Our response to emergency situations is a continuous reminder of our culture of unpreparedness
The recent collapse of a six-storey building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Ikotun, Lagos, once again highlights our inadequacies as a nation. Almost one month after the tragic incident, there is still an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Up till today, no one is certain about the actual number of lives that were lost to the disaster or the number of those that are in the hospital. If the initial response to the disaster was poor and which perhaps led to the avoidable loss of some lives, what is the explanation for what is happening now?
Indeed, the latest unfortunate incident only confirms an ominous and dangerous pattern – the nation is yet to get an effective form of emergency response delivery in time of crisis. What is lost on the authorities in our nation is that time is of the essence when responding to emergencies. Yet over the years, our response to accidents and crisis situations had been less than satisfactory and in some cases, gross display of incompetence.
From the Hercules crash in the swamp of Ejigbo, Lagos in 1992 which claimed a generation of young and vibrant military men, the ADC airlines crash which buried some of the nation’s brightest in a watery grave in Ejirin, Lagos in 1996 to even the December 2005 Sosoliso Air crash in Port Harcourt, the enormity of the challenge has been so transparent. Even the management of the Dana Air Crash of 2012 in Lagos did not portray that we learnt anything from past mistakes: from the fire-fighters who rushed to the scene with inadequate water to even the handling of some of the dead, the shameful national response framework to disaster was laid bare. As the inquest into the Dana Air crash later revealed, some of the dead would have survived if help had got to them early enough. Equally troubling, as the recent case in Ikotun case has shown, is the response time to other accidents like fire or building collapse, which have become incessant across the nation.
Last week, the director general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Alhaji Muhammed Sani-Sidi said it had concluded plans to build emergency response and ambulance bay (ERAB) across the nation. “One of such strategies aimed at reducing response time is the emplacement of emergency response facilities at strategic locations” he said. Useful as these might be, mere replications of ill-equipped emergency centres all over the country will not meet a broader national preparedness need to respond effectively during disasters, natural or man-made.
The infrastructural challenge of this sector must be addressed as well as adequate training and retraining of personnel and indeed constant exercise in an effort to acting right in all emergencies. NEMA, even with all its claims, is essentially a relief distribution agency as its operations are indeed circumscribed. The Lagos State government established the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) in 2008 to provide adequate and prompt response as well as sustaining intervention in all forms of emergency/disaster situations in the state. But as many cases have shown, LASEMA has been in most cases overwhelmed as it has not lived up to the billing.
What the foregoing suggests is that there is a great need for an emergency response unit, comprising a team of trained specialists, ready to be deployed at short notice to control and minimise the damage caused by disasters. There must be standard equipment – from fire-fighting equipment to other heavy equipment – needed in an emergency. Julius Berger, a private company can help in relief efforts but the nation cannot depend perpetually on it for every life- saving situation. We need to get our act together. For now our response to emergency situations is a continuous reminder of our culture of unpreparedness.
