Why we don’t respond timely to emergencies, by NEMA

The Head, Gombe Operational Office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Simon Katu, has explained that lack of resources prevents the agency from making it to disaster scenes in the target 20 minutes.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting organised for journalists in Bauchi yesterday, Katu said: “We need to let the public know that disaster is not the first thing that happens; we have the risk, hazard, and vulnerability, which result in disaster if the individual or collective resource is overwhelmed.”

Delivering the paper, ‘Disaster Management, Preparedness, and Reporting’, he noted that American disaster managers would respond in five minutes, while Nigeria was targeting 20 minutes, which had not been possible.

NEMA, at the parley organised in partnership with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bauchi State council, described communication as very important in disaster management.