The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday, engaged stakeholders in emergency management to improve their preparedness and skills in evacuation and safety responses.
The event was part of activities lined up by NEMA, Ibadan Operation Office in commemoration of 2025 Customer Service Week.
Customer service week is an annual celebration, with this year running from Monday, Oct. 6 to Friday 10th Oct. with the theme: “Mission Possible”.
NEMA’s Head of Ibadan Zonal Operation Office, Mr Kadiri Olanrewaju, said the event aimed at deepening synergy among various emergency management agencies, particularly in the area of equipments handling, ideas, manpower and expertise sharing.
Olanrewaju noted that the interactive and safety evacuation drills would further revealed area that each organisation could be of help during emergency management which would lead to effective service delivery.
He noted that activities lined up for the event include, basic drill on how to evacuate victims from scene of incident without causing more harms, basic fire drill, fire extinguisher handling and many more.
“This public interactive session is necessary so that stakeholders will know our areas of competence which will make us all alive to our responsibilities.
“This will also showcase and enlighten the public on what we are doing, what they can do when they need our service, how they can reach us.
“We are meant to serve them, that is why we are trying to make ourselves available and accessible for them.
“We are also training local emergency committee members at local government levels so that we can pass the necessary knowledge to them,”he said
Earlier, NEMA’s Southwest Director, Saheed Akiode, who represented the agency Director-General, Mrs Zubaida Umar, said the agency will assess the agency and other stakeholder’s readiness to respond swiftly and safely to emergencies.
“The cradle of occupational Safety and Health states that “No work is worth doing at the expense of your life.
“As the nation’s apex emergency management agency, we must not only coordinate the external response operations, but also model internal safety best practices.
“We must understand that safety is everyone’s responsibility, not just for safety officers.
“Regular drills and interactive session like this strengthen our preparedness and reduce panic during real incidents, hence the need to take lessons learnt seriously and ensure we integrate them into our daily routine,”the DG said.
Participants at the event were drawn from Federal Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) NEMA, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) and Red Cross Society, among others.
