The Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Mr. Olusade Adesola, has urged the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to take up the challenge of enlightening residents of the territory on the prevention of fire outbreaks and the need to protect themselves and their property, especially in this dry season.
He gave the charge while declaring open a 3-Day capacity building workshop on leadership development, succession planning and mentoring for top and middle cadre officials of FEMA in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.
Adesola noted that with the dry season on, many are confronted with the problem of fire outbreaks just as it was recently experienced in Kubwa, Nyanya and other areas of the nation’s capital city.
The training was organised by FEMA with support from the Budget and National Planning office of the Federal Ministry of Finance, in conjunction Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation, with the objective to build the capacity of FEMA officials in emergency management in various emerging issues, and strategies to deliver better service.
The Permanent Secretary reiterated that the core mandate of FEMA includes disaster management, disaster risk reduction measures, emergency response, relief and rehabilitation, which have, therefore, placed it as the lead coordinating Agency to all responders of emergency in the FCT.
“As you are aware, for FEMA each season throws up peculiar disaster challenges. During the raining reason, we contended with the problem of flooding.
“These challenges demand the need for FEMA to be forward-thinking and proactive in identifying and mapping out disaster-prone zones of the entire Territory for effective and timely response to emergencies.
“They have responsibility to protect us, enlighten us . But the managers of these risk issues must also be trained themselves.
“I urge staff of FEMA to take the workshop seriously and utilize the knowledge that will be acquired in the course of this training to enhance your productivity”, he stressed.
He added that, “I want to place on record our gratitude for the tremendous efforts of FEMA and other stakeholders which greatly assisted in tempering the effect of flooding against NIMET 2021 prediction for FCTA.
“And I am delighted at the foresight exhibited by the Management of FEMA to seek support from the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning in organizing this workshop. I have been informed that this is the first of such inter-agency collaboration.
“The FCT Administration is indeed thankful to the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Development Partners and International Non-Governmental Organizations for supporting immensely this workshop.”
Earlier, Director General, FEMA, Dr. Abbas Idriss, said the Agency has a lot of challenges, especially at this season when there is a lot of fire outbreak in markets.
Idriss also called on managers of markets to stop people from sleeping in markets across the FCT, as they contribute to incessant fire outbreaks, that led to the loss of lives and properties.
“We have lots of challenges especially at this critical moment of incessant fire incidences especially during the dry season, but we are fully prepared to get more capacity building in order to promptly respond to emergency situations.
“At the end of this workshop, we should be able come up with a strategy that would map out all what is expected of us as an agency, to ensure that we really prevent fire outbreak from occuring, and if not, we should be able to mitigate it from escalating further.
“We are calling on all residents that they should follow the protocol and maintain safety consciousness to ensure that they put off all their appliances whenever they are not using them.
“So, we are carrying out that campaign, and in case of any emergency, people should not hesitate to call the 112 emergency toll free line, so that they can get prompt response, as it is working 24/7, “ the FEMA boss added.
PIAK
