Minna – Prof. Godwin Nsofor of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, has called on government at all levels to evolve basic community participation in the management of disasters.
Nsofor, who is a lecturer with the Department of Geography, made this call on Saturday at a-one-day stakeholders’ workshop in Minna.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the validation workshop on participatory disaster, vulnerability analysis and risk assessment for informed policy, was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme.
He said that involving affected persons or communities in tackling issue of disaster affecting them would ensure better management of the development.
“Basic public community participation will tackle the challenges of disaster management in the country.
“All the stakeholders, including government at all levels, the public and the affected people must be involved in better management of disaster,’’ he said.
The don, who was a resource person at the workshop, enjoined government to make resources available to stakeholders including those affected, as they might have the answer to their problems.
“They are directly affected, they know how it started and how it affects them, so better solution may come from them,’’ he said.
He explained that the bottom to top approach involved tackling the problem from the affected people to government level.
The don expressed reservations for the current method whereby only the government had been providing relief materials for them.
Nsofor noted that corruption in both public and private sectors was one the impediments of disaster management in the country.
He decried a situation where the resources of government meant to cushion the effects of disasters ended up in private coffers or got misappropriated.
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“So government must do everything possible to tackle corruption to ensure that our systems work properly,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Dr Abdul Husaini, Town Planner/Geo-Spatial analyst, said that the management of disasters was everybody’s business, hence the participatory method to ensure lasting solution to the problem.
“If you construct drainage systems without letting the beneficiaries to know how to use them, they may decide to throw refuse in the drains, thereby blocking the system and causing flooding,’’ he said.
Husaini urged government authorities to ensure that the various ministries, departments and agencies saddled with the responsibility of managing disasters, were effective in discharging their duties.(NAN)