President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with residents in towns and villages affected by flooding across the country.
The president’s condolence message is contained in a statement by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the president, the Federal Government will keep sending teams to assess the situation with a view to rendering all necessary help.
Buhari expressed concern over the hardships being faced by people due to this natural calamity.
The president noted that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had written to each of the 36 states of the federation through the states’ respective governors advising on the appropriate action to take in view of the gloomy forecasts of the rains this year.
“The structure of the response mechanism on this issue is clear: the government at the centre should step in to directly address national-level emergencies and those local government councils and the states are the first responders in all situations.
“Calls for the federal government to respond to all outbreaks of natural disaster do not just display an understanding of Nigerian law.
“While not a national-level emergency, the ongoing flooding is an emergency nevertheless. Nigerian lives and property are at stake.
“We call on governors of those states that have swung into action and engaged the necessary gear to continue with their efforts, and those that have not, to immediately face their duties of managing the flooding within their jurisdictions,” he said.
According to him, each of the three tiers, (the local government, the state government and the federal government) has a sizeable budget at its disposal, allocated monthly precisely for dealing with these state-level natural emergencies.
The president, however, wondered why some of the state governments in question were not already drawing upon those funds to tackle the current emergency.
“The general population is misguidedly calling on the federal government to intervene in all situations.
“If those moneys are, for whatever reason, no longer available, the affected states and local councils must immediately contact the relevant authorities to explain what has happened with those funds.
“Under the prevailing revenue allocation formula, 2.32 per cent of derivation funds is set aside for ecology and disaster management.
“Of this amount, the 36 states and the FCT get 0.72 per cent, the 774 local governments get 0.6 per cent, adding to 1.32 per cent, leaving a balance of one per cent to the government of the federation,” said the president.
According to him, by the law of land, NEMA takes 20 per cent of the amount allocated to the Federal Government while the North East Development Commission (NEDC) collects 10 per cent and the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) gets 10 per cent.
He said the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (GGW) gets 0.5 per cent, leaving 0.55 of the one per cent to the federal government for ecological protection and disaster management.
The president commended the few states that are up in front, doing a yeoman’s effort averting disasters and managing same where they occur.
He assured that the federal government would continue to work closely with the state governments to provide all possible assistance to overcome this challenge.
The president maintained that the response to emergencies must stand on the three-legged structure.
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