That NEMA’s Parley with Kano and Jigawa Stakeholders on Disaster Management

That NEMA’s Parley with Kano and Jigawa Stakeholders on Disaster Management

By MUKHTAR Ya’u Madobi

Thursday, the 15th of June, 2023, continued to remain a turning point towards rolling out plans on how to avert environmental disasters and emergency situations, across some Northwestern states in Nigeria.

It was an epoch-making event, as the Kano-Jigawa branch of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) organized and facilitated a one-day workshop and interactive session with journalists and spokespersons of response agencies of Kano and Jigawa States, on the role of media/reporting in disaster management.

The stakeholders that graced the occasion from the two states include representatives from media organizations, NEMA, Road Safety, Red Cross, Fire Service, Academics, Subject Matter Experts, State Emergency Management Agency(SEMA), NSCDC, and NIMET.

No doubt, organizing such kind of engagement is a testimony that NEMA is at the forefront towards delivering and achieving its mandate of managing disaster and risks in Nigeria.

Recall that NEMA was established via Act 12 as amended by Act 50 of 1999, to manage disasters in Nigeria. Therefore, from inception, NEMA has been tackling disaster related issues through the establishment of concrete structures and measures. Such measures as the education of the public in order to raise their level of awareness and reduce the effects of disasters in the country.

The central goal of the workshop was to entrench and strengthen inter-agency relationship, collaboration and effective and timely information sharing on disaster management among the respective institutions and stakeholders in Kano and Jigawa States.

It also aimed at allowing the media to be at the forefront of disaster management by promoting disaster risk reduction in order to create atmosphere for experience sharing, cross-fertilization of ideas that will drive the media to become the agent in sensitizing the general public and extend early warning information on the menace of flooding in particular and risks and disaster management in general.

A series of rigorous and vital activities ensued during the workshop which started with featuring opening remarks by TC NEMA KTO, goodwill messages from Red Cross Kano, Road Safety, NUJ Chairman, representatives of SEMA for Kano and Jigawa respectively.

Next on the line were a series of paper presentations on risk and disaster management as well as developmental journalism and sensitive reporting from experts across the fields accordingly.

In that regard , Umar Shitu Madigawa of NEMA KTO opened the floor with his paper on “Basic Concept of Disaster Management and Definitions of Key Terminologies.” He was able to rejig the memories of the attending participants on the distinct meaning of various terms used to qualify a situation around the circle of emergencies, disasters and risks issues.

Also, Suleiman Sa’ad Abubakar, the Head HRM, Kano Territorial Office of NEMA was the next on the line who graced the audience with his marvelous paperwork presentation of great value.

The paper titled; “An Overview of some Existing Disaster Response Plans” dwells on providing insight on the institutions involved in emergency response in Nigeria, their mandates as well as the existing plans they put in place in realizing such goals.

Furthermore, Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi of PRNigeria Center presented a paper on “Humanitarian Journalism and Conflict Sensitive Reporting.”

He was able to highlight how media practitioners should prioritize providing reports that will lead to solution of humanitarian crises which emanated as a result of environmental disasters such as flooding, or violence such as war, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping as well as farmers-herders’ clashes that has been persistent in some parts of Nigeria.

The final presentation witnessed a paper delivered by the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, Malam Yushau A. Shuaib who is a media guru and Public Relations (PR) expert of highly repute.

His paper titled; “Crisis Management: Between PR and Journalism” centered on sensitizing PR Officers of response agencies and media personnel towards achieving a robust and healthy synergy aimed at discharging their duties to the public.

Malam Yusha’u A. Shu’aib also identified promoting public Awareness, shaping public opinion and influencing decisions, as major objectives of the media.

Meanwhile, deliberations and plenary sessions were moderated by Mallam Musa D. Abdullahi, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Red Cross, Kano Branch.

The critical issues discussed included (i) Inaccurate conflict reporting in relation to disaster management (ii) Conflicting media report with the information from the disaster managers and agencies (iii) Accessibility of disaster information by media actors (iv) Inefficient inter-agency collaboration (v) Timely information sharing and humanitarian journalism and (vi) Disaster management in journalism among others.

At the end of the workshop and interactive sessions, the participants and critical stakeholders in disaster management in Kano and Jigawa States outlined several recommendations including: that the workshop was timely and pivotal to effective and efficient inter-agency information sharing at a time of increasing disaster in the country; the early warning signal and information sharing should be strengthened and state governments should take seriously the early warning signals from the Response Agencies by implementing measures necessary to avert disasters.

It was also recommended that media should be accountable, responsible and sensitive to reporting disaster issues and journalists should verify their facts from the PROs of Response Agencies for accuracy before going to press.

Nevertheless, implementation of the above recommendations properly will help greatly in mitigating and managing environmental disasters in Nigeria.

And with this kind of engagements, it is obvious that the NEMA is taking the role and doing a good job as the lead agency responsible for managing risks and disasters in Nigeria.

MUKHTAR, is the author of a book on “National Security Strategy.” He is a Staff Writer with the Emergency Digest and wrote from Kano via [email protected]