Vice President Kashim Shettima has directed the immediate activation of a national early warning and coordination platform to strengthen coordination and ensure early action against flooding across the country as the rainy season intensifies.
Shettima, who chairs the Anticipatory Action Task Force (AATF), gave the directive Thursday at a meeting of the task force at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where he told the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant agencies to review and update their budgets in line with approved allocations and establish clear implementation priorities.
He said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration was committed to preventing disasters before they occur, stressing that preparedness, coordination, and early action must become the country’s standard approach to managing flood and climate-related risks.
He said preparedness, coordination, and early action must become the standard practice of how risk is governed in the country.
Shettima observed that while climate and disaster risks are becoming more frequent and more severe every passing season, government’s responsibility should no longer be confined to responding only when emergencies arrive.
“We are called to act early, to reduce losses before they multiply, and to protect vulnerable communities before crises unfold around them,” he stated.
The vice president maintained that Nigeria needs an institutional mechanism that enables the nation to anticipate hazards, consolidate data, coordinate decisions, and activate action before emergencies escalate beyond our reach.
“I am directing that technical consultations begin at once to operationalise the Fusion and Trigger Room concept within NEMA as a national platform for coordination and early action. This platform should anchor our monitoring, our forecasting, the activation of triggers, the coordination across agencies, and the decisions that follow from them,” he explained.
The Vice President also asked NEMA and other relevant agencies as well as technical teams “to review and update the budget immediately in line with approved allocations and to establish clear priorities for implementation.”
VP Shettima implored them to “work closely together to expedite the release and deployment of approved resources and to ensure that implementation timelines are never held hostage by administrative delay.”
Insisting on proactive preparedness, the VP said, “Anticipatory action, therefore, rises or falls on speed and readiness. Resources intended for preparedness and early response must be available at the precise moment they are required.
“To wait until disaster strikes before releasing what we have already approved is to defeat the very purpose of acting early. I am therefore directing the relevant institutions to work closely together to expedite the release and deployment of approved resources and to ensure that implementation timelines are never held hostage by administrative delay.”
Addressing the issue of political support and state participation, the vice president implored the 36 state governments to participate actively, noting that preparedness cannot succeed without ownership at the subnational level.
Earlier, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, said the approval of funds by the government for the anticipatory action on floods was a timely and bold step in the right direction.
He also emphasised the need for the implementation of proposed programmes and activities under the anticipatory action on floods to be centrally coordinated, leveraging the existing national social register and digital payment platforms and working in collaboration with the subnational.
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr Mohamed Fall, commended President Tinubu and the Nigerian government for the approval of funds for the anticipatory action on floods.
Fall noted that it was a demonstration of political commitment, national ownership, and practical action by Nigeria.
He said that investing in anticipatory action is both a smart move and an investment for the future, stressing that “several communities, lives, and livelihoods have been saved in instances where preventive actions were taken.”
His words: “On behalf of development partners, I want to express our gratitude to Nigeria for always showing the way. I always say that whenever Nigeria does something of this magnitude, it serves as a blueprint for the rest of the continent; that is why the approval for this anticipatory action is so significant to us all.”
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mrs. Zubaida Umar, said the funds approved by the NEC will not only prevent loss of lives but also safeguard livelihoods.
She said NEMA is prioritising affected areas and has earlier issued early warning signals.
The National Economic Council (NEC) had, in their last meeting, approved a ₦83.2 billion intervention fund for the task.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
