- By Demola Atobaba, Ado-Ekiti
Following the decentralisation of the statutory operations of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) by the Federal Government, the Ekiti State Government, has described the major shake up as a dexterous and timely way of boosting emergency management mechanism across Nigeria.
The state government added that federal government’s establishment of Zonal Directorates across the six geopolitical zones of the country, was one policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that will make NEMA more effective in the discharge of its onerous tasks.
The Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye, said these on Tuesday, while receiving the ZONAL Director of NEMA, Southwest, Mr. Stephen Adewale, in her office in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State Capital.
The Deputy Governor, in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Victor Ogunje, commended President Tinubu for that apt and timely restructuring, saying this would help in expeditious handling of issues of disasters bothering the states.
Mrs Afuye pledged unalloyed support of her principal, Governor Biodun Oyebanji to NEMA, assuring that the federal agency and its State counterpart; Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency will collaborate to handle issues of disasters holistically and in more professional fashion.
Commending the federal government for lending supports to victims of disasters in the past, the Deputy Governor, called on the agency to quickly release the pending relief materials due to the state to expand the scope of benefit to more citizens.
“Let me on behalf of the Ekiti State Government thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for carrying out this restructuring. It will ease the rigour we used to face in dealing with disaster matters.
“Now that we have Zonal Directors in Ibadan and Head of Operations, Ekiti/Ondo in Akure, we can easily run to them while experiencing delay in the handling of administration of disaster matters relating to Ekiti.
“Ekiti is still having 2023 outstanding relief materials with NEMA that are yet to be released, with this restructuring, we are hoping that they will be released timely, while also looking up to the ones that we will request for in the future”.
In his submission, the NEMA ‘s Southwest Zonal Director, Mr. Adewale, said the restructuring was undertaken in such a fashion that each geopolitical enclave of the country now has a Zonal Director to oversee its affairs .
Adewale revealed that it was intended to engender quicker decision making process in the handling of disaster issues, for better delivery to Nigerians.
“We are on a courtesy visit and to tell you that major restructuring had taken place in NEMA. Each zone now has a Director to be in charge in all the six zones. This is for the purpose of quick decision making in disaster management process.
“We want to simplify the process by bringing administration closer to the states, instead of reporting to the Director General’s office in Abuja. We know dealing with Abuja directly might be cumbersome.
“Disaster management is a job that requires collaboration. NEMA can’t do it alone, we need the support of the state governments and security agencies”, he stated.
