The statistics added that the heavy rains and their aftermath have affected more than half a million people, who the federal government has pledged to continue helping, according to Presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu.
The floods also destroyed or damaged around 37,600 houses, according to the latest evaluations by specialized government agencies.
Various dependencies related to meteorological studies related each year’s precipitation amounts to the effects of environmental degradation. Chuwumerije Okereke, director and environmental specialist at Ebonyi University’s Center for Climate Change and Development, warned that 53 million people in Nigeria are at risk of flooding.
Together with the official reports, such a prognosis is an early warning to take measures to avoid a massive escalation of damage to people and property.
Okereke specified that climate change-related disasters cost Nigeria $100 million every year and if no precautions are taken to mitigate the impact, the country could lose about $460 billion by 2050.
The government said the states affected by the floods are Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi and Anambra.
Yobe is considered the warmest and rainiest, making it one of the most prone to flooding.
Heavy rains also hit Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, the source added.
Estimates by the Institute of Development Studies indicate that the country’s climate varied with increases in temperature and sea level and flooding; drought and unstable rainy season, desertification; Land degradation and the increased occurrence of extreme weather events.
Among the evidence for the mutations, the scientific institution points out that “rainfall duration and intensity have increased, (resulting) in large-scale runoff and flooding in many places in Nigeria.”
In the middle of the month, Sani Ya’u, the executive secretary of the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said 50 people had died in that northern territory and hundreds of citizens had been displaced while staying in the town of Balangu, where 237 houses suffered flood damage.
In the municipality of Karnaya, too, more than 500 houses, mostly built of mud, were swept away by the water masses, residents said.
The direct impact of this climate phenomenon caused by the strong storms is that the inmates “now have to live in one of the makeshift camps,” the official commented on the humanitarian situation the victims are facing.
Two years ago, severe flooding in Jigawa state itself left 40 dead and the loss of around 100,000 hectares of paddy fields.
In fact, the climatic situation of Africa’s most populous country – more than 211 million people – is a priority for the Buhari government due to the dangerous socio-economic impacts that environmental degradation can cause.
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