Mustapha Habib Ahmed, the director general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has recommended Nigerian governors to enhance their state emergency management agencies and establish local emergency units in their states to combat flood catastrophes.
After a meeting with the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), he spoke to press in Abuja on Tuesday and underlined that because disasters are local, they must be dealt with at the local level.
“Disaster is local, they should have community volunteers, local emergency management committee and state emergency agencies so that as they come from bottoms up, we will come from top to bottom, so we can meet halfway,” he stated.
He said if the state governors would corporate and partner with NEMA in fighting flood disasters, “what we lost last year, we believe will reduce to the barest minimum.”
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According to Ahmed, the first responder to flooding is within that local government, hence the need to have people from the bottom up to handle the situation.
He called on the state governors to sensitize the people on the need to relocate from risk areas and move over to safer areas to prevent loss of lives and properties amongst others.
He also noted that there was the need for funding adding that, funding would go a long way in curbing disasters.
He said the governors declared their readiness to collaborate and partner with NEMA.
“We have been visiting states and we will be visiting more states to make them understand that disaster management is everybody’s business. We have to work together,” he added.
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