Category: Letters

By Olusegun Ariyo

Over the last decade, the human population has suffered from increasingly frequent environmental emergencies. Natural, human-induced disasters, such as floods, ocean scourge gully-erosion drought, and forest fires are happening all over Nigeria with increasing frequency and severity. Man-made accidents such as chemical releases and oil spills, have not been prevented, despite serious efforts, Disasters have wrecked huge losses in terms of the economy, human life and environmental resources.

The outlook indicates that environmental emergencies will continue to occur in the foreseeable future. A closer analysis of what transforms a natural event into a human and economic disaster includes rapid urbanization, widespread urban and rural poverty, and the degradation of the environment resulting from the mismanagement of natural resources weak socioeconomic infrastructural and inefficient public policies. According to a report on global environmental exchange report indicate that the frequent environmental emergencies in Nigeria are largely deformed by two variables:

The ability of the built physical environment of buildings, site improvement and infrastructure in them to withstand the stress imposed by natural hazards; and other potential hazards of their location, the extent to which they are subjected to environmental emergencies. It also indicates that the roots of the urban vulnerability in Nigeria are humans and their actions for example, the urban population in the country has been growing at the rate of 2-5 per cent every year since 1990.

The growth is adding approximately several thousand people each year to cities and towns with an estimated total population of over 140 million, with about 45 per cent of residence in urban centres with the highest concentration in the large metropolitan areas such as Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, and Port-Harcourt. The environmental problem associated with mechanized expansion and poor management has increased the vulnerability of these cities to major disasters. In another available report by NEMA on project impact in 2002, on Nigeria, it reveals also, that the existence of spatial differences in nature are also what contribute to disaster.

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While oil and gas pollution is largely a Niger Delta problem, drought and quella birds’ inflation occur in the Sudan- Sahelian states.

However, soil erosion rainstorms and flood disasters are prevalent in virtually all the states. The report on vulnerability and disaster reduction strategy explains four main categories of disaster that have occurred in Nigeria over the past fifteen years and they have had significant social and environmental consequences. This includes pipeline explosions in different parts of the country, killing many people, bomb explosions in the military barrack, factory fire incidents, plane crashes and consequently incessant issue of building collapse.

Urban violence, and some community-related conflicts on land resource and ownership. Ethnic-religious class frequencies flame up in different parts of the country. For instance, in June 1999, Local Youth set up fire at four separate power stations in Warri – Kaduna pipeline near the village of Adeje. This is a clear indication of rural-urban poverty which leads people to take a direct risk to get money. On 18 October 1998, a fire engulfed more than 2000 villagers that were scrambling for petrol was also ruptured in Jesse outside Warri nearly 1000 people were killed.

Reports indicate that in response to this precarious problem, the federal government through Decree No. 12 of 1999 established the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and adopted the US.NEMA law for its legal arsenal, but its operation has been very handicapped, report reveal that inadequate funding and equipment, weak execution capacity and lack of decentralization remain lacklustre. At present, the ecological fund that is meant for the management of emergencies is usually not readily accessible at the point of immediate need.

The enabling legislation contains in concepts like coordination, liaising, monitoring and collection, which presupposes that NEMA is a coordinating agency and remains in the mirage. Regrettably, one of its past director generals in a welcome address to a conference on emergency management, noted that the management of any emergency no matter how small is the agency’s responsibility, but indeed, the situation of a settlement of vulnerable people that are living along Ikorodu, few kilometres away from mile 12 has to be a permanent pathetic situation at the drop of rainfall. The flooding visually envelops the entire settlement not even that alone, its extend to the major road accessing the major urban centers of Ikorodu yet the agencies have no matter how small failed in their responsibility.

In May 2015, the world conference on natural disaster reduction was conveyed in Yokohama, Japan and a strategy and plan of action for a safer world were adopted the strategy focuses on countries making natural reduction part of their development plans and otherwise progress in social and economic development would continue to be eroded by reoccurring disaster

It underscored the responsibility of governments in Nigeria to protect their people from national disaster, equally important is when the international community and the United Nations partners were called upon to support the then international decade for natural disaster reduction and its mechanism. At the special session of the fiftieth meeting of the governing council of UNEP, its adopted decision of 22 May 1998, identifies environmental information, assessment and research, including environment emergency response capacity and the strengthening of early warning and assessment functions. Subsequently, it’s also requested that the international community should focus and strengthen the contribution of UNEP environmental expertise to the co-ordination of United nation system-wide response to natural disasters caused by national phenomena or natural phenomena coupled with effects on human action, to provide coordinated assistance to countries, particularly developing countries, affected by such natural disaster.

Accordingly, the report on the African workshop on environmental disaster in Nairobi from 28 – 30 July 2003 indicates that there is a need to establish a national disaster relief task force, establishment of disaster management authority at various levels of government and development of a disaster management plan in addition to relief plan. It opined for the legislative act for national and community level, measures and effective system for the prevention, preparedness and opt response to disaster events. To this end, the perspective of reducing vulnerability, in other words, requires a combined reconstruction and transformation at various government levels aimed at positively and progressively modifying the degree of vulnerability and, therefore the prospect for future development.