Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Parliamentary Liaison Officer, Alhaji Kashim Imam, has volunteered to provide meals to a large number of people displaced by recent flood that submerged more than half of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and its environs.
Imam, who is also a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, said the gesture became imperative in order to protect many residents of the state who had been thrown into discomfort as result of the devastating flood, which resulted in unprecedented devastation, with over 30 lives lost, 23,000 residential houses destroyed, and 414,000 people displaced, critical infrastructure, including bridges, roads, electricity systems, healthcare facilities, and schools, severely damaged, as well as approximately one million people losing their source of livelihood.
Imam. who is known for his philanthropic acts, had to relocate to Maiduguri to supervise the distribution of food to internally displaced persons’ camps accommodating the victims of the disaster in Maiduguri and its environs.
According to Imam who spoke during a brief press conference, “We are saddened by the shared numbers of lives lost, by our account, it’s running into hundreds and sadly their bodies are being discovered daily as water recedes. The carnage, the loss of lives, the loss of properties and unimaginable displacements.
“The immediate emphasis is on food, I have seen people crying they haven’t eaten in two days and this is an immediate concern of everybody, as water recedes and we count our losses then these other challenges will also come to the fore.
“In line with the appeal of Governor Zulum, we elected to focus on alleviating the suffering of those affected by providing food and water with immediate effect. So I am happy to inform you that I am providing a total of 200,000 food packs we have already commenced with an average of 6,000 a day and we wish to scale to 10,000 packs every day,” Imam said.
Imam, who was at different times the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state before joining the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the food distribution is only the first step in his intervention pointing out that “there are short, medium and long time plans of assisting the flood victims.“
He lamented that: “Almost every indigene of Borno is sad and saddened by the devastation that has befallen my home town Maiduguri. We are saddened by the sheer number of lives lost, which by all accounts running into hundreds. Nobody can give you exact accurate figures. Still and sadly there are bodies that are being discovered daily as the water recedes. Sadly nobody has the most accurate figures. It is very factual that it runs into hundreds of lives lost.
“Thousands of people are homeless. All their homes have been destroyed by the floods; nobody was prepared for this; our people were caught unawares in the middle of the night. The floods came in the middle of the night and all accounts points at between midnight and half past midnight.
Most people were already home in bed and most were asleep. All were caught unawares. Nobody saw this coming and nobody was prepared for this. The carnage, the lost of life, the loss of properties is enormous. Those that were rescued managed to escape with the clothes that they were wearing. And if you go round the metropolis, out of the 15 wards in Maiduguri, only four were not affected. Eleven were badly affected. In some of these wards, more than a week after people are still trapped they cannot come out.
Fatima Imam, one of the daughters of Imam who was part of the group that oversee the food packaging, revealed that members of her family have continued to work round the clock to ensure cooked food reaches all the victims.
She said: “We try to feed as many people as possible every day. Sometimes we cook rice, stew and beef while other times jollof rice. We cook at least 20 bags of rice every day – we sleep by 4a.m. and wake up by 6a.m. just to make sure we get food across to the flood victims.”
