“Omiyale,” the name of this flood, literally translates to “water has flooded the house.” The Ogunpa River spilling into the Odo-Ona River caused the flood. Together, the two rivers spilled their banks, causing the flood. However, the August 31, 1980 flood was the event that made the Ogunpa famous both nationally and internationally. The city of Ibadan was practically destroyed after roughly ten hours of intense rain, which was measured to be four times heavier than it was during the flood of 1978. Over a hundred bodies were recovered from the wreckage of toppled homes and cars carried away by the flood. More than 50,000 were left homeless and more than 200 people perished.
Chief Bola Ige was the Oyo State governor at the time, and Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the Nigerian president. Ibadan is a vibrant metropolis. It is poorly built, has poor drainage, and has a steep topography with a mix of rivers and streams, including Odo-Ona, Ogbere, Ògùnpa, and Kúdetì. Additionally, the locals disregard town planning and building codes; they construct buildings on or near the city’s riverbanks and carelessly discard trash into these waterways.
This confluence of elements gave Ibadan’s recurring flooding its background. There have been floods in Ibadan in 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, and 2011. The 2011 incident had an impact on the campus of Ibadan, encompassing the campus zoo as well, following a flood that claimed numerous animals from the fishery and zoo. During his interview, a witness to the 1980 OMIYALE water disaster stated:
I was out with my parents on the day of the Ogunpa Flood calamity, thus I will never forget it, the rain was falling when we got back from our visit. My siblings were unable to return home due to the intense rain that had continued into the evening. Additionally, the Old Ife Road is unusable due to flooding caused by the Onipepeye stream in Agodi, they were unable to return home. There were no cell phones or other means of communication back then. NEPA hit, making things worse and leaving us without power at home. It was such a horrific event. Thankfully, nobody was harmed and made it home after the water.
When it comes to how they handled the 1980 flood calamity, three men stand out. They are Chief Ebenezer Obey, Chief Bola Ige, and the late President Shehu Shagari. One of them is a musician, and the other two were political leaders. President Shehu Shagari visited Ibadan a week after the flood disaster to assess the damage and offer his condolences to the locals. (He made his visit on September 7, 1980). “I have witnessed a true disaster,” he exclaimed. After traveling to the city and seeing the sights, he proclaimed it to be a national tragedy.
Recall that Oyo State was ruled by the late Chief Bola Ige of the UPN, while President Shagari belonged to the opposing NPN. President Shagari, though, was unaffected by that. He did more than just make a press release; he stood as a statesman. He was lying down. All of Nigeria’s governors visited Ibadan as a result of the president’s kind gesture and offered their personal condolences to the people. The governors flocked to Ibadan from all directions in order to unite with the populace. It was a loss suffered by the entire country. Leaders were relating to the people, acting in a leadership capacity, and demonstrating concern. President Shagari had set the example and demonstrated appropriate conduct.
One of the flood disaster survivors stated in an interview in 2020: “I was sixteen years old at the time, and it was a horrible experience for the entire population of Ibadan, Oyo state. You can envision our recent experiences with our leaders. They won’t travel to any part of Nigeria when a crisis strikes, but some have developed the habit of making press releases. President Obasanjo visited the scene of the 2002 Ikeja bombing less than twenty-four hours after the explosions. He did not, however, accede to the crowd’s request to examine the dump’s remnants more closely. According to reports, he said he wasn’t supposed to be there.
“In the past, we have leaders that come to the country’s aid whenever a tragedy occurs, but that is no longer the case. President Goodluck Jonathan declined to travel to the troubled northeast between March 2013 and the beginning of 2015.” Additionally, he did not react quickly enough to the vehicle explosion in Abuja that killed numerous people. As an alternative, President Goodluck Jonathan traveled to Kano to officially welcome Ibrahim Shekarau to the People’s Democratic Party. 26 teenage Nigerian women perished in the Mediterranean in 2017. Not a single Nigerian official was present at their Italian burial, and our President Muhammadu Buhari took no action.
Following the abduction of a number of pupils from a school in Epe, Lagos state, the governor paid neither the school nor the families a visit that year. Six days after the incident in August 2020, the ICIR reported in August 2020 that the Kaduna State Government and security agencies had not released an official statement regarding the kidnapping of seven schoolchildren at Prince Academy in Damba-Kasaya village in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State by unidentified gunmen. How did we get from being models to being unable to empathize?.. There have been many unfathomable incidents that have happened, and regrettably, many of these thoughtless deeds by our leaders are probably going to happen again in the future.
