Stakeholders on Emergency Management in Nigeria (SEMN) have attributed the recurring devastating effects of natural and man-induced disasters in some parts of the country to lack of legally-backed and functional state emergency management agencies (SEMAs) at states to enforce regulations, standards and codes in managing such tragedies.
The stakeholders, comprising emergency managers across the federation, made the disclosure in their communiqué at a one-day consultative meeting organised by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Yola, Adamawa State.
A statement made available to LEADERSHIP and signed by the agency’s spokesperson, Yushau A. Shuaib, stated that out of 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), only 26 states have legally backed state emergency management agencies while some of them do not have requisite funding, equipment and personnel to manage disasters.
Most of the states that have continued to witness disasters like Borno, Plateau Rivers and FCT do not have legally-backed state emergency management agencies to manage disasters.
Most participants observed that there is lack of technical capacity to conduct damage and need assessment just as relevant security agencies, community based organisations are not adequately involved in relief distribution.
The communiqué recommended that the 10 states and FCT that are yet to establish SEMAs backed by law should re-double their effort to do so, stating that the governments should allocate a substantial amount of money derived from the ecological fund to SEMAs for emergency/disaster management.