The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development says all hands must be on deck to mitigate Disaster Risk.
The Humanitarian Affiars Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq stated this in Abuja, Nigeria at the monthly Lunch Hour lecture organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR.
Represented by the Deputy Director, Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry, Abubakar Suleiman, the Minister said Disaster Risk Reduction was the business of every one.
According to her, every disaster has a consequence on national development.
“Everybody must be involved in disaster risk management. Every disaster starts at the local level before it gets to the national and international levels. Look at the case of Covid-19, it started from Wuhan. No one knew Wuhan before now, but it escalated beyong the borders of China and today the whole world is being affected by Covid-19,” she stressed.
Farouq emphasised that the establishment of the Ministry has shown that Nigeria lacks the needed manpower to curb disaster in the country, hence the need for Disaster Risk Regulation to be inculcated in risk reduction plan.
She explained that, “there should be a regulation to stop people from building houses on water ways especially at the local level. We have had situations where we try to discourage people from building houses on waterways and they told us that their placentas were buried there so they couldn’t move away from the place and flood does not understand any place of birth or inheritances. These are some of the things that regulations will help check”.
Early Warning Aystem
The Minister further stated that the establishment of an early warning system minimises disaster rate in the country.
The Minister added that insurance of property will also reduce the amount of loss. ´insure your property. No amount of compensation is enough for your loss”. Farouq advised.
Responding earlier, the Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr Ibrahim Arabi said the topic was carefully selected to discuss the current global trend in disaster management and what Nigeria could do at its own capacity to address it.
“You will agree with me that the present global health emergency of Corona virus which affected virtually everything the security challenges of kidnapping, banditry and insurgency, the early offset of rainfall this year which had affected farmers’ yield as well as some flood in some areas, coupled with many other problems bedeviling our dear country, Nigeria, there is no better time to hold this kind of discussion than now, ” Arabi emphasised.
Confidence Okwuchi
