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DISASTER
MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL OF NEMA
ABSTRACT
The upsurge of
disastrous events; both natural and man induced in
the 1990s and
2000s in Nigeria has indeed been worrisome. Despite the establishment of the
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
in 1999, the management of emergencies and
disasters has left much to be desired. Although Nigeria has developed some
measures of capacity in disaster response, the country still remains vulnerable
to disasters due to a combination of factors, which include technological, environmental,
political and climatic change combined with increasing population density. The
situation calls for a critical assessment for a more effective, holistic and
proactive approach to disaster management in Nigeria. It is against this
background that this work set out to appraise the performance of NEMA in
managing disasters and emergencies in Nigeria.
The study, which
is a historical research, relies on both primary and secondary sources of data
using mainly unstructured interviews, consultations and case studies as its
methods of data collection. Thus, the relevant civil organisations and other
major players and stakeholders in the management of disasters were the main
sources of primary data. The secondary sources of data were from reputable publications,
journals, magazines, reports and the Internet. The data collected were analysed
qualitatively leading to some findings and recommendations.
The work found out
that although NEMA, which is the central coordinating body, has a workable blue
print and policies for managing disaster, the body is however faced with a lot
of constraints. The major challenge have been that many of the states of the
federation do not have the necessary structures such as the Local Government
Emergency Agency (LGEA) to enable them prepare adequately for disasters in
order to mitigate the effect. These are being compounded by inadequate early
warning systems and poor integrated planning amongst others. Above all, the
Disaster Response Units (DRU) and Operational Directorates (ODs) are
constrained by the lack of expertise to effectively carry out their functions
in conformity with the National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP).
Based on the research findings, the
study highlighted the prospects of effective disaster management, which led to
some recommendations. The recommendations included improved information
management, need for the early warning systems, integrated planning and
coordination among others. This is in order to take disaster management beyond
distribution of relief to a more innovative and scientific approach in Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
1. Security is a fundamental prerequisite for
a stable social order and for sustainable human development. Security is a
priority in all human societies and is the responsibility of governments to
ensure peace and security within the society. Tragedies on the other hand,
occur naturally or are man made and have the ability to disrupt peace and
security within a society. Tragedies have been with man for as long as
civilization on earth. Its occurrence has been attributed to numerous factors.
Tragedies are usually associated with destructive occurrences that leave man
with a great sense of loss and despair. Any such incidence that leaves man
helpless could be referred to as an emergency.1 Civil strife, sabotage,
outbreak of epidemics and aggression are some of the crises that constitute
national emergencies.
2. An emergency can sometimes turn out to be
a disaster or crisis requiring urgent action to mitigate the effect of such an
occurrence. Disaster, hazard, crisis, catastrophe and upheaval are commonly
used to describe such an occurrence.2 Disaster means, “greater or sudden
misfortune”.3 It is an event or hazard; natural or man-made, sudden and or
progressive, which impacts with such severity that leaves a community helpless
and miserable.4
3. Examples of man-made disasters includes
the chemical explosion at Union Carbide Corporation Bhopal India in December
1984 that left 4,000 people dead with many still suffering from the attendant
health related problems.5 Similarly, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of the
Second World War in Japan, speaks volumes. An instance of natural disasters is
the Hurricane Katrina that hit Florida, the United States of American (USA) on
25 August 2005.6 Several other examples of disasters are abound with monumental
loss of lives and properties.
4. Unfortunately, disasters tend to occur
more frequently world wide due to increase vulnerability of societies to
hazards with the attendant losses when compared to few decades ago. This
assertion is supported by the United Nation disaster estimates, which noted
that between 1994 and 2003 at
least 2.5 billion
people were killed by the effects of disasters worldwide, while about 478,000
people were killed by the effects of natural disasters such as hurricane,
earthquakes and floods.7
5. Africa has equally had a series of painful
experiences of disaster in the past. In August 1986, the volcanic eruption in
the highland of Western Cameroon led to the death of about 1,700 people while
330 sheep, 300 herds of cattle and thousands of other livestock were also
lost.8 Drought as a hazard is no stranger to South Africa, nor is the threat of
wild fires, flash floods or other disasters. Examples of these is Laingburg
flash floods in 1995 where 173 lives were lost.9 Nigeria has had its own share
of national disasters which has impacted negatively on the socio-economic
well-being of the nation. These include the Ogunpa flood of 1977 in Dugbe
Ibadan city. Over 400 houses and hundreds of lives were lost in the flood
incidents between 1960 and 1963 alone.10
6. There are also many man-induced disasters
in Nigeria. These include the C-130 plane crash in 1992, the EAS crash
of 2002 Belleview
and Sosoliso air crashes of 2005 where more than 200 people lost their lives
with many more maimed.11 There was also the Jos Terminus Main Market inferno of
12 February 2002 which destroyed over 56 million Naira worth of goods.12
Another man made disaster was the Ikeja Military Cantonment Ammunition Transit
Depot (ATD) explosion on 27 January 2002 resulting in massive damage to the
cantonment with about 1,100 people reportedly killed.13
7. Another worrisome dimension to man made
disasters in Nigeria is that of internal crises. Some of these crises manifest
in the form of ethno-religious crises or the quest for resource control. These
are threats that have occurred recently and are becoming frequent. Results of
these crises are massive loss of human lives and properties in large
proportions tantamount to man made disasters.
8. Despite an increasing toll from disasters
in terms of human suffering, death, infrastructural damage, loss of income and
the attendant psychological trauma, feasibility measures to mitigate disasters
are not adopted by most developing countries. Presently, there are no
internationally agreed standards for disaster management institutions,
structure and legislation, there are however some agreements on codes. Some of
such are building codes and transportation of dangerous materials. These are
however, far from Inter-continental. Although the United Nations (UN) and
Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) have made significant efforts at promoting
and formulating strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and response, many
countries including Nigeria are become increasingly vulnerable. Some examples quoted
could have been avoided through better planning, control measures, warning
systems, community development and preparedness.
9. Disasters and emergencies impact
negatively on sustainable national development. Frequent occurrences of
disasters and the need to manage them more effectively have made most developed
and some developing nations like South Africa to adopt proactive measure by
forecasting hazard prone areas in order to prevent or mitigate the impact of
disasters. In this regard, central coordinating machineries were put in place
to manage disasters.14
10. In Nigeria, there are many stakeholders in
the management of emergencies and disasters. These include the Nigerian Armed
Forces, Nigeria Police (NP), Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Federal
Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Nigeria Fire Service (NFS). Others are the
National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Red Cross and United
Nations High Commission for Refuges (UNHCR) and some individuals among others.
However, the extent to which the various activities of these stakeholders are
harmonised coordinated and synchronised in situations of national emergencies
and disasters leaves much to be desired.
11. The foregoing challenges necessitated the
establishment of the National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA) in 1976 before
Decree No 12 of 1999 amended by
Act No 5
of 1999 with a
broadened scope transformed it to the National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA). NEMA was among other things, designated to effectively coordinate the
management of emergencies and disaster efforts of all the stakeholders.
However, despite the NEMA’s establishment, response to disaster in Nigeria has
fallen short of expectation. This has largely been attributed to inadequate
capacity building and integration of effort. Moreover, NEMA’s intervention has
continued to be focused largely on relief efforts as against proactive
approaches.
12. The recurrent and increasing occurrences of
disasters have presented the critical need for a more effective, holistic and
proactive approach to disaster management in Nigeria. This approach ought to be
community based and federally funded and coordinated. There is the need
therefore, to focus on disaster risks and the vulnerability of communities with
emphasis on multi-levels and multi-dimensional coordination. More collaboration
between all stakeholders and the private sectors particularly the insurance
companies would also be necessary as mitigation measures. The disaster plan
ought to include preparation for terrorist threat, which poses new and hitherto
unimaginable concern in Nigeria. This is therefore the motivation for this
research.
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
13. NEMA whose supervisory role is the
management of emergencies in Nigeria has been incapable of fulfilling its
statutory mandate. One can posit therefore that this organization lays more
emphasis on the distribution of relief materials than a holistic, scientific
and pragmatic management of emergencies and disasters. The concern is whether
the present state of disaster management in Nigeria is capable of achieving its
statutory role on human security through disaster reduction. For instance, in
the aviation sector, the ADC aircraft that crashed on 10 June 1996 in Ejirin village in Ogun State
took almost 24hrs to be located.
Similarly, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) plane that crashed in Vandeikya,
Benue State
on 17 September
2006 took some hours before official assistance and response could be provided.
14. Other recurring problems to disaster
management in Nigeria include lack of proper maintenance of infrastructure and
equipment, lack of adequate early warning system and inadequate funding. Others
are; lack of proper mobilisation of the citizenry to manage disaster and
improper vulnerability assessment of likely disaster areas including inadequate
and ineffective legal and regulatory framework. Improper planning and
uncoordinated management of risk-reduction strategies, and haphazard relief and
recovery processes result in loss of lives, problems of feeding, sanitation,
housing, medical and undesirable social vices. It is against this background
that this research seeks answers to the following questions.
a. What is disaster management?
b. What types of disasters and emergencies
are prevalent in Nigeria?
c. What is Nigeria’s approach to disaster
management?
d. What are the challenges to disaster
management in Nigeria?
e. What are the prospects for efficient
disaster management in Nigeria?
OBJECTIVE OF THE
STUDY
15. The main objective of the study is to
discuss disaster management in Nigeria and the role played by NEMA in this
regard, with a view to highlighting the prospects of an efficient disaster
management system in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to:
a. Define disaster management.
b. Examine the types of disasters and
emergencies prevalent in Nigeria.
c. Analyse Nigeria’s approach to disaster
management.
d. Highlight the challenges to disaster
management in Nigeria.
e. Outline the prospects for enhancing
disaster management in Nigeria.
SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE STUDY
16. The study will be beneficial to the Nigerian
Government in the formulation of effective policies in furtherance of an
enhanced emergency preparedness and disaster management in the country. It will
specifically benefit National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and its
implementation of risk reduction measures and strategies for disaster
management. The Nigerian Armed Forces, NP, FERMA, FRSC, NFS and NSCDC will also
benefit from the research in their respective roles in disaster management. It
will also serve the Red Cross Society, local and international organisations
involved in disaster management.
17. This is to enable the foregoing
organisations appreciate the importance of the subject matter and understand
the difficulties encountered in managing disasters as well as the suggesting
the benefits of an enhanced disaster management in Nigeria. It will also serve
the general public and add to the existing body of knowledge as well as a
future reference material for further research on the topic.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
18. The scope of the study will highlight the
roles of NEMA in national disasters issues and discuss the managerial
effectiveness of NEMA officials in tackling disasters. It will also ascertain
if NEMA has any constraints in the course of performing its roles and identify
the government and non-governmental organisations contributions to national
disaster problems in Nigeria.
19. The study highlighted hazard profiles in
Nigeria over the last 3 decades but only critically analysed the most prevalent
disasters within 2000 and 2010. This period was chosen because it was a period
that recorded frequent cases of disasters in Nigeria. It also marked a period
when the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) embarked on a systematic approach
for the management of national emergencies and disasters. Activities of the
security agencies in managing disasters will be discussed. However, NEMA is the
central focus in this study.
LIMITATIONS
20. The limitation of this study was the problem
of poor record keeping in some government agencies. NEMA and its related bodies
did not properly document some past disaster management operations in the
country. Statistical and other relevant information on previous disasters in
Nigeria were limited. Some newspapers statistics were also found to be
inaccurate with the reports sensationally inclined.
21. These limitations did not however, degrade
the quality of the research, as past works and literature were available at
Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Ahmadu Bello University Zaria,
Federal Polytechnic Kaduna, NEMA and the Internet among others. It was also
difficult to get responses from some relevant government agencies because of
administrative procedures and the fact that the researcher was not able to
travel to other parts of the country other than Abuja and Kwara State on an
environmental study tour. This would have afforded a wider research with other
deductions.
THE RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
22. The research questions are as follows:
a. What factors give rise to increase in
number of disasters in Nigeria within the last decade?
b. Why are the effects on the populace still
very severe despite government efforts?
c. What is the role of NEMA in the
management of national disasters?
d. Has NEMA adequately performed its statuary
role of managing disasters within the nation?
e. Are there any constraints encountered by
NEMA in the management of national disaster?
f. How can NEMA be assisted to achieve its
goals and objectives?
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