Much of the University of Ibadan was badly damaged last week by flooding caused by the birth of hurricane Irene – and government indifference to meteorology warnings.
Olakunle Benjamin Akinyele, a medical doctor at the university’s teaching hospital, known as University College Hospital (UCH), drowned at his home along with three family members. Estimates of the death toll have ranged from 30 to 100 dead.
Isaac Adewole, the university’s vice-chancellor, claimed that the total floodwater damage to infrastructure was estimated to be about US$65 billion.
Adewole, who trained as a medical doctor, said books worth about US$12 million were swept away from the university bookshop. However, other online commentators have accused him of inflating the disaster, saying that the entire city does not contain books worth that amount.
The floods swept away the university’s fence and pulled down 13 electricity poles, leaving two student residences in darkness and ‘‘compounding the hitherto poor electricity supply’’ he told media.
The ground floor of the Obafemi Awolowo Hall, a hostel for undergraduate and postgraduate students, was flooded while the topmost floor was damaged by rainstorm.
The Fish and Wildlife Unit, established in 1981 as one of the first in sub-Saharan Africa, was also badly flooded. The unit, run by Ayoola Olusegun Akinwole, falls under the agriculture and forestry faculty.
Floodwaters also apparently damaged the forestry department, led by IO Azeez.
The university’s entire research farm was underwater, with hundreds of birds drowned at the poultry unit. The zoological garden were also underwater.
The University Teaching and Research Farm was established in 1950 on about 160 hectares of land and served students and researchers in agriculture, forestry, veterinary medicine and environmental engineering.
The university’s US$ two million aquaculture farm, administered by researcher Augustine Eyiwunmi Falaye, was washed away.
However, Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university has refused to close.
“Lectures are continuing and we are starting exams,” Adewole told Research Africa.
The University of Ibadan is negotiating with the federal Nigerian government and Oyo state government for funds to replace lost equipment and repair damaged buildings.
“We are confident government will come to our rescue,” the vice-chancellor said. However, he confirmed that government is yet to respond.
The flooding should not derail the opening of the earth and life sciences campus of the Pan African University (PAU), Adewole said.
The West African branch PAU, located at the university, will open as scheduled this month, he said.
The neighbouring Polytechnic Ibadan has begun a headcount of staff and students, after learning that at least three students were missing.
A whirlwind which accompanied the rain tore off the rooftops of the hostels, the registry and auditorium at the Polytechnic, according to an article in Punch Nigeria.
Heavy rains fell on 26 August 2011, as hurricane Irene took shape off coast of West Africa, and the resultant floods claimed more than 100 lives, according to the latest reports.
Although the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) issued warnings about imminent flooding, no action was taken by local, regional or national government.
The National Emergency Management Agency only arrived in the city after the flooding had subsided.
Although the floodwaters only surged for about four hours, they took down buildings and bridges throughout Ibadan, a city about 125 kilometres inland, as the walls of a local dam collapsed.
The flooding was exacerbated by the lack of municipal maintenance of storm drains. Debris clogged the drains of Ibadan, the third largest metropolitan region in the country, according to an editorial from Nigeria’s Business Day.
The newspaper blamed government for failure to act on warnings from scientists and said ‘‘an untenable complacency was the response to warnings of Irene.”
According to the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD), Nigeria has the highest flood-related mortality rate on the continent.
The floods come shortly after Femi Olokesusi of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) think tank, also located in Ibadan, presented a paper warning of greater flooding in the coastal lagoon city of Lagos.