One year after over N4 billion was donated by the federal government, state authorities, corporate organisations, and well-meaning Nigerians, hundreds of Mokwa flood survivors in Niger state remain homeless after floodwater swept through their communities.

Monde Baushe, a 72-year-old homeless father whose house was destroyed by the devastating floodwater on May 29 in Mokwa, struggles to cope without his entire bungalow. Mr Baushe now lives with his family in a destroyed house given to them by their neighbours.

“I have no home, and this building we are managing was given to us since the incident happened,” the aged father said.

Mr Baushe said the government had promised to build houses for homeless victims, but that promise left them stranded in flood sites.

“The promise was not fulfilled. They gave us N500,000 to rent a house, but the money has finished, and they promised to add more money to us, but they didn’t,” he said.

The hapless victim, whose life almost fled out of his body, lost one of his eyes when battling to retrieve his life savings from the flood. That is not all for him. The aged father also had a permanent scar on his leg that often reminds him of the tragedy.

“I was inside the water until I luckily escaped when I got to Mallam Hassan school. A tree hit me in my eyes. I lost seven rooms in the last flood, along with bags of food and N800,000. It was the money that I went to take, and the flood swept me away. My wife warned me not to enter the water,” he said.

According to the Niger State Government, 207 lives, 400 houses destroyed, 50 shops, and over 700 persons were not accounted for during the flash-floods that happened on May 29, 2025, in Mokwa community.

Survivors return to disaster site, camp in tents

Yet Aisha Mukhtar, a breastfeeding mother, had returned to the flood-affected areas of Agwa Hausawa and Tifin Madza to build a tent and have a roof over her head. As she prepared lunch, Ms Mukhtar looked at her daughter, Ummi, and told her to leave the flood path.

She told The Gazette that her daughter’s fear wakes her up every day, especially at midnight, as she fears a similar incident that swept away over 200 lives in the area. But with no other option, she always tells herself that the incident won’t happen to her or anyone else again.

“We are in fear as we return to this floodside. My little daughter rushed to tell me that we should pack our loads and that water was coming,” she said. “I asked her if we had packed our luggage, and where we would go? We have no place to go. We return to live in a tent to survive. The rent fee has expired.”

Ms Mukhtar is not alone in struggling to cover leaking roofs during rainfall or refix damaged roofs when blown off by the windstorm. Her husband, Mr Usman, also joined her to keep the children safe in these odd hours.

Mr Usman told The Gazette that his family needs a roof over their heads, but they are unable to rebuild their home. Now, the family returned to the floodpath, using tents and palm fronds to build a new home.

“We have children. We just constructed the tent to temporarily protect ourselves from the Sun and rain. When it rains, we don’t sleep. We block here and there,” he said, hoping the gov’t would build those houses.

Missing school-children and an Arabic teacher’s N1 million

On May 29, when a devastating flood hit Mallam Hassan Umar’s Almajari school, the teacher narrowly escaped by scaling the fence to avoid being swept away by the early-morning flood. The next day, he gathered his schoolchildren and realised that 79 had been consumed by the floodwaters.

“The number of children that I lost is 79, but I was not given anything regarding monies released to families who lost their children,” the school teacher told The Gazette.

On June 9, 2025, Governor Umaru Bago visited the flood site and announced a N1 billion compensation fund to provide N1 million directly to the next of kin of each deceased victim of the Mokwa floods.

“Niger state will dole out N1 billion to be given to families that are here so that they can get to another place and relocate while resettlement or houses are being built. The remuneration of people affected will be done by my deputy,” Mr Bago said.

In June, when Mr Bago announced the promised N1 million to survivors for their deceased family members who were killed by the floodwaters, Mr Umar had already calculated that he would part with N79 million, as the governor had promised. The dream to have the money and compensate the parents of the deceased children never came to see the light of day.

The teacher told The Gazette that he never received the money promised by the government during the governor’s visit to Tifin-Madza primary school in Mokwa.

Mr Umar said, “There are several of us who have not secured anything, but we received a lot of food materials from the government and other agencies.” He narrated that N500,00 was allocated to their family, which they shared, lamenting that it was never enough to rent a house.

Several victims interviewed by The Gazette say they have received little or no direct assistance beyond initial relief items distributed shortly after the disaster.

Flooding: Residents flee again

On May 27, 2026, after rain in the community, residents who remained at the flood site fled due to floodwater that had accumulated in Agwa Hausawa and Tifin Madza.

The fleeing residents’ fear was attributed to a similar incident that swept away over 200 lives in the area. One of them, Adamu Isah, whose house was swept away, said several residents fled.

Mr Isah said, “We just woke up this morning, and we heard people shouting ‘water’. When I came out of the water, I had not gotten to this feat, and the water had accumulated with residents of the area fleeing from the spot.”

Yahuza Abdullahi, one of the victims whose two children were lost to the tragic flood on May 29, sat and recounted how he survived the persistent flood.

Mr Abdullahi’s worry is persistent flooding from the channel that has claimed lives in his Tifin-madza area. He told The Gazette that several residents had fled the scene due to another flood in the area.

He said, “Many of the community members have started running away again. They were afraid that what happened last year would not happen again. I was together with the nine victims. I barely survived. I was in the hospital when the governor came. I was told that he gave N1 billion for the relief response. After all, some received it, but I personally didn’t receive anything.”

Mr Abdullahi noted that communication with the authorities always results in unfulfilled promises. He said that the government claimed to have done everything for them without providing shelter for homeless victims.

Bago’s promise and broken bridges

The flash flood tore several bridges apart in Mokwa, cutting off Rabba and its environs. But during his visit to the LGA, Mr Bago said he understood the connectivity between Mokwa and Rabba, which has four bridges.

“Again, the Niger state government understands the need for connectivity between Mokwa town and Rabba town. We have already awarded the road construction that has four bridges from here to Rabba. It is going to cost us N7 billion, and we just awarded it today,” Mr Bago said, during a visit to Mokwa.

A resident, Abubakar Rabba, told The Gazette that he wondered why his community had been left behind after the tragic flooding. For Mr Rabba, the collapsed bridge has not only cut off his home from neighbouring areas but has also disrupted livelihoods and businesses.

He stated, “It affects us a lot. It is the only means that connects us to Mokwa and other wards. Every rainfall washed the wooden bridge away. At least we need the bridge reconstructed so that motorists who buy rice and schoolchildren who use the road can cross it without tension. We need Rabba to be reconnected because the damage was too extensive. We appeal to the authorities to reconnect our bridge.”

At Rabba, residents had constructed makeshift wooden bridges to facilitate movement and maintain access to neighbouring communities.

Seated behind a mosque in his hometown of Rabba, Abdullahi Mohammed was busy getting the worship centre ready for the afternoon prayer.

“But when the governor sympathised with us over our loss and promised to find a possible solution to construct a new bridge, it has yet to happen,” Mr Mohammed said.

Since the collapse of the bridge in Mokwa due to flooding on May 29, 2025, the community has constructed wooden bridges as an alternative to facilitate movement. However, that alone has not eased their plight.

“When it rains heavily, the flooding goes beyond the bridge and prevents the schoolchildren from going to school,” he told The Gazette. “We reconstructed the local bridge 4 times between last year and now.”

Mr Rabba added that once the cloud forms, the whole community looks visibly frustrated, particularly businesspeople plying the road daily.

Niger government’s merry-go-round over N4 billion

Checks by The Gazette reveal that as of June, 15, 2025, donations for Mokwa flood disaster relief were sent into a First Bank account provided by Abdullberqy Usman Ebbo, the special adviser to the governor on digital media and public communication. Additionally, over N4 billion was donated to flood victims through the Niger State-approved account details made public.

Mr Ebbo declined to speak about the donations.

“You can go to NSEMA, they will give you exact figures,” the Niger governor’s aide told The Gazette.

However, Hussaini Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), told The Gazette that the federal government is responsible for rebuilding houses for the flood victims.

“The building is promised by the federal government, not the state and NSEMA.  The government has made efforts, including the chairman, to ensure that the promise is fulfilled,” Mr Ibrahim stated.

According to him, the contractors and NSEMA team went to Mokwa to check the land where the building will commence in Maraba, but the community said they preferred the building along Ndayeko road.

“We went back to the governor and explained to him that what he said is what we are going to do,” Mr Ibrahim stated.

When asked about the list of potential beneficiaries being populated with names of people other than the victims, the NSEMA official stated, “When we were working, we worked with different organisations in Mokwa. We got the list and confirmed the names from Ndalile and Sarkin Hausawa. We don’t know the victims because we are not living there, and we worked with the local committee to identify them.”

Mr Ibrahim was also hesitant to give details of the donations.

“It is the state government, through the Ministry of Finance, that opened the account. It is just called an “emergency account, but not our office”, he said, pointing out that the deputy governor oversaw “everything, then sent it to the governor for approval, and the state’s finance ministry would send it to our account”.

The Gazette contacted the commissioner for finance, Lawal Mohammed Maikano.

“Whatever clarification you require for the programme is already provided,” Mr Maikano stated. “If you require any information that has to do with Mokwa, the funding, disbursement and any other activities surrounding Mokwa. Reach out to the deputy governor.”

When The Gazette contacted Deputy Governor Yakubu Garba, who headed the Mokwa flood committee, he did not immediately return a request for comment.

‘Billions of naira donated, promises remain unfulfilled’

Kasim Mohammed, the chairman of the local committee in Mokwa, bemoaned the unfulfilled promises.

“The government made a lot of promises to build houses for the victims. I know shelter is the most important thing when you are. Some of them are still hanging in floodspot,” Mr Mohammed said, adding that there is a proposal site to build houses for them.

He told The Gazette that the contractor carried out a feasibility study but had not returned to begin building houses for the displaced residents.

“We urge them to do the needful. Even the federal government made a promise in response to the flooding. We lost a lot of transformers,” said Mr Mohammed. “The Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, came here and pledged 15MVA transformers.”

Manzo Ezekiel, spokesperson for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told The Gazette that the federal government officially flagged off the construction of new houses for flood victims in Mokwa less than two weeks ago.

“There was an official flag-off for that construction. The federal government promised that some houses would be rebuilt for the affected people. If you go there, you ask the leaders of the area that was impacted by the flood and the local government officials,” Mr Ezekiel told The Gazette. “We need to be patient, and we need to collaborate with the government. The federal government is just providing support to the people who were affected. I think there is hope for people who were affected.”