The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has warned the federal government that the 2022 flood that has devastated parts of the country will be replicated in 2023 if precautionary measures are not put in place.
The Director General of the Agency Mustapha Mohammed gave the warning on Monday when he appeared before the senate committee on special Duties to defend the 2023 budget of his office.
According to him, NEMA is overstretched financially, to arrest the environmental hazard currently ravaging states across the country, hence the need for special intervention funds to handle this year’s magnitude of flood
Mohammed noted that Prior to the 2022 flood disaster, NEMA through four separate letters to thirty-six states of the federation alerted the state Governors on the vulnerable areas as well as risk mapping, on areas that will be affected and advised to come up with a local emergency management committee.
He lamented that despite these warning, Out of the 36 States, only four states made provisions for local emergency Management committee in their states adding that most states have abdicated their responsibilities to NEMA instead of doing their part to mitigate the impacts of floods in their states.
He added that with the level of devastation on farm lands, there is need for Agriculture intervention for food security to prevent hunger and food crises in the coming days.
He announced that president Muhammadu Buhari has given the agency 12,000 metric tonnes of grains, (400) trucks which have been distributed across the states and the FCT as well as the distribution of items worth 1.5 billion to the six geo-political zones by the presidential flood committee.
The Senate Committee on Special Duties decried the poor budgetary allocation to NEMA and promised to come up with a legislation to move NEMA from the supervision of any ministry to the presidency for optimum performance.
The committee also urged NEMA to get the states engaged and ensure that there is proper plans for people displaced by floods.
Senator Francis fadahunsi advised state governments to channel the ecological funds collected from the federal government to resettling of displaced persons in their various states.
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The chairman of the committee senator Yusuf Yusuf, says the disaster has become a pandemic, which must be treated as such appealing to the federal Government to find a lasting solution, to the perennial flooding.
The director General of NEMA presented a 2023 budget of 774 million for capital Expenditure, Personal cost of 1.7 Billion and Overhead 162.1Million.
Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie
