Alhaji Idriss Abass is the Director General FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He speaks to PAUL OKAH on the agency’s intervention in disaster management within the FCT, perennial flooding in Lokogoma, a suburb of Abuja, the issue of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Abuja among other issues.
How would you assess FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as regards delivering on its mandate?
We have responded to so many things, from bomb blast to building collapse, communal clashes, fire outbreak, flooding, road crashes, among others.
We have also sensitised the public on the dos and don’ts, especially before, during, and after floods. People are getting used to that.
We also work in collaboration with all stakeholders. We leverage on the comparative advantages other agencies have; to ensure that we keep FCT very safe. We keep sensitising ourselves and improving on the mutual benefits between the stakeholders and other collaborators.
We don’t believe in doing things alone. We believe we can do things better working with others and in a very effective and efficient way.
We also emphasis on disaster risks reduction. Our main thrust here is on disaster prevention and the way you can prevent disaster is through preparedness and disaster reduction measures. We have adopted all the disaster reduction measures that we think can work for us and de-emphasis relief. If you go to our warehouses, you can’t see relief materials kept there. Our own assumption is that, with the enlightenment we are creating, we are trying as much as possible to eliminate disaster, so we do away with anything relief material.
Relief is the last resort; where we cannot overcome the situation and you can only achieve that through disaster risk measures. One of the disaster risk reduction measures is the federal government’s intervention by installing the emergency communication centre, which is housing the 112 toll free emergency number. That is a great achievement and it is targeted towards life-saving methods and ease of response to distress calls.
Now, we want to go ahead and ensure that we put our ambulances strategically in the city to ensure that whenever you call the 112 toll free emergency number, our dispatchers from the 112 will easily track your location and direct such call to the nearest ambulance bay that will easily give hope to that distress caller. We are doing that and very soon we will see how we are going to station our ambulances in all parts of the FCT.
So, what are your achievements since assuming office in 2013?
Well, I am the pioneer DG of FEMA. The first thing I can say we achieved is the establishment of this agency and bringing it to what it is today. I was appointed without an office, no staff, no equipment, and no cars, others. It was just an appointment letter and I had to struggle to make sure we find a place we can work.
Fortunately, we were able to sit up, populate the agency and commence operations immediately; despite all the challenges. The second achievement is the awareness we created to sensitise the public and even government machineries on our mandate.
It is not everybody that knows about the mandate that established FEMA. Some people get confused between FEMA and NEMA, but we have different mandates altogether. NEMA is in charge at the national level and they are the secondary responders; while we are at the state or FCT level. We are the primary responders, but many people didn’t know that.
Apart from that, we try as much as possible to also modernise our operations, especially with regards to fire prevention and rescue. Many people believe that fire service is just to extinguish fire, but it goes beyond that, so we had to make sure that even the firemen are on their toes; to ensure that they work beyond the conventional or traditional method.
We also try to improve on the communication between ourselves, because rescue workers are supposed to have seamless communication system. They can work with and create alternatives, where possible, in case this fails another works, as it were. So, the two-way communication system as well as other methods of communication using the latest software was adopted.
In the FCT, Lokogoma appears to be the most affected in terms of flooding. What is the agency doing about this?
Lokogoma has a peculiar problem. It is rather an artificial problem. It is not a natural problem, but lack of infrastructure. The infrastructure is supposed to be put in place by the developers. They just sold the land without putting the engineering infrastructure, knowing full well that Lokogoma is surrounded by a river. It is an issue of total negligence by the developers and it was not the responsibility of FCTA at that particular time, because the land was allocated on the basis of mass housing.
The concept of mass housing requires the developer to put the engineering infrastructure before selling the land. However, they built indiscriminately, that is why you see that the FCT Administration has gone there to remove all those structures. It requires total restructuring.
In fact, our own recommendation to the management was to entirely phase out Lokogoma at the moment; so that they can put a solid foundation. Put infrastructure in place and do a new layout on that land, otherwise, we will have consistent problems in Lokogoma because there is no way you can solve the problem in Lokogoma without putting the engineering infrastructure in place.
Wouldn’t that amount to displacing residents?
Well, it is better to have temporary displacement than to lose lives as well as property. We have been losing lives in Lokogoma and I don’t think we are ready to continue losing lives.
No type of building in Lokogoma is worth a human life to us. So, instead of living in that kind of situation, it is better to create a temporary displacement and put the place in order.
So, do have plans for palliatives or compensation residents?
What type of palliative do you want to give to those who are illegally occupying an environment? There is no way you can give palliative, apart from putting infrastructure in that place. You can’t just go and create one culvert and say you have solved the problem of Lokogoma. It requires entire restructuring.
In fact, residents of Lokogoma have even accepted the measures taken by the FCTA, because they are living in fear. You can’t sleep with your eyes closed, especially when it is raining. This is out of fear of your house being swept away in the flood. So, the best thing is to do a solid foundation for everybody to save lives and property.
How has FEMA intervened in the plight of IDPs in Abuja, especially New Kuchingoro and Karamajiji?
I want to correct an impression; we don’t have IDPs camps in the FCT. New Kuchingoro and Karamajiji are just settlements, private settlements. There is no camp in the FCT. Therefore, you can’t tell me that there are IDPs in Abuja. We no longer have IDPs here.
When IDPs first came to Abuja, they were discovered by missionaries and brought to our knowledge. We moved in there to see who they were. They told us they are from the North-east and we sympathized with them, profiled them and brought stakeholders one by one.
We brought the FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat to come and screen all the adults to find out their health status. We brought the Primary Healthcare Agency to screen the children and pregnant women. We have done all we could to see if we can manage them very well.
We invited NGOs, international organizations and kept maintaining them. In fact, the Minister of the FCT, Malam Musa Bello, graciously approved free medical care for all of them. They were going to Wuse General Hospital and Asokoro General Hospital. We were giving free ante natal care to the pregnant women.
We enrolled the children of the IDPs into public schools. There are more than 2,000 now. As at today, Wednesday, September 25, 2019, the enrolment team have gone out, because this is a new school session and we have also invited other stakeholders who donated books, uniforms and some even paid school fees for some of the children that pay school fees.
After profiling them, we then went ahead to invite our sister organisations in their states of origin, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in the North-east to come and take them home.
We told SEMA in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba states that we have their people here and that it is high time to move them. Since there are camps set up for them in the North-east we cannot set up camp for them here. You will agree with me that by the time we set up camps here, everybody in the north-east will rush to Abuja. So, it was deliberate.
Secondly, it is against the international standard to set up camp far away from the scene of displacement, because camp is a temporary settlement. You put people in camp not to stay long. What they were experiencing is against international standard, but it is due to the circumstances we found ourselves. When we contacted the SEMA in the different states they said as far as they were concerned, all their IDPs were in the North-east, that anybody still in Abuja is not their IDP. So, for that reason, we kept managing them. We have also sensitised them.
Are you getting help from foreign bodies?
When the whole attention was turned from Abuja to the North-east the development partners moved to the North-east. Nobody is here now. If you go to UN agencies, DFID or any of the organisations and tell them that you want to help IDPS in Abuja, they will tell you that they don’t do anything here, because there is no budget for Abuja. All their budgets have gone back to the North-east.
So, we have advised them to move back to their different states, that government is reconstructing their villages. By the time they profile those in the IDPS camps in the North-east and your name is not there, they will share those houses to the IDPS living in the North-east. They will assume that anyone not living in that area is dead.
Why don’t they want to go back?
Well, we advised them to go back home, but they are still living here. Nevertheless, NGOs are helping them. We are still helping them, like I told you about the school enrolment and free medical care.
Also, from time to time, we still solicit for donor agencies and give them food items, but there is a limit to which you can keep an IDP. We are hoping we will have peace in the whole country, but we cannot chase them out of the city. Constitutionally, they have the right to stay anywhere, wherever they are, but they are not to be regarded as IDPs and there are certain privileges they will not get. For instance, if I leave my state and go to another state, I have the right to buy a house and live there, but there are certain privileges they will deny me. In some states if you are not an indigene you will pay tuition fee, but not in the FCT. They have all those privileges and can enjoy and we cannot ask them to go.
However, one thing that baffles us is that anytime somebody asks them they will say that they are IDPs and that government has neglected them. But government has provided security for them. There is 24-hour security coverage in Kuchingoro settlement, both uniform and plain cloth security. They are always monitoring and ensuring their safety.
Even if we stop at that, hasn’t government done something for them? When you ask them, they will say they have not benefited anything. We have been giving their children education and medical care, yet they say that government is neglecting them. To me, it is a sign of ingratitude. Honestly, they are not grateful for what government is doing for them. As far as I am concerned, they are just Nigerian citizens and not IDPs, because all IDPs have been moved to their respective states in the North-east.
What advice do you have for disaster victims?
Well, we are still expecting heavy flooding, so it is not yet over until it is over. God in his own wisdom may avert it, but according to the stages, based on historical perspective, we are expecting a river flooding that is coming from eight countries to join Nigeria to make it nine. The water will run through River Niger and River Benue and they will all discharge at Lokoja. It reached Niger as at last week. So, we are hoping that God will intervene.
We are calling on the general public to be aware of the prediction. If there is anything like that, they should not take it or treat it with kid glove. They should always report such incident using the 112 emergency toll free lines for quick responses.
If there is early warning for people to evacuate their residence, they should obey. A stitch in time saves nine. When you have flowing water whether you are driving a jeep or trailer, park for a while and allow the water to pass. We should never drive into flowing water.
Parents should also advice their children against going to any stream to swim, because by the time the water comes and overpowers them nobody may be there. We had an incident at Jikwoyi last week. Two young guys from the same family lost their lives, because they went into a stream to bath and water flowed in a capacity they could not cope. We recovered their bodies the next day. So, parents should watch and make sure they know where their children are at every point, especially during rainy season.
We should avoid anything that could cause environmental degradation, building on waterways, blocking waterways, building on flood prone areas, and green areas lead to urban flooding in any settlement.
In a nutshell, people should call 112 in any emergency situation and we will always come to their rescue.
