The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has sensitised traders at Census Market, Surulere, Lagos, on the need to prevent disaster before it occurs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sensitisation exercise was led by NEMA NYSC Vanguard on Tuesday in Lagos.
The NEMA NYSC Vanguard is made up of corps members serving with NEMA, who mobilsed other colleagues for the exercise.
Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, Coordinator, NEMA Territorial Office, Lagos, said the principle of disaster risk reduction was bottom-up; starting from the grassroots to the highest level.
Farimloye said the essence of inculcating principles of disaster risk reduction at the grassroots level was to create and build the resilience of Nigerians against disasters.
He noted that the incidence of flooding and fire disaster in recent past could have been reduced drastically if the capacity and resilience of Nigerians had been built up.
He said the rainfall pattern early in the year was a pointer to what to expect in the coming months due to the impact of climate change.
“So, there is need for us to move out and embark on comprehensive sensitisation by youth based organisations.
“That is why the federal government and NEMA gave us the directive to mobilise the youth as much as we can.
“The grassroots people, the market men, all of them will be engaged in one way or the other in the sensitisation exercise,” Farinloye said.
He said the traders were taught proper waste disposal procedures and the need to keep their environment clean in a sustainable manner.
Also Speaking, Mr Adesekola Kabirah, the Schedule Officer for NEMA NYSC Vanguard, Lagos, noted that the exercise was to drive home proactive measures to be adopted before any emergency occurred.
Kabirah said the partnership with NEMA had gone a long way, adding that the interaction with traders at the market was important and timely.
The Vice President of NEMA Youth Vanguard, Mr Obi Success, underscored the importance of preventing emergencies before they occured.
Success advised the market traders to cultivate the habit of proper waste management to prevent flooding.
He urged them to ensure that they turned off their electrical appliances when not in use to prevent power surge due to high voltage.
The Iya Loja of the market, Alhaja Balikis Balogun, expressed gratitude to the NEMA team for bringing home the sensitisation on disaster risk reduction.
Represented by the Chairman of Census Market, Adeagbo Muftau, the Iyaloja pledged the cooperation of the traders in tidying the market and its environment.
One of the traders, simply identified as mama Nkechi, appealed to the state government to return the monthly environmental sanitation programme to the state.
NAN further reports that to practice what they preached, the NEMA Vanguard team carried out a clean up exercise at the market. (NAN)
By Fabian Ekeruche
