Magnus Eze, Enugu
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said it did not anticipate the scale of insurgency in the North East and herders-farmers’ clashes in other parts of the country, in recent times.
The agency said flood disasters that occurred in 2012 and 2018 killed 562 people in Nigeria.
Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, made the disclosure in Enugu, yesterday, at a three-day national workshop on review of National Contingency Plan (NCP).
Maihaja said insurgency-induced conflict in the North East region currently ranks highest amongst the humanitarian crises in the country, while noting that almost all the 36 states of the federation have experienced multiple cases of manmade/nature-induced disasters with the attendant humanitarian crises. Represented by Director of Planning Research and Forecasting, Kayode Fagbemi, Maihaja said the magnitude of the emergencies were not imagined in 2012 when the document was prepared, hence, the need for periodic reviews.
He said nature-induced disasters, such as flood and drought, have increased significantly, adding that resilience capacity of riverine communities has weakened.
According to him, the flood disaster in 2012 killed 363 people, while the 2018 incident claimed 199. He explained that in 2012, flood disasters affected seven million people; 2.3 million were displaced, while 597,476 houses were destroyed or damaged.
“In view of this current situation, you will agree with me on the need to update the National Contingency Plan (NCP) to reflect the current realities. The idea of developing a national contingency plan was developed in March 2011, as a coordinated attempt to proactively prepare for response to disasters in Nigeria.
“Therefore, in view of the current realities of increases in environmental disasters, complex emergencies and the phenomenon of climate change, and going by the dynamic changes that have occurred in the risk profile of the country, you will agree with me that the time is ripe to update the National Contingency Plan for the country,” he stated.