Strong indications have emerged that the federal lawmakers may have reached an advanced stage towards scrapping the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Fire Service (FFS) and merging them with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The lawmaker believe the concerned agencies have complementary mandates and that merging them would foster quality service delivery in disaster management, as well as make them pro-active and more result oriented.
This was disclosed by the chairman, House Committee of Interior, Hon. Umar? Bature, who led a team of 12 members on oversight visit to the Corporate Headquarter of the NSCDC yesterday in Abuja.
Hon. Bature appreciated the fact that the corps has, over a period of time, proved its reliability and effectiveness beyond reasonable doubt and stressed the need for it to play a leading role in the country’s defense system, for the country to? forge ahead security-wise.
He posited, ‘looking at the possibility that some existing services like the young NSCDC has recorded giant strides in its bidding of securing lives and properties, and expanding across the federation, as against other agencies that? shrinking, there is an urgent need to merge the trio with this Model for maximum result.
The chairman further explained that apart from attaining quality service delivery which he believed the Corps had to offer, the merger of the trio will go a long way to reduce the cost of governance, considering the wastage by other shrinking agencies.
This was even as he sought for an upward review of the budgetary allocation of the corps since they had multiple challenges and were already matching government’s investment with results.
“I’m saying this based on the observations I made when I travelled to other countries in the course of my job, where I noticed that Civil Defence was made a priority in their national defence system,” he said.
In his response, the Corps Commandant-General, Prof. Ade Abolurin, vowed that the Corps will not rest on its oars until the battle against crooks and criminals is won.
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