NEMA Boss Warns Staff of Truancy, Indiscipline

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Sunday, August 4th, 2019

From Ignatius Okpara, Enugu

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Mustapha Maihaja, has warned staff of the agency against truancy and all forms of indiscipline, saying they must rededicate themselves towards rendering quality service delivery to the nation and humanity.

Maihaja, who said the organization has zero tolerance for indiscipline stated this weekend in Enugu, during a one day and 2019 NEMA Staff Retreat organized for the agency’s staffers in its Owerri Operations office.

The retreat with the theme: “Re-engineering the Agency for Effective and Pro-Active Disaster Management’’ he said, is aimed at equipping the staff for greater task ahead.

The Director-General, who spoke through, Mr Evans Ugoh, Head, Owerri NEMA Operations Office, stated that “we want you [staff] to be “Change Agents’’ to truly reposition NEMA to greater heights and improved performance.

“Perhaps a good starting point for this retreat might be how do we help deliver on result and target set before us as the country’s humanitarian and disaster management organisation and how best do we improve on our rate of deliverable outputs.

“How do we monitor deliverables placed against our mission and vision for disaster management in Nigeria? “I want to encourage every participant at this retreat to take it very seriously.

According to the NEMA boss, “We must never get tired of improving on ourselves and our performances; we must never be shy of telling ourselves the truth.

“The all-inclusive policy of this dispensation is for a purpose; to give every officer an opportunity of exposure and chance to showcase and harness their skills and talents, adding that it is also aimed at building a critical mass of transformed disaster management officers that will be a positive influence on the Agency.

Presenting a paper at the event earlier, the principal education officer, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Justice Ekwueme, had advised NEMA staff to always abide by good work ethics and ensure that they follow channel of communication in their establishment.

Ekwueme, in the paper entitled; “Civil Service Rules’’, also urged the Agency staff to abide by the civil service rules so that they carry out their duties professionally.

Other paper presenters during the retreat included the South East zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Fred Anusim, whose lecture was entitled: Humanitarian Activities in Emergences – NEMA Perspective’’ in which he enlightened the participants on the roles of humanitarians workers such as NEMA staff in any society, including Nigeria .

He equally educated the NEMA staff on the concept of humanitarian aid, and what it takes to become efficient and effective in the voluntary job.

Head of the Owerri operational office of the agency, Mr. Ogoh, had in his capacity, delivered a paper titled: “National Disaster Management Policy: Aims and Objectives” in which he identified lack of functional local government and state offices of disaster management as the bane of handling the issue in most states of south East Nigeria.

He, however, advocate for legislation that would compel states and local council areas to establish SEMAs, and LEMAs, saying NEMA alone cannot afford to shoulder the problems associated with disaster handling in the country.