Nigeria Content Online

In the last one
week, there has been two oil spills in Qua Iboe, Akwa Ibom state; and
three oil spills in Bayelsa State. In both cases the federal government
has not moved to remedy the situation.

However, yesterday
in Abuja, far away from the spills, key players in the emergency
management sector in Nigeria held a conference to access the access
level of preparedness of the government to handle such emergencies. The
general consensus showed that they were not satisfied with their
performances, but they all blamed it on either lack of funds or
political will on the part of the government to properly handle
emergency situations. Participants at the conference, which was
organised by the senate committee on environment, called for a greater
political will and more funding by the federal government to emergency
management sector.

“We haven’t got a
plan yet,” the senate president, David Mark, said while declaring the
conference open. He added that the country currently have no plan for
emergency management due to lack of political will by the government.
He cited the long standing oil spillage and soil degradation in the
Niger Delta as examples. “We have all that it takes to handle
environmental problems but we do not have the will power,” he said. “It
is not enough to sign agreements and be signatory to international
conventions, but we need to start see how they can be translated into
practical realities. I think all the stakeholders need to come together
with a working plan that will address the problems of environment.”

However, he
expressed concern over series of seminars and conferences organized in
the country without meaningful results and saying it was time for
action and less of the speeches in conferences. “The issue here today
is when something suddenly goes wrong,” he said. “We must seriously
address how to coordinate activities of the response agencies to meet
the emergencies.”

Dire consequences

Grace Bent (PDP
Adamawa state), chairperson of the organising committee added that
developing countries like Nigeria suffer immensely from disaster and
uncontrolled emergencies