DISASTER MANAGEMENT: WHY STATES, LOCAL

GOVERNMENTS AND STAKEHOLDERS MUST PLAY THEIR

PARTS

Emergency management (or disaster management) is the coordination and integration

of all activities necessary to build, sustain and improve the capability for disaster
prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. It is the continuous
process by which all individuals, groups and communities manage hazards in an effort
to avoid or ameliorate the impact of disasters resulting from the hazards. And,
effective emergency management relies on thorough integration of emergency plans
at all levels of government and non-government involvement.

In Nigeria, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is charged with

the responsibility for disaster management; and to make provision for other matters
connected therewith (National Emergency Management Agency [Establishment, Etc.]
Act 1999.) This declaration and indeed the name may have given the wrong notion
that NEMA has the sole responsibility for disaster management in the country. Not
only is this impracticable and contrary to international best practices, it is very far
from the truth. The NEMA Act defines the functions and powers of the Agency,
among others,
• Formulate policy on all activities relating to disaster management in Nigeria and
coordinate the plans and programmes for efficient and effective response to disasters
at national level;

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• Monitor the state of preparedness of all organizations or agencies that may
contribute to disaster management in Nigeria;
• Collate data from relevant agencies so as to enhance forecasting, planning and field
operation of disaster management;
• Coordinate and facilitate the provision of necessary resources for search and rescue
and other types of disaster curtailment activities in response to distress call;
• Coordinate the activities of all voluntary organizations engaged in emergency relief
operations in any part of the federation;
• Liaise with state emergency management committees established under section 8 of
this Act to assess and monitor where necessary, the distribution of relief materials to
disaster victims.

As discerned from both the internationally accepted definition of emergency

management given earlier and the provisions of the Act establishing NEMA, disaster
management responsibilities are shared vertically among the three tiers of government
and horizontally among a multitude of agencies, non-governmental organizations,
community-based organizations, private companies, etc. This is predicated on the fact
that disaster management involves all sectors of the society; it is multi-disciplinary,
multi resource and multi-jurisdictional. NEMA is saddled with the facilitating role of
coordinating the multitude of emergency managers.

Sadly, however, the most serious challenges militating against efficient and effective
disaster management in Nigeria is stakeholder apathy and the lack of comprehensive
vulnerability capacity analysis (VCA) study of the states. Addressing the Senate
Committee on Environment and Ecology recently, the Acting Director General of the
National Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Charles Adakole Agbo lamented the
lack of political will by some state governors to set up functional structures (state
emergency management agencies – SEMAs) to independently and effectively manage
disasters in their states. Out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory only 21
states have SEMAs. “What we have at the state level are offices without platforms
and funding to carry out basic disaster management programmes. So, the issue of
states and local governments buying into what NEMA is doing has been the greatest
challenge. Also our stakeholders, the critical stakeholders, have not really bought into

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the idea of carrying out their mandates. NEMA is a coordinating agency. The issue of
NEMA coordinating cannot take place in a vacuum. The issue of stakeholders keying
into our mandate is also a big challenge”.

How the Acting DG wishes the state governments treat emergency management
matters like the Federal Government. “When we put in our proposals and other
requests, the attention given to us is prompt. The governing council is chaired by the
Vice President, so the issue of prompt attention to our requests is uppermost in the
mind of the Federal Government. The problem, like I said, is at the other levels (states
and local governments).

LOCAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT

All the five phases of emergency management – prevention, mitigation, preparedness,
response and recovery depend on local structures to succeed. Disasters are always
localized; they happen in communities, which in a federal state like Nigeria will first
be in a local government area of a state in the federation. In the area of environmental
hazards local and state governments are key actors in policy development and
implementation. They make land-use decisions, enact building codes, make laws that
regulate environmental sanitation, build and operate markets, run fire services, etc.
They and not the Federal Government or NEMA for that matter could make
regulations regarding evacuation of people from flood prone areas, for instance, to
mitigate flood disaster or compel people to clean their gutters to reduce disease
epidemics and flooding. Inappropriate development processes can lead to increased
vulnerability to disasters and loss of preparedness for emergency situations.

The Acting Director General told the Senate Committee that the objective of disaster
preparedness is to ensure that in times of disasters appropriate systems, procedures
and resources are in place to assist those afflicted by the disaster and enable them to
help themselves. On who should prepare for emergency, Dr Agbo listed Federal
(NEMA) states (SEMAs), local governments (LEMCs), all stakeholders, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) community based organizations (CBOs), faith-
based organizations, businesses, schools, communities, neighbourhoods, families,
yourself, myself, herself, himself and everyone.

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POLICIES AND STRATEGIES
While NEMA steps up its advocacy to get the other tiers of government and
stakeholders fully committed to disaster management, it has put in place policies and
strategies, in a dexterous footwork to carry out its mandate in spite of the daunting
challenges. Some of them are:-
• Search and Rescue (SAR) and Epidemic Evacuation Plan
• Collaboration with security agencies
• Collaboration with Research Institutes on drought and flood prevention, mitigation
and preparedness.
• National Disaster Response Plan
• Training and capacity building.
• Advocacy/stakeholder meetings.
• Disaster risk reduction.
• Awareness creation.
• Six zonal offices.
• Disaster reaction units.
• Development of National Disaster Management Framework (on going)
• Development of vulnerability capacity assessment (on going)
• Collaboration with six universities to offer courses in disaster management.
• Grass-roots Emergency Management Corps (GEVC)
• Executive Volunteers.
• NEMA/NYSC Emergency Management Vanguard

SEARCH AND RESCUE /EPIDEMIC EVACUATION PLAN

Many agencies and stakeholders misunderstand their roles in search and rescue
operations, leading to confusion during emergency response activities in the past. This
prompted the management of NEMA to conceive the search and rescue and epidemic
evacuation plan in 2006, a period that witnessed air disasters and other calamities.
The plan aimed to achieve a holistic, effective and efficient approach to disaster
response in the country, spelling out specific functions and responsibilities of
different government agencies/organizations and non-governmental organizations
during search and rescue operations in nine of the most probable disaster scenarios. It
came into effect on September 25, 2008, when NEMA and the relevant stakeholders

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signed the document at a ceremony presided by the then Vice President, Dr Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan (GCFR).

As Dr Agbo emphasized recently NEMA was created to address disasters as a

coordinating agency and not a response agency. “So, when there is a plane crash in an
airport, for example, people may say where is NEMA? Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) and National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) are certainly
responsible for addressing emergencies within and outside the airport vicinity. Ours is
to coordinate responses of the different agencies. It is not right for people to always
point accusing fingers at NEMA when there is an emergency; we have our mandates
and limit which we will guard jealously”.

TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING

NEMA regularly organizes training programmes for its staff, those of stakeholder
agencies and organizations, volunteers, etc. One of such training programmes was the
four-month specialized search and rescue training conducted by Israeli experts from
Global CST. Sixty four men and women from NEMA, Federal Road Safety Corps,
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Air Force, Bauchi State
Emergency Management Agency, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency were given advanced training in medics,
rescue from flood/water, rescue from any crash (vehicular or air craft) rescue from
collapsed building, rescue with ropes from cliff, mountain, etc. Fifteen of the
participants who distinguished themselves were selected and sent to Israel for further
training.

DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

This is the conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to
minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention)
or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of hazards, within the
broad context of sustainable development.

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NEMA places great emphasis on proactive disaster management in line with the
Hyogo Framework For Action 2005 – 2015 adopted by the United Nations, with the
theme “Building Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters”.

To achieve the goal of disaster risk reduction, the Agency has, in collaboration with
UNICEF, trained experts and embarked on vulnerability capacity analysis of
communities in the country. The analysis will enable the country to:
• Assess and address major risks affecting communities; determine people's
vulnerability to those risks and their capacity to cope and recover from disaster.
• Help the communities to understand the hazards they face and assist them in taking
necessary measures to improve the situation based on their own skills, knowledge and
initiatives.
• Enable the people to prepare for hazards and prevent them from turning into
disasters.
As part of disaster risk reduction programme, the Agency is collaborating with six
Nigerian universities to offer courses in emergency management and the National
Educational Research and Curriculum Development Council to mainstream disaster
risk reduction into basic and post- basic curricula in Nigeria.

GRASS-ROOTS EMERGENCY VOLUNTEER CORPS

A masterstroke in disaster mitigation, the grass-roots emergency volunteer corps is a
programme that takes disaster management to the most local community level. The
management of the Agency believes the local community is the main theater of
disasters. Under the programme which was launched in 2008, the Agency, in
partnership with each local government council trains at least 200 persons resident in
the local communities within the council area in basic disaster management skills. If
all the 774 local government councils in the country participate in this programme,
there would be no fewer than 154,800 men and women with the requisite skills to
handle emergency situations in the communities, thus enhancing disaster resilience at
this level in particular and the nation in general. So far, only 5718 volunteers have
been trained in 19 states and this is not fast enough for NEMA. Again the apathy at
the state and local government level is the bane of this strategic programme.

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Other initiatives targeted at the communities are the NEMA/NYSC Emergency
Management Vanguard and the Executive Volunteers. Under the Emergency
Management Vanguard programme youth corps members volunteer and are trained in
disaster management skills before they are posted for their one-year national service
in the communities. They are empowered to spearhead the establishment and
strengthening of disaster management structures at the community level. That corps
members are deployed to all the nooks and crannies of the country makes the
programme unique. In the same vein, the executive volunteers are selected from the
top echelon of the society to provide leadership in disaster management in the
communities they reside. Members are top civil servants, senior military officers,
senior police officers and elite members of other professions – doctors, engineers,
nurses, lawyers, architects, etc.

The Acting Director General was emphatic that NEMA has made remarkable progress
in refocusing disaster management in Nigeria, shifting emphasis from humanitarian
relief intervention to proactive disaster reduction. Unfortunately, relief assistance is
popular, but mitigation and preparedness efforts are not. As a matter of fact, some
state governors would rather wait for emergencies to happen and then deal with them
than attempt to prepare for and mitigate their effects. The foolhardiness of this
mindset is that disaster risk reduction saves lives and property and safeguards
developmental gains while relief intervention is post disaster – after the devastation
had taken place.

Dr Agbo also described the situation in which states and local governments totally
depend on NEMA for emergency management and fail to participate or take
ownership of disaster management programmes in their areas of jurisdiction as
untenable, urging them to play the critical roles required of them by law. Disaster
management exists within a complex political, economic, and social environment and
as such activities at each level affect the other levels. The weakness or absence of
disaster management structures in states and local governments undermines the
efforts of the Federal Government to deliver efficient and effective emergency
management in the country. This is unacceptable and unfair to the good people of this
great country.

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By Chief Innocent Adikwu, Consultant, Media and Publicity, NEMA
 

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