The Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed, says adequate preparation and creation of awareness are key to reducing disaster risks in Nigeria.

Ahmed, represented by NEMA South-West Coordinator, Mr Saheed Akiode, ssid this during a workshop on Stakeholders Consultation on Development of a National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategic Action Plan 2023-2030 for Nigeria on Tuesday in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was organised by NEMA in collaboration with United Nation Development Programme (UNDP).

Ahmed said that management of disaster risks should be anchored on preparedness, mitigation, risk reduction and adaptation.

He said that there must be a shift from focus on distribution of relief materials to victims of disaster and start thinking of ways to mitigate, reduce and prevent the occurrence of disaster in Nigeria.

Ahmed said there was the need to assist government to create more awareness and report cases that could likely become a disaster in order to respond and prevent it.

The director-general said the recent escalation and growing frequency and severity of disasters in the forms of banditry, boat mishaps, building collapse, climate change among others, have made it imperative to develop the Nigeria disaster risk management plan.

“Today’s event becomes even more pertinent in consideration of the high level of vulnerability and fragility of the countries covered by the Sahel Resilience Project within Africa South of the Sahara.

“It is on record that the high level vulnerability of this countries is driven by fragile economy, environmental degradation, extreme weather conditions, low level of income and insecurity posed by terrorism and political volatility,” he said.

Ahmed said that working together with multiple development actors under the Sahel Resilience Project would help the countries of the region to collectively improve their resilience in consideration of trans-boundary nature of disaster events.

“For us in Nigeria, the Sahel Resilience Project is expected to support the renewed hope agenda of the Federal Government especially in the areas of poverty eradication, food security and inclusivity,” he said.

In his remarks, the project’s National Consultant, Prof. Andrew Obafemi, said that the workshop was organised to develop Nigeria national disaster risk and align it with the Sendai framework.

Obafemi, a professor of Geography, Geoinformation and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, said that the outcome of the workshop would help put Nigeria on a roadmap in managing her disaster issues.

He said that Nigerians should be able to identify the risks they are exposed to in their respective area,s in order to call the attention of government to them, so as to limit and prevent the disaster from happening.

In his remarks, Mr Sunday Amama,the National Project Management and Coordination Specialist for UNDP Sahel Resilience Project in Nigeria, said almost half of Nigeria population faced multidimensional poverty due to flood and other man-made disasters.

Amama said that Nigeria throughout the years had faced 440 disasters leading to tragic lost of lives and economic, adding that the financial aftermath of 2012 and 2022 flood which affected about 12 million people was staggering.

He said that sound disaster risk management at all levels was key to building the resilience of communities and economies to those shocks.

“Our shared objective with NEMA is to develop a new disaster risk reduction strategy for Nigeria that aligns with the African Union’s programme of Action and regional efforts to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capacities in West Africa and the Sahel region.

“A successful disaster risk reduction strategy for Nigeria with clear goals and timeframe will allow government and stakeholders to articulate their intentions and actions in a coordinated manner to protect the population against current and future disaster risk,” Amama said.

He commended Sweden government, UNDP and UN family and partners for their commitment to sustainable interventions in Nigeria.

Speaking about the workshop, a participant, Dr Bukola Ayinla, Director, Technology and Strategy, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, said the project came at a critical time.

Ayinla said that it was important for the country to look for ways to reduce disaster in Nigeria and not only responding to it.

She called on relevant authorities to implement the outcome of the workshop in order to reduce disaster risk in Nigeria.

Another participant at the workshop, a Disaster Management expert, Mr Kolawole Hamzat, commended NEMA and UNDP for building capacity of stakeholders in the South-West on disaster risk reduction with the workshop.

Hamzat, from the Centre for Disaster Risk and Crisis Reduction, Ibadan, said that he had learnt a lot of new things from the workshop and that the knowledge gained would be replicated and put into use in his organisation. (NAN)