ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has expressed concern over the attitude of people to disaster early warnings, adding that volunteer groups have been established to address this.
Its Director-General, Mr Muhammad Sani-Sidi, said this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Wednesday.
Sani-Sidi explained that the groups comprised National Youth Service Corps members, volunteers and executive volunteers.
According to him, NEMA set up these groups with the aim of carrying everyone in the society along in the management of disasters.
He insisted that NEMA had continuously engaged communities across the country in its activities, saying that its zonal offices were presently carrying out awareness campaigns.
He expressed concern about the attitude of people in most cases to early warnings, noting that such early warnings were not matched with actions.
He recalled that the 2012 flooding, which he described as the worst in the history of the country, ought to teach people lesson to take such disaster early warnings seriously.
According to him, more than 350 people died and no fewer than 500,000 houses were destroyed in the flood disaster.
The director-general, however, said that response to disaster management had improved significantly due to greater synergy, collaboration and determination by critical stakeholders.
“Disaster management by itself, is multi-sectoral, multi-dimensional, multi-jurisdictional and multi-stakeholder.
“As a country, I must say with emphasis that we have the ability to manage disasters; all kind of disasters as long as there is synergy among stakeholders.’’
He, however, said that the agency had developed several programmes to ensure effective disaster management across the country.
The NEMA boss explained that some disasters could not be prevented from happening but that their impact could be mitigated.
He stressed that those disasters that could be forecast based on risk assessment, proactive measures should be taken to address them.
Admitting that gaps exist in disaster management in the country, he said that such gaps should be addressed through capacity building for stakeholders, ensuring effective response and getting the right equipment.
Credit: NAN
