The Director Gener­al of the National Emergency Man­agement Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Abeeb Muhammed, has said explained why state governments should be held accountable for the flooding disasters ravaging their communities and farmlands.

He noted that the refusal of state gover­nors to heed its warnings of impending floods in 2022 caused the natural disaster in parts of the country.

He also raised the alarm of flooding incidents in 2023.

The NEMA boss made the allegation before the Senate Committee on Special Duties headed by Senator Yusuf Yusuf (APC Taraba State), to defend the 2023 budget pro­posal of his agency.

He advised that govern­ments at all levels should brace up for the challenges ahead by establishing local emergency committees to mitigate the impacts of flood­ing and other disasters across the country.

“Despite the fact that states are collecting ecological and other intervention funds from the Federal Govern­ment, some of them could not boost the standing commit­tees on disaster management and when there is a disaster, they look up to the Federal Government for assistance,” he said.

He added, “Prior to the 2022 flood disaster, NEMA wrote about four letters to all states of the federation on the need to set up a local emergency committees to mitigate the impact of floods but to our surprise, only four states heeded the advice.”

The NEMA chief disclosed a bottom-up approach in di­saster management where the local government is the first respondent followed by the state and if it is beyond what the state can handle, the Federal Government can then come on board.

“But it is surprising that if there is any disaster, local governments and states look up to NEMA without first providing preliminary sup­port and the manpower and resources at the disposal of NEMA is nothing to write home about.

Even what happened in Bayelsa and other states in terms of ca­sualties can be prevented or minimised if proper arrange­ments were made,” he said.

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