Onyebuchi Ezigbo
30 September 2008
Abuja — National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday noted that it has reached an understanding with stakeholders on how to implement a new disaster management strategy, designed to address the country's inadequacies in search and rescue operations.
NEMA said it had resolved to partner with other bodies with similar role in disaster management, so that together, they could form a formidable response team in the event of an emergency.
Under the new Search and Rescue and Epidemic Evacuation Plan for Nigeria, participating agencies, including ministries of Health and Environment, Federal Road Safety Commission, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Fire Service, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Nigerian Maritime Management and the Nigerian Railway, are to take up responsibilities in various disasters prone areas such as aviation sector, maritime, flood, fire, collapsed building, rail accidents, oil pipeline explosion and epidemic evacuation plan.
Media and Publicity Consultant with NEMA, Chief Innocent Adikwu, who spoke to THISDAY yesterday, said the idea of a blue-print for Search and Rescue for the country was conceived in 2006, following an unprecedented scale of air disasters in the country, which exposed the country's inadequacy in Search and Rescue operations.
He said as part of efforts to overcome the inadequacies, the Agency took the initiative to work out strategies aimed at achieving sound and effective response plan, which all stakeholders will identify with.
"We felt it is important that we should have a system in place, whereby we could all draw on our collective strengths and build a formidable group of highly mobile, motivated, dedicated and trained workforce of disaster managers," he said.
Director-General of NEMA, AVM Mohammed Audu-Bida (rtd), while speaking at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with stakeholders at State House, also said the organisation was making arrangements to reach a deal with helicopter owners in the country, to enable it use their helicopters in emergency.
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