FACT CHECK: Is Zubaida Umar the First Female DG of NEMA?

Fact Check: Is Zubaida Umar the First Female DG of NEMA? 

Claim: In a press statement announcing Mrs. Zubaida Umar’s appointment as the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Presidential Spokesman Chief Ajuri Ngelale claims she is the first female DG of the pivotal agency. 

Full Text: following the statement, virtually all Nigerian Media platforms have been awash with headlines and reports positioning Mrs Umar as the first female DG of NEMA. 

“Mrs. Umar is the first woman to be appointed as Director-General of this pivotal agency, and her appointment further underlines the President’s avowed commitment to gender inclusion,” says Ngelale in one of the reports. Other reports can be seen here, here, here, here, here and here among many others. 

The statement further states that the new Director-General of NEMA has over 20 years of work experience in diverse fields, including Human Resources, and Finance and Administration. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and the Institute of Credit Administration.

Verification: when an anonymous source tipped off PRNigeria fact check desk with a terse message, “Ajuri is incorrect in his assertion that this woman is the first to be appointed DG of NEMA,” PRNigeria fact check decided to look it via online search engines. 

Findings show that the first DG of the NEMA was a female, Mrs Oluremi Olowu as highlighted in this report by the International Network of Women in Emergency Management (inWEM) and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). 

In 2009 while celebrating NEMA at 10, the Economic Confidential noted that NEMA evolved from the National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA) set up by Decree 48 of 1976. But in 1997, NERA under the leadership of the then Director, Mrs. Oluremi Olowu, organized a National Workshop involving major stakeholders in disaster management in Nigeria including Oil Companies, construction companies, government and non-governmental organisations and representatives of UNDP. The Workshop deliberated extensively on a number of issues and considered several critical success and survival factors for effective disaster Management in Nigeria and came up with a communiqué¨ which:

a) Noted the need to expand the functions of the National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA) to include holistic management of Disasters in the country, to amend the decree setting up NERA and to change the name of the Agency to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

b) Noted the need to structure the new agency along the following areas.

Search and Rescue

Policy and Strategy

Information, Education and

Prevention

Administration, Finance and Logistics

Relief and Rehabilitation

Research and Planning…

By 1998, the same Mrs Olowu of NERA assumed duty as the first DG of NEMA where she served from 1998 to 2002 after which she voluntarily retired to join politics. 

Also, an AllAfrica report curled from Daily Trust on 20th January 2003 announced Mrs Olowu’s successor as follows:

“President Olusegun Obasanjo has approved with immediate effect the appointment of Alhaji Salihu Shuaibu Makarfi as the acting Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

He takes over from Chief (Mrs) Oluremi Olowu, the immediate past Director-General who voluntarily retired last year.”

She reportedly resigned to contest the governorship of Ogun State.

Conclusion: findings based on several online sources revealed the Mrs Oluremi Olowu the first DG of NEMA is also the first female chief executive of the pivotal agency. 

PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim in the statement by Presidential Spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale that Mrs. Zubaida Umar is the first female Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is False. 

By PRNigeria