Nigeria in the last few months has been plagued by heavy flooding and erosion that has led to destruction of properties and lives.
Days before this report, flood submerged houses in Ondo and Ebonyi states with properties estimated at millions said to be lost due to the development.
Many other states have experienced destructions occasioned by flooding.
This is despite ecological funds set aside to tackle ecological issues such as flooding.
Review by SaharaReporters showed that these funds are usually disbursed to states, however, not just state governments, the ecological funds are usually disbursed to local governments too, given the federal nature of the country.
However, many states have been accused of hijacking local government funds, a situation that led to the decision of the Supreme Court that granted local government autonomy.
Review shows taht between June 2023 and July 2024, a sum of N109billion was disbursed to states and local governments as ecological funds.
The data reviewed shows that in July 2024, the sum of N4.3billion was paid to local governments as ecological funds, while states got N4 billion.
In June of the same year, local governments received N3.3 billion while states were paid N4 billion.
In May states received the sum of N4.3 billion while local governments got N3.6 billion.
The figure for states in April stood at N3.6 billion while that of local governments stood at N3 billion.
In March N3.9 billion was paid to states while local government councils received N3.2 billion.
In February 2024, the sum of N4.7 billion was received by states while N3.9 billion was received by local government councils.
In January 2024, N4.2 billion was received by states while N3.5 billon was gotten by local government councils.
In December 2023, N3.9 billion was gotten by local government councils as ecological funds while N4.7 billion was received by states.
The release for November 2023 stood at N3.7 billion for states, while that of local government councils stood at N3.1 billion.
In October 2023, N3.7 billion was paid to states while N3.1 billion was paid to local government councils.
In September 2023, N5.2 billion was paid to states while local governments received N4.3 billion.
The figure for August 2023, stood at N4.7 billion for states while that of local government councils was N3.9 billion.
As of July 2023, states received N4.1 billion while local government councils got N3.4 billion.
In June 2023, the sum of N4.4 billion was gotten by States while N3.7 billion was gotten by local governments.
Despite these monies received, the National Emergency Management Agency reported that no fewer than 205 persons lost their lives to flooding in 2024.
In Borno where Alau dam collapse led to massive flooding, another thirty persons were reported to have lost their lives .
Despite issues with accountability around ecological funds, which dates back to many years, the Nigerian government has continued to announce further financial interventions for states to tackle flooding.
The Tinubu led administration recently announced a “disaster relief fund” to help citizens impacted by flood and other disasters.
In September 2024, it was announced that the federal government announced another N108billion for states to tackle flooding and other natural disasters.
SaharaReporters also noted that despite monies received by states as ecological funds, many of these states are failing to spend on flooding and erosion control per details on the state budget performance documents.
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