AN ASSESSMENT OF NIGERIA’S INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Abstract

In a bid to ensuring a virile emergency management practice, which would conform to global best practices, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), in 2010, came up with the National Disaster Management Framework (NDMF). The framework was designed among other reasons, to provide jurisdictional responsibilities, promote efficiency and build institutional capacity among the various stakeholders in the area of disaster management. However, since its introduction, the framework is yet to make significant progress in ensuring the provision of effective and efficient institutional capacity especially at the State and Local government levels. Using secondary data, this paper identified some of the reasons for such inadequacy. It argues that the framework lacks full backing of the law to punish non-compliance and non- conformity with its provisions. Also, it identifies poor funding and lack of awareness as other problems affecting the framework. The study concludes that the vision of Nigeria to become one of the top twenty nations of the world in no distant time, would be a mirage if relevant stakeholders do not wake up to their responsibilities and rise to the occasion to ensure the realization of a viable, dynamic, efficient and effective disaster management system. Also, the study advocates the imperative of mainstreaming disaster management education into the curriculum of secondary schools, as well as proper funding as viable strategies of overcoming these challenges.