GOVERNORS from Nigeria’s North-East region have raised grave concerns over imminent flooding and a potential food crisis, urging immediate intervention from the Federal Government to avert large-scale humanitarian and infrastructural devastation.
The governors, under the umbrella of the North-East Governors’ Forum (NEGF), sounded the warning during their 12th meeting held in Jalingo, Taraba State, on Saturday. The forum comprises governors from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe states.
In a communiqué read by Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, the leaders noted forecasts by credible climate risk agencies predicting widespread flooding across the subregion.
They stressed the need for proactive measures, early sensitisation of communities along flood plains, and urgent reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.
“Forum took into cognizance the forecast of the credible agencies on climate risk and the impending flood disaster in the subregion. It therefore calls for proactive measures in confronting the flood and robust sensitisation of settlers along the flood plains.
It also called for support from both the Federal Government and NEDC to reconstruct the broken infrastructure, especially bridges [affected] by the flood,” the communiqué read.
The governors further expressed concern over the rising cost of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, seedlings, and mechanised farm tools, warning that this could severely undermine productivity and trigger a food shortage across the region next year.
To forestall this crisis, they called for increased subsidies to farmers, robust support for dry-season farming, and comprehensive preparation for irrigation-driven agriculture.
“Forum decries the high cost of agricultural inputs, which might have direct negative consequences on farm outputs next year. To avert impending food crises ahead, it calls for more subsidies to farmers and robust preparation for dry-season farming,” they declared.
While acknowledging “appreciable success” in ongoing military operations against insurgents in the North-East, the governors lamented that the region still suffers from daunting humanitarian and infrastructural challenges.
They urged President Bola Tinubu and relevant federal agencies to go beyond kinetic approaches, insisting that education, healthcare, youth empowerment, technical skills acquisition, and infrastructural development remain central to defeating insecurity in the long term.
Governor Zulum stressed that issues such as youth restiveness, unemployment, poor road networks, and inadequate poverty reduction programmes must be tackled head-on if the gains against insurgency are to be sustained.
In addition to tackling security and environmental threats, the governors resolved to strengthen regional integration through trade, energy, and economic cooperation.
Key resolutions include: holding the North-East Trade Fair in Maiduguri, Borno State, in December 2025, developing an integrated subregional power masterplan to tap into solar energy and reduce “energy poverty and pursuing joint action on security, infrastructure, and economic development.
The governors also appreciated the “unprecedented level of cooperation” among member states and recommitted themselves to pursuing collective strategies for the region’s development.
The next NEGF meeting is scheduled for Maiduguri between December 12 and 14, 2025.
The warning comes against the backdrop of increasing cases of devastating floods in Nigeria, which in 2022 alone displaced over 1.4 million people and destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland nationwide.
The North-East, already weakened by over a decade of insurgency and humanitarian crises, remains one of the most vulnerable regions.