FG, Red Cross, Others Seek Harmonisation Of Disaster Management

Key players including the Nigerian Red Cross Society and the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, among others, have convened to establish a united front to tackle the challenges posed by uncoordinated disaster responses.

At a pre-disaster consultative meeting in Abuja, they noted that disasters often strike without warning and in the past, the response to them has often been uncoordinated with several agencies duplicating each other’s functions in an unproductive manner.

A statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday said the secretary general of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Abubakar Kende noted that as a national society, they are seeking to strengthen our role as an auxiliary to the Nigerian government.

“We are seeking to enhance coordination as we and our partners, the IFRC collaborate with the various government agencies in the course of our disaster response activities,” he said.

The national legal adviser of the Nigerian Red Cross, Barr Muazu Dikwa said, “We aren’t disrupting any existing law but we are just strengthening our responses during disasters and our role as auxiliary to government agencies in responding to disaster.”

The statement said the purpose of the pre-disaster agreement, is to create a framework for cooperation in disaster preparedness and response, including for public health emergencies, between the government, the Nigerian Red Cross Society and the IFRC in Nigeria.

It said the technical committee will gather and review all existing regulations and legal frameworks for handling disasters at national and subnational levels.

It added that they will review all relevant ways and means of handling disasters and merge them all into a single document.