Editorial
Penultimate week, Imo’s media space was greeted with news of the inauguration of Local Emergency Management Committees across the 27 local government areas in the State. These Committees, it was gathered, are to liaise with the State Emergency Management Agency to attend to issues of flood disaster in the State. .
Sometime this year, the National Metrological Agency (NIMET) had predicted large-scale incidents of flood disasters in the coming months. The Agency had issued an advisory to States in Nigeria,alerting them of the need to put measures in place in order to cushion anticipated harsh effects of the impending flood. One of the cushionary measures the Agency advised to be put in place was the establishment of Local Emergency Management Committees in the 774 local government areas in Nigeria.
The essence of these Committees at the local governments’ level is to ensure immediate response to emergency cases of flood invasion before large-scale intervention from the State and Federal Governments can reach the rural dwellers.
Nigerian Horn is glad to note that Imo State is the first State to implement this directive of setting up Local Emergency Management Committees in the federation. Having set the pace, all States in Nigeria are expected to emulate Imo’s leadership role.
Flood is nobody’s friend. It is a natural disaster that no State or nation may ever wish to encounter. That Imo State has set the pace in setting up modalities to ameliorate its anticipated harsh effects on the people should it occur, is very commendable.
We commend the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, for his bold initiative. It is a generally accepted aphorism that “prevention is better than cure.” The governor, in appreciation of this fact, and desirous to protect the lives and properties of Imo people in the flood prone areas,has set up this Committees.
Nigerian Horn appreciates Imo governor’s foresightedness and hopes others emulate him – for “a stitch in time, saves nine.”
