We need capable hands to tackle disaster from grassroots — NEMA

Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed, has said only capable hands can help tackle the issues of disaster from the grassroots before it escalates and gets worse.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja during a capacity building program organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for NEMA and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), he said it was important to train and equip staff of the agency from the state and local government levels on how to handle disasters when they occur before they escalate.

He said based on the architecture of disasters in the country, it was important to train staff at the grassroots levels because that is where the crisis begins, hence training them with international standards would enhance them better.
Ahmed said the status of the SEMA staff as the first operators was key and they need to be trained with international standards on how to curb the crisis before it gets to the national levels.

He said the objective of the training was to ensure that every disaster management staff both national and local were fully ready and equipped to tackle disaster crises at all levels.

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He decried that the Boko Haram insurgency, the ‘farmers- herders’ crisis frequent perennial floods and the resultant humanitarian outcome have remained the most challenging crises affecting the country in recent times and this calls for concerted efforts amongst stakeholders to imbibe best practices in responding effectively to crisis and disasters in the country.