Human beings are prone to calamities which, in most cases, are beyond human imagination and control. These calamities are capable of causing untold physical and emotional stress to every discerning mind. Occurrences like fire outbreaks, chemical spill, flood disasters, gun attacks, insurgents’ activities and even physical threats among several others could result to emergency situations. People don’t pray for disasters to happen but they pray to see a helper when it happens.
Emergency situations as enumerated above, sometimes occur from natural causes or otherwise. However, the varying causes notwithstanding, a practical understanding of such situations and adequate responses to them will reduce their impacts and increase people’s chances of survival.
The management of such emerging situations in Nigeria is the statutory responsibility of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). And this very important Agency has consistently played significant roles in emergency situations, particularly the recent efforts to addressing issues relating to flood disasters and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the middle belt and northeast axis where activities of gunmen and insurgency are pervasive.
NEMA was established, through Act 12 as amended by Act 50 of 1999, to manage natural and man-made disasters in Nigeria. The agency was designed to formulate policy on all activities relating to disaster management and coordinate the plans and programmes for efficient and effective response to disasters at national level.
But how did Nigerians perceived NEMA’s activities and reactions to emergency situations in the country? Going down memory lane, many Nigerians considered the performance of NEMA in the discharge of its responsibilities as abysmal and far below expectations.
The Agency was perceived to be bad in all departments – poor policy formulation and planning; inadequate data collation and report from relevant agencies to enhance forecasting, planning and field operations; poor capacity and ability to coordinate activities of other stakeholders in disaster management; and unacceptable response time in emergency situations.
But the current management in NEMA under the leadership of the Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja has transformed the Agency beyond imaginations. The newly improved NEMA has developed capacity for effective and efficient disaster management in Nigeria.
Many of us are still oblivious that NEMA has greater capacity to reasonably deliver on its statutory obligations under the current leadership of Engr. Maihaja. The Agency recorded impressive strides in the area of timely response to emergency situations across the country and has been consistently visible and effectively felt in crisis situations. Its visibility is clearly demonstrated especially in the humanitarian crisis in Boko Haram infested region of the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Engr. Mustapha Maihaja is desirous to bringing succour to victims of emergency situations by giving palliatives to ameliorate the suffering and pains that comes with it. The DG said that “one key parameter in disaster management was prompt response by the Agency ”.
NEMA’s commitment was indeed reflected in the improved and timely response accorded to not only the internally displaced persons (IDPS) in the Northeast, but victims of the recent flood disasters across the states. The flooding was virtually in all geopolitical zones of the country which left hundreds of thousands homeless. Houses, farmlands, barnyards, resident estates, and commercial plazas are submerged while affected victims depended on NEMA for their shelter and feedings.
NEMA’s commitment and efficiency was also felt by those adversely affected by mass deportation and repatriation from foreign countries, especially Mali and Libya where many Nigerians ended up in search of green pastures.
Only recently, the people of Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno State were so impressed with the almost clinical performance of NEMA and praised them highly for a job well done. They are particularly happy that internally displaced and distressed individuals are properly given medical attention and food items. They noted that camps are being constructed and mobile clinics were set up to carter for medical need. To the people of Dikwa, it is a great departure from what obtained in the past.
Engr. Mustapha Maihaja has successfully domesticated in NEMA the global best practices of disaster risk reduction which emphasizes disaster prediction, hazards’ analysis, resilient capacity building and awareness creation. The agency also distributed relief materials to victims of disasters in emergency situations across the country and to other needy nations.
NEMA success in this regards earned it the respect of some foreign institutions and bodies who partner with the agency mostly on capacity building. The United Nation’s humanitarian agency, World Food programmes (WFP), visited NEMA and commended its initiatives and programmes in addressing disaster related problems in Nigeria.
The Vision of Engr. Maihaja is to elevate NEMA to a world class status in the nearest future. He identified some gaps and shortcomings of the agency, and organized several workshops to share its understanding to review, to enforce and re-position NEMA in a way that it can better operate efficiently, effectively to gear it towards the envisaged world-class agency.
And as part of his restructuring strategies, Engr. Maihaja has been very creative and innovative. The DG underscores the need for the agency to create a response and recovery department in line with the best world practices. Maihaja said the department would encompass search, rescue and recovery as a result of any emergency.
To complement its capacity building initiatives in NEMA, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja’s led team is committed to an improved workers welfare package and human capital development. As a show of dedication, management recently approved new and enhanced condition of service for staff of the agency.
The DG reiterated the need for improved welfare scheme commensurate with what is obtainable in other countries. He initiated the process to commence the 2018 promotion exercise in the agency, and went even further to secure approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for Group Life Insurance for Staff in view of increasing emergency needs.
The agency has fostered strong working relationship with all relevant national and international agencies including the United Nations Institutions for the reduction of disaster. Engr. Maihaja’s aim is to strengthen modern administrative and managerial skills as well as technological advancement to boost efficiency in NEMA.
The change of guard that brought Engr. Mustapha Maihaja on board as DG NEMA is a blessing that has transformed the Agency positively. NEMA’s recent outing and its proactive responses have demonstrated that the system is back in line with the vision of our founding fathers.
The ever resilient, pertinacious and dogged DG, Engr. Maihaja whom since assuming the leadership of NEMA, has restlessly traverse all the nooks and crannies of affected states despite obvious challenges. Maihaja and NEMA are doing everything possible to lift up our citizens who are faced with various disasters in and outside Nigeria.
Engr. Mustapha Maihaja’s great stride in NEMA is a testimony that Nigeria is back and working for the masses.