The management of Mediacraft Associates, in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has urged Nigerians to adequately prepare for disasters and emergencies as a way of reducing their devastating impact in the country.
Mrs. Ajiginni Oluwadamilola, Principal Stock Verification
Officer, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) made the call at the
Mediacraft Associates’ Knowledge Sharing Session themed: “Disaster and
Emergency Management in Nigeria” held at the organisation’s corporate head
office in Magodo GRA, Lagos.
Mrs. Oluwadamilola pointed out that Nigerians often suffer from
man-made disasters or emergencies due to their negligence while citing the
21-Storey Ikoyi building collapse that claimed over 40 lives in Lagos.
In her words: “We have natural disasters and man-made disasters.
The man-made disasters are when occurrences
like floods. In a city like
Lagos, floods are caused by the blockage
of the drainages and who is responsible for that? Human beings. Building
collapse also falls under man-made disasters. This is because the people in
charge fail to use the right quality materials that they are supposed to use
for the building. They don’t go through the right specifications that have been
given to them and that is responsible for some of the building collapse.
However, building collapse can also occur as a natural disaster due to
earthquakes, landslides, tremors, erosion amongst others.”
According to her, emergency and disaster management can be
adequately managed in four major ways which are mitigation, preparedness,
response, and recovery. She noted that mitigation has to do with preventing or
reducing the devastating impact of disasters while preparedness is what you put
in place before disasters occur.
On response, Mrs. Oluwadamilola advised participants at the session
as well as Nigerians at large to always have an emergency response plan to
enable them to mitigate the adverse effect of any disaster.
Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Wale Adedokun, Search and Rescue
Officer, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) lamented that lack of easy
access to areas where disasters occur in Lagos State is one of the major
challenges the agency was grappling with while carrying out its search and
rescue operations.
Responding on behalf the management, Mr. Seun Igbalode, Client Service Director, Mediacraft Associates, noted that the learnings from the event would be used effectively to save lives.
His words: “We are really grateful to you for taking time out to
educate us on disaster and emergency management. They say information is
golden, information is key, you know data is the new gold. There are some
things that we may not know and we may have been neglecting but the knowledge
and education that you have shared with us today will put us in the right way.
Some of the information that you have shared with us here would actually save
lives.”
“We have learned to take emergencies and precautionary measures
much more seriously and the little bit of knowledge that we have learned here,
we will as much as possible try and pass it along. We thank you for the time,
we thank you for the efforts. We also see the good work that you are doing,” Mr.
Igbalode said.
He further pledged the unrelenting support of Mediacraft
Associates to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for the purpose
of saving lives.
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