UNICEF trains stakeholders on flooding in North-East

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has concluded a three-day training of stakeholders in North-East on contingency planning to contain envisaged flooding.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the end of the training on Friday in Yola, UNICEF Emergency Specialist Olusoji Adeniyi said the training was to prepare the stakeholders for any emergency on flooding.

He said stakeholders from state emergency management agencies, National Emergency Management Agency and non-governmental organisations, among others, attended the training.

The goal of UNICEF is to make sure that all stakeholders know what need to be done, how it should be done and whether it meets their expectations,’’ Adeniyi said.

He urged the trainees to put into use what they had learnt in the training and cautioned governments against using politicians in handling emergencies when there are trained experts than could handle such situations.

I will appeal to governors and in particular deputy governors that are in charge of state emergency agencies to ensure that the people who had been trained are the ones that will continue to do the job.

Some of the stakeholders who spoke to NAN said they learnt a lot from the training and that it would go a long way in helping them to come up with a standard contingency plan.

The stakeholders are expected to use the knowledge and come up with action plan for their respective states within one week.

States that that participated in the training are Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Jigawa states.