Disaster management a collective responsibility – Rep

From Matthew Aramunde, Lagos

The Chairman House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, Hon Ifedayo Abegunde has said that disaster is a collective responsibility of government and the people.

He stated this during the ongoing two day retreat organized by the National Emergency Management Agency , NEMA to keep members of the committee abreast on the activities of the agency, its enormous challenges and to enhance the capacity, knowledge of members in disaster management which took place at the Sheraton Hotels in Lagos.

Apparently worried by the disturbing security challenges that the country is currently going through, he noted that the country is witnessing a new dimension of disaster occasioned by incessant attack on schools, towns and communities most especially in the northern part of Nigeria by members of Boko Haram.

He decried the situation where the cumulative effect have led to the internal display, loss of lives and properties, starvation and hunger which he noted have consequently overstressed the merger resources of the agency through the provision of relief materials to the affected people.

He called on the Federal Government in the face of alarming rate of disaster incidents in the country, to increase the annual budgetary allocation most importantly the overhead cost for training and re-training of the agency’s staff in the search and rescue operation.