Christian Aid, an international Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), has called on Plateau Government to appoint a substantive Executive Secretary for the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for effective disaster management.
Mr Bamidele Fagbite, the Senior Programme Coordinator in charge of Disaster Management and Peace Building in the Organisation, made the call on Thursday in Kaduna.Fagbite spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the sidelines of an ongoing sustainability meeting with the media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Kaduna.
NAN reports that Christian Aid had for the last two years, been implementing a project tagged ” Early Warning and Early Response” system developed to strengthen disaster preparedness in Benue, Plateau and kaduna states.
The project, which is funded by the European Commission Civil and Humanitarian Aid Operation (ECHO), is targeted at detecting early warnings and how to tackle flooding and other emergencies in the states.Fagbite also called on the state government to employ more competent staff to address the deficit within the agency, adding that training and retraining of the personnel should be prioritised as well.
The senior programme manager decried that the various shortcomings within the agency had stalled disasters management and mitigation activities in the state.
“SEMA is a very strong government institution when it comes to disaster management and mitigation in any state.
“But that of Plateau has been moribund so to say, because since 2015 it has been existing without a substantive Executive Secretary to move things forward.
“SEMA in Plateau is under-staffed and suffering from poor funding. And since they have limited staff, we can’t even begin to talk of training and retraining.
“They don’t even know what is allocated to them in the budget talk more of accessing it and this, I feel is a sad one.
“So, we are calling on the government to actually address these challanges with a view of strengthening disaster management and mitigation system in the state,” Fagbite added.
The senior programme manager commended Kaduna government for having a formidable structure in its SEMA, but called for timely realease of funds to manage and mitigate emergencies when they occur.
He also advised Benue government to address the challanges of funding and shortage of staff in its SEMA to enable optimal performance.He further called on Benue SEMA to create a more robust synergy with CSOs and other stakeholders in the state, adding the disaster management is a collective responsibility. (NAN)
