FG moves to curb flood disasters, climate-induced crises

By Salisu Sani-Idris

The Federal Government has taken proactive steps to prevent flooding through strategic measures to enhance disaster preparedness and risk management across the country.

Vice-President Kashim Shettima, said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of Nigeria’s Anticipatory Action Framework, designed to shift disaster management from reactive responses to proactive preparedness.

Shettima described the framework as a timely intervention to confront the rising threats of climate-induced disasters such as floods, which affected over five million Nigerians in 2024.

He said; “These disasters are no longer distant threats.

“They are here, knocking at our doors, sweeping through our streets, flooding our homes, and testing not only our moral sensitivity but the depth of our preparation.”

The vice-president stressed the urgent need to dump the costly and inadequate reactive approaches to disasters for a more proactive measures.

He said, ” For decades, our response has been reactive. We wait for the waters to rise, for the homes to vanish, and then we scramble for relief.

” This late arrival of support costs more and saves fewer lives. We lose close to five per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year to reactive disaster response.

” This approach is not only unsustainable, it is also deeply unjust to the most vulnerable among us.

“This is why we must act before disasters unfold.”

Shettima explained that the new framework was built on three strategic pillars, including early warning systems powered by satellite technology and delivered through community-based networks to provide life-saving information in real time.

“The second is pre-triggered financing. No plan can succeed without resources made available before the storm arrives. The third is localised preparedness.

“Studies have shown that anticipatory action can reduce losses by up to 60 per cent.

“That is not just a statistic. It is hope. It is the future of millions salvaged before ruin,” he added.

Shettima drew instances from Benue  where trained volunteers, responding to early warning alerts, evacuated over 80,000 people within 72 hours.

“That is what it means to build early warning systems that work.

“It’s not just about integrating forecasting tools, but delivering timely alerts in languages our people understand.

“We cannot leave here with only communiqués and good intentions.

“We must take ownership of this framework, embed it into our institutions, and stay accountable to its promise, ” he said.

Earlier, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, said President Bola Tinubu’s administration was committed to supporting the operationalisation of the Anticipatory Action Framework for Nigeria.

He stressed the need for response agencies and intervention organisations to utilise the National Social Register to lay the foundation for a flood-resistant nation.

The minister, who said that the register was a national resilience infrastructure, recommended the enactment of a risk management and data sharing protocol.

He also empahaised the need for the establishment of a national risk and sustainable coordination centre, early funding for anticipatory actions, and the deployment of technology.

According to Shettima, this is to enable real-time monitoring of situations across the country.

Also, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, commended Nigeria for taking the bold step in leading the institutionalisation of coordinated humanitarian response to disasters in the region.

According to him, the rest of West Africa is looking up to what is being done in Nigeria, as successes recorded in the country will permeate the rest of the region.

On her part, Mrs Inna Audu, Special Assistant to the President on Humanitarian Affairs and Development Partners, said the workshop was designed to accelerate the country’s journey towards a national early warning system.

She said that  Tinubu and  Shettima were deeply committed to building a disaster-resilient Nigeria.

She stressed that the time for piecemeal responses was over and that stakeholders must shift to systems thinking where data, people, and policies were interconnected, and where foresight guides interventions. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)