allAfrica.com: Nigeria: The Armed Forces and Challenge of Emergency Management (Page 1 of 2)

Disasters have become an inevitable reality in the interplay and interaction of man with his environment. Whether they are man-made or natural, disasters always impact negatively on the human society in the way they indiscriminately affect its members.

It is, therefore, in the hope to attenuate the impact of those crises that every responsible society or nation puts proactive sustainable machineries for disaster and crisis management in place.

In that light, the recently-held five-day seminar on National Crisis and Emergency Management hosted by the Defence Ministry in collaboration with Plus Factor International Limited and the Israeli National Crisis Response Team, could not have come at a better time, especially as it was taking place when the Armed Forces of other nations were at the pivot of the management of emergencies and disasters that had befallen them. Through global telecasts and the Internet, the whole world became first-hand witnesses to the valiant efforts of the armed forces in China and Burma in rescue efforts and disaster management as aftermath of the natural disasters that hit those countries.

Disaster and crises management has been at its deplorable state in Nigeria, with the result that Nigerians had merely depended on the unprecedented love which the Almighty God has lavished on the country, because somehow, Nigeria has been spared the disasters of the horrendous dimensions that have been experienced by other nations of the world. In spite of this divine benevolence, the few times that Nigeria had been tested, it had been found abysmally wanting.

National failures in that regard had manifested in the inability of being able to rescue over 200 military officers that were trapped in a C-130 aircraft that plunged into the swamp on the outskirts of Lagos in 1992, as well as the fact that at this time in our national development, Nigeria is still unable to locate an aircraft that suddenly 'disappeared' from its skies. The litany of our failures in the management of such crises is long and unacceptable.

That the Defence Ministry has decided to set in motion machineries to change the deplorable situation is worthy of commendation even as it is of greater importance to call on the governments at different tiers to ensure that the resolutions of that seminar should not as usual be allowed to accumulate dust on shelves.

Significantly, the Armed Forces of every nation remain the last bastion in the defence and protection of the welfare and wellbeing of the citizens, and consequently, in modern statecraft, the military wage more wars internally than with external enemies. And, in this case, the challenges posed to the military by natural and other forms of emergencies are even more daunting because these disasters are usually unexpected and it is only through conscious and proactive preparedness that those challenges could be effectively tackled.

While the issue of disaster management should be holistically handled at different levels of the polity, it is important that the Nigerian military has taken the initiative of drawing attention to the need for sustainable preparation and coordinated actions. It is in that light that the Defence Minister, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, put this fact in a clear and unambiguous perspective in his keynote address at the seminar.

According to him, "experience has shown that virile and well-positioned Armed Forces would not only respond to emergencies promptly, but would also be able to identify and nip in the bud potential crises before they emerge". He, therefore, requested the private sector to partner effectively with the Defence Ministry in the support of his efforts "to prepare the Armed Forces for such roles".

Still stressing this special place of the Armed Forces in tackling the disaster management challenge, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Owoye Andrew Azazi pointed out that, "One of the most vital organisations any nation can use in crisis or disaster management is its Armed Forces". He explained further that this is so because, "... the military has a highly integrated administrative, logistic and command capability to respond promptly to disasters or crises and even rehearse them". The communiqué that emerged at the end of the exciting seminar captured these issues that had been put in perspective by the defence chiefs, especially as the seminar drew from the in-depth and cognate experience of the Israelis whose armed forces are said to be one of the most creative in the world.

It was proposed that crisis/disaster management should involve a practical coordination between agencies at all levels and that state and local governments should establish and create their own management preparedness agencies in line with the provisions of the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) Act. The communiqué also stressed the need for advocacy, awareness campaigns and information sharing amongst the different agencies and general public, and that this should include such mechanisms as the establishment of a reliable information facility such as special dedicated encrypted national emergency telephone numbers. It was, therefore, logical for them to also propose for the use of the media, both print and electronic for mass sensitisation.

They also proposed adequate funding of all disaster and crisis management preparation activities at all levels and to that extent, the Disaster Response Units, should be adequately funded through a regular budgetary framework to enable them to begin to acquire the requisite equipment. It was also proposed that the review of the National Response Plan should bring up a standard operating procedure for the various stakeholders.

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