Seen optimistically, flooding could be more of a blessing than a curse especially when it occurs predictably in an area dearth of water resources. This paper describes flooding in its basics, discusses its causes and effects on the socio-economic development of Jigawa State and its people. The paper notes the devastating effects of flood in Jigawa State but also considers what it could have been if it was well-managed. It is assumed that the same flooding would also bring opportunities for socio-economic development against the destruction and miseries. It presupposed that if existing agencies, policies, strategies, and the commitment of the people and governments at all levels are reckoned with, the present equation would be different.

1. EFFECTS OF FLOODING ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
The Case of Jigawa State, Nigeria
BY
TANKO AHMED, fwc
CEO, Tsangaya Human Resource and Management Services,
Dutse, Jigawa State - NIGERIA

2. https://www.google.com
Theme:
‘Flooding in Jigawa State – Problems and Prospects’
A Paper Presented at a One-Day Conference Organised by Hadejia
Ina Mafita Initiative (HiMi) in the Auditorium, Jigawa State
Polytechnic, Dutse on Sunday 11th April 2021

3. Paper Abstract
• Seen optimistically, flooding could be more of a blessing than a curse
especially when it occurs predictably in an area dearth of water
resources.
• This paper describes flooding in its basics, discusses its causes and
effects on the socio-economic development of Jigawa State and its
people.
• The paper notes the devastating effects of flood in Jigawa State but
also considers what it could have been if it was well-managed.
• It is assumed that the same flooding would also bring opportunities for
socio-economic development against the destruction and miseries.

4. INTRODUCTION
“…The environment is the natural infrastructure which supports the
supports the development and economy of societies …”
Jim Leape, Director General, World Wildlife Fund

5. Background
• The physical features and processes of our Planet Earth
constitute provide support and sustenance of all human
activities for survival and development.
• Flooding is one of the critical events of geography affecting
the flow and cycle of resources for the socio-economic
activities of the people.
• The flooding in Jigawa State, Nigeria directly and indirectly
determines the entire socio-economic activities of the people,
including the efforts of Governments at all levels.

6. Literature Outlook
• The physical features and processes of our Planet Earth
constitute provide support and sustenance of all human
activities for survival and development.
• Flooding is one of the critical events of geography affecting
the flow and cycle of resources for the socio-economic
activities of the people.
• The flooding in Jigawa State, Nigeria directly and indirectly
determines the entire socio-economic activities of the people,
including the efforts of Governments at all levels.

7. Problem Statement
• It is enough to say that flooding events in Jigawa State have a
devastating impact on the socio-economic development of the state
particularly with widespread destruction of lives and properties and
displacements.
• For example, what could have been bumper harvests turned out to be
colossal losses in investments and dashed hopes on the way forward in
a developmental thrust of the government and the people of Jigawa
State.
• Despite all these, the flood also bears positive aspects that could bring
blessings to the land and the people as it brings with it water which is
subject to being utilised for socio-economic development.

8. Points of Inquiry
• The paper is therefore poised to inquire whether there are any
blessings brought by the floods.
• It inquires on the possibility that the government and people of Jigawa
State could turn the misfortunes of flooding into blessings.
• The paper would naturally inquire on the ways and means the
government and people of Jigawa could go about achieving such a
great feat.
• For the unique mixture of its audience cutting across all walks of life,
the paper attempts to clarify some basic concepts, reconstructs the
flood events in thinking terms, and offers a recovery strategy.

9. CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION

10. Flooding
• Flooding refers to the overflow of water that submerges land including
homes, farms, stocks, and settlements of all sizes from hamlets to
villages, towns, cities, and entire areas.
• Floods come in various depths, volumes, speeds, and impacts
categorised as river flood, coastal flood, storm surge inland deluge,
and flash floods.
• Floods occur anywhere set upon by a body of water, like the deluge of
Prophet Noah in the Scriptures, most floods may live miseries behind,
as well as blessings on the land for growth
https://www.earthnetworks.com/flooding

11. Socio-economic Development
• Socio-economic development blends the way people live, or their way
of life, with their economic activities.
• This is often described in the blockchain of theories, indices, and
analysis of conditions of living as markers for the standard of living in
the development process.
• It is often not very helpful to people outside the field of economics as
these perceptions hardly add up to the realities in which people and
government interact.
• As this paper addresses the effects of flooding on the socio-economic
development of the people of Jigawa State it reflects on how the floods
affect agriculture and rural life.

12. Community Governance
• Community governance organises communities into
exercising powers through self-help activities with positive
outcomes in support of higher government policies and
programmes.
• It identifies challenges, opportunities, capacities, resources,
and directions for the benefit of the community.
• It fills the gaps and corrects the defects of higher government
service delivery at the community level (Bowles and Gintis,
2002).

13. Development Thrust
• Development is the process of general and sustainable improvement in the
wellbeing of the people often seen as progress or advancement in the way
people live.
• It is conducted through well-articulated plans or policies broken into
specific projects or programmes directed applied to the people.
• Thrust is the drive, push, power, actuation, force, move, obligation,
projection, impetus, passado, and performance behind a process.
• A development thrust is power and direction taken by any developmental
process from planning to execution of activities toward desired goals.
• A development thrust will involve both the government action and the
people's participation in getting things done for the progress of society,
state, or nation.

14. Community-Based Organisations
• Community-based organisations (CBOs) involve community members
coming together to organise themselves into activities to bring
improvements to their communities.
• It is the ultimate grassroots agency for development through which
government programmes meet people's participation.
• These organisations often conduct community work, projects,
programmes, empowerment, mobilisation and special efforts aimed at
community development.
• An example of a community-based organisation is the Hadejia Ina
Mafita Initiative (HiMi) seeking to address the issue of flooding in
Jigawa State by conducting a conference.

15. Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative
• The name and meaning of our CBO 'Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative' literarily
translates into a clarion call and summon for service to the community.
• It signifies the need to fill the perennial but strategic gap in governance when
government policies and programmes hardly reach communities at the
grassroots.
• Its efforts and activities can be seen and witnessed around the communities
and people at home and abroad, an example of 'community governance’.
• The HiMi is committed to seeking the way out for the people and land of
Hadejia beyond local to state, national, and global activities and recognition.
• Thus, the staging of a one-day conference on Flooding in Jigawa State:
Problems and Prospects.

16. ADDRESSING THE EFFECTS OF FLOODS
IN JIGAWA STATE

17. Effects of Seasonal Flooding
• The seasonal flooding of river systems and plains in Jigawa State has
increasingly assumed local, national, and regional consequences
despite the ideas, activities, and projects invested in its solution and
benefits.
• The absence of sustained and coordinated efforts and expected
outcomes by various stakeholders requires an effective actionable
structure to drive immediate, short- and long-term desirable solutions.
• The collaboration, cooperation, and coordination of government
efforts and people’s participation are critical in surmounting the effects
of floods in Jigawa State through actionable plans.

18. Deployment of Actionable Plans
• This actionable structure consists of responsibility levels,
descriptive activities, resource bases, stakeholder
participation, and expected outcomes.
• It provides an at-a-glance and all-around framework for
strategic thinking, -planning, and -management in achieving
set goals and objectives of addressing the Hadejia Floods.

19. A Table on Actionable Structure for Addressing the Hadejia Floods
Responsibility Levels Descriptive Activities Resource Bases Stakeholder Participation Expected Outcomes
Level 1:
Regional and International
Bodies
Implementation of existing
treaties and projects on
agriculture, environment,
and refilling of Lake Chad
International Aid, Grants,
Special and Country Funds
for the environment,
agriculture, and water
resources
United Nations, World
Bank, EU, AU, ECOWAS,
Bilateral, and Multilateral
Technical Assistance
Channeling of Floodwaters to
recharge Lake Chad
Level 2:
National and State Agencies
Development Projects,
Disaster management,
Mitigation, and Orientation
Federal and State Budgets
and subventions, Private
Sector Investment, and
participation
Federal and State Govts,
Agencies, Relevant NGOs,
Business, and Industry,
Individuals, etc.
Desilted Dams and Canals; Super
Embankments, dykes, and
channels.
Level 3:
Local Govts, Community, NGOs
and Individuals
Community mobilization,
equipment and culture of
community development
Federal, State and LGA
Budgets, and allocations;
Community, NGOs, and
Individual efforts
Local Govts, Associations,
NGOs, Private Sector,
Communities, Households,
and Individuals
Culture of Area, Community and
Household building and
sustenance of embankments,
dykes, and drainages

20. EXAMPLE OF A FLOOD RECOVERY STRATEGY FOR
THE HADEJIA VALLEY OF JIGAWA STATE

21. A Strategy Theme
‘… turning floods into festivals …’

22. Background
• The People of Hadejia, Jigawa State, Nigeria collectively
resolve to turn the challenges of devastating floods into a
festival of fortunes.
• A reconstructed environment shall bring a socio-economic
platform for agriculture and habitat for human wellbeing.
• The turnaround of distress and miseries to hope and
development is made possible by the reciprocal bond between
People and Government.

23. The People’s Efforts
• The umbrella Hadejia Emirate Development Forum of all
groups and associations forms the Hadejia Forum Technical
Group on Flooding with the tasks of finding immediate
solutions and the way forward.
• The ways and means in reports, policies, programmes, and
projects were assembled and presented to the government
with exceptional outcomes.
• The results lead to a functional working relationship between
the government and the people the first of its kind.

24. The Government’s Response
• The Technical Group on Flooding approached the
Government.
• The Government responded by assigning relevant
agencies to deliberate with the HDG Technical Group
on Flooding to set goals and ways of attainment.
• The People's collective zeal meets with Government's
resolved commitment.

25. THE WAY FORWARD

26. The Basis for Recovery Strategy
• The people of Hadejia are known for their outstanding zeal, resilience,
creativity, and above all being highly responsive.
• From the remote cries of drowning individuals and communities the
swollen rivers were tamed with evacuations, ‘jinga’, ditches and
resettlements.
• Traditional, political, professional, and community leaders unite to
counter the challenges from communities to local, national, regional,
and global concerns.
• We know what needs to be done, we have access to knowledge and
skills, and we made the move – all as a basis for an impending
strategy.

27. A Strategic Plan
• The theme ‘… turning floods into festivals …’ catches our
thought line and mission in heralding the motto to mobilise
and go for it in the plunging AFKAWA philosophy.
• A good plan has already given us a clear target, to work and
tame the floodwaters from the miseries they bring to the
festival of celebrations at Sallar Gani.
• We need a Town Hall meeting for ALL to partake in mapping
our collective onward journey in ‘… turning floods into
festivals …’

28. RECOMMENDATIONS

29. Recommendation 1:
There a need to commence activities on flooding mitigation as soon as
possible
Recommendation 2:
Media platforms like the FM Radio and NTA Stations should be
restored and activated to facilitate information dissemination and
Synthetisation of our people on the way forward
Recommendation 3:
It is time to take community development and effective grassroots
governance into cognizance to be able to drive our collective efforts
more efficiently.

30. References
Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (2002) Social capital and community
governance. The Economic Journal, 112 (483), 419-436.
Leape, J. (2012) Director General, World Wildlife Fund at the
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos, Switzerland,
January 28.
https://www.google.com
https://www.earthnetworks.com/flooding