NEMA Revives Emergency Volunteer Corps Scheme

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has reactivated its Executive Volunteer Corps for effective disaster response, the Director-General, Alhaji Mohammad Sani-Sidi, said in Abuja recently.

Sani-Sidi spoke at an interactive forum with members of the corps and stressed that disaster management was “everyone’s business’’.

Represented by NEMA’s Director of Finance and Administration, Mr Hakeem Akinbola, the director-general said the organisation decided to reactivate all organs that were necessary to improve disaster management in the country.

“The frequency of disaster occurrence and the pursuit of an effective approach to disasters have prompted the need to re-evaluate the agency’s mechanism and strategies for search and rescue operations and disaster response,’’ he said.

According to him, the agency considers it imperative to establish a volunteer unit which is domiciled in its Search and Rescue Department.

“This unit has the Emergency Management Vanguards (EMVs) drawn from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Grassroots Volunteers from the local communities. “These crops of volunteers create awareness in their communities and also serve as responders during emergencies. “he said.

He said NEMA also employed the services of executive volunteers made up of professionals from various sectors to boost the agency’s response capabilities.

Sani-Sidi said the forum was expected to serve as a platform for the volunteers to keep abreast with new trends of disasters being experienced in the country and to suggest innovative ways of responding to them.

Earlier in an address of welcome, NEMA’s Director of Search and Rescue, Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, urged volunteer groups of the agency to be proactive in responding to disasters.

Otegbade who decried the poor participation of volunteers during emergencies, urged them to see themselves as major stakeholders in disaster management.

He urged them to always act promptly in the event of disaster occurrence in their domains.

Otegbade said the workshop was organised in realisation of a gap created by the inactive operation of the Executive Volunteer Corps.

Otegbada said volunteer groups should ensure that they were well kitted during emergencies to avoid embarrassments from other responders.