Press Room

UN Chief drums support for disaster management in Nigeria

The United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination Baroness Valerie Amos has solicited more political will and supports from the government to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to improve on the management of disasters in the country.

Speaking at the NEMA’s head office in Abuja during her working visit to Nigeria at the weekend, Baroness Amos also called on the organized private sector, civil society organizations and grassroot communities to cooperate with the Agency in the effort to boost disaster management in the country by building structures to reduce risk and increase community resilience.
The United Nations Under Secretary General said she was confident that Nigeria was capable of handling most of the disaster issues in the country given necessary supports and cooperation to the organs established for disaster management and to also serve as model for other countries in the region.
She noted that the timely response given to the flood of 2012 which devastated many communities was evidence of progress in disaster management which Nigeria must strive to continuously improve in the face of the increasing global disaster challenges.
Baroness Amos said she was in Nigeria to advocate more political supports to disaster management and visit some locations of the 2012 flood which her office had given some assistance. After the visit, she said the United Nations may consider further assistance where necessary.
The Director General of NEMA Muhammad Sani Sidi who led the management of the Agency in  receiving the top official from the United Nations requested the Under Secretary General to explore the UN system to “develop the capacities of NEMA and SEMAs in terms of acquisition of vital assets, technical training and capacity building.”
He said in the effort to streamline emergency response operations during disasters, NEMA had recently developed eight plans which could be activated and applied according to specific areas of disasters. The Agency, he continued has on behalf of Federal Government of Nigeria provided relief assistance to several African countries, established close cooperation with emergency management and humanitarian actors with other countries.
In addition to the visit to NEMA, the United Nations Under Secretary General Baroness Valerie Amos also met with Vice President Namadi Sambo who is the Chairman of NEMA’s Governing Council at the President Villa.
NEMA had within the week also received the visits of Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) for International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for West Africa Mr Said Djinnit.


Manzo Ezekiel
Press Officer
16th June 2013
08028419313

NEMA Nigeria

All correspondences should be addressed to: Public Relations Division, National Emergency Management Agency, No. 8, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent Maitama, Abuja Email: nemapress@yahoo.com or info@nema.gov.ng

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