The Federal Government has directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Anticipatory Action Task Force (AATF) and other relevant agencies to activate a national coordination platform for early response to flooding.
Vice President Kashim Shettima issued the directive on Thursday during a meeting of the AATF at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The vice-president said the government must move from reactive disaster response to proactive preparedness as the rainy season intensifies across the country.
He directed the immediate operationalisation of the Fusion and Trigger Room concept within NEMA to coordinate flood monitoring, forecasting and emergency response.
His words: “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.”
Shettima directed NEMA, the AATF and other agencies to review their budgets in line with approved allocations and establish clear implementation priorities.
He also asked the agencies to work together to ensure the prompt release and deployment of approved resources.
He said: “Anticipatory Action, therefore, rises or falls on speed and readiness. 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.”
The vice-president said climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, adding that government must anticipate risks rather than respond after emergencies occur.
“We are called to act early, to reduce losses before they multiply, and to protect vulnerable communities before crises unfold around them,” he said.
Shettima also urged state governments to take ownership of flood preparedness and response efforts, saying: “I call on our State Governors and state institutions to participate actively and to lead implementation within their jurisdictions. Federal coordination on its own will never be sufficient.”
Earlier, the Minister of Humanitarian affairs and poverty reduction, Bernard Doro, described the approval of funding for anticipatory flood action as a timely intervention.
Doro said implementation of flood preparedness programmes should be centrally coordinated using the national social register and digital payment platforms in collaboration with state governments.
The United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, commended the federal government for approving funds for anticipatory action on flooding.
Fall said: “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.”
Zubaida Umar, NEMA Director-General, said the intervention fund would help prevent loss of lives and livelihoods, adding that the agency had already issued early warning alerts and prioritised vulnerable communities.
The National Economic Council (NEC) recently approved an intervention fund of ₦83.2 billion to support anticipatory action against flooding across the country.