Document Disasters, Workshop Urges NEMA

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has been called upon to properly and carefully document past disasters and their frequency of occurrence in the country, so as to create hazard risk awareness and provide a road map for planning mitigation measures.

Participants at a One- Day Workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility Accounting, Disaster Risk Reduction Mitigation, who made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of the workshop in Enugu, also urged NEMA to evolve some orientation programmes for its accounting officers to enhance their capability to appreciate the technicalities in forecast/projections of disaster.

This, they said, would also go a long way in enabling them contribute meaningfully in making appropriate financial provisions.

The stakeholders were drawn from Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), National Orientation Agency (NOA), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Enugu Hqtrs, Nigeria Red Cross, University of Port Harcourt, NYSC EMV, Private organisations, Electronic and Print Media, Enugu State Emergency Management Agency, NEMA South-East Zonal Office, and NEMA Headquarters, Abuja.

Organised by NEMA, the communiqué also advised the agency to undertake policy formulation and coordination function seriously by ensuring that its “operating and capital budgets dovetail into those of like agencies to avoid overlap of expenditure, achieve allocational efficiency avoid duplication and waste of resources”.

“NEMA’s overall budget would also be greatly reduced if the personnel, expertise and resources of these organisations are effectively coordinated and utilised for disaster management.

According to them, “There should be a policy guiding Corporate Social Responsibility in Nigeria. NEMA should explore ways of engaging public and private sectors in CSR by creating public awareness on the limitations of the government and aid agencies in some disasters, particularly those of significant magnitude. This would help to generate more responses from the public and private sector”.

NEMA, the communiqué went on, should review its policy framework to fashion out ways in which the private sector can be integrated in disaster mitigation and preparedness, adding that this would create a common ground to establish for symbiotic relationship between the private sector capability and the public sector resources in a disaster environment to help reduce and mitigate disasters.