The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said that increasing disaster rate at grass roots calls for an effective synergy between its organs at the state and local government levels.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop on awareness and preparedness on disaster management at the local and state government levels in Ilorin, Kwara State, Director-General of the agency, Alhaji Muhammad Sidi, said the move became imperative due to the strategic importance of local government councils.

Sidi, who was represented at the event by the coordinator of the agency’s Abuja Operations Office, Mr Ishaya Chonoko, said there was also a need for a review of strategies and involvement of personnel.

He said local councils being closest to the communities were first respondents to disasters hence the need to empower their personnel for effective disaster management.

"Every disaster that occurs whether big or small, whether it involves a member of the legislature, judiciary and executive at the federal or state level, happens in a community in a local government area.

"It therefore, behoves on the local government and the people of the local government to bear the immediate brunt of a disaster. This is because they are in most cases the first to be affected by the disaster as well as the first to respond.

"Though they seem to be the least important level of government, they have a peculiar role to play in disaster management since they are closest to the people at the grassroots. The degree of the impact as well as the damage caused by a disaster depends on the vulnerability and level of preparedness of the local government, meaning that if a local government is well prepared for any disaster situation, it would be able to bounce back to its prior the state before the occurrence of the disaster.

"It is believed that this workshop would help to enlighten and empower the local governments in the management of disasters at the local level as well as create a better synergy between the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the Local Emergency Management Agency (LEMA).

Also speaking, Special Adviser on Emergency and Relief Matters to the state governor, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, said that the state government has spent over N140 million on providing relief package to victims of disaster since the inception of the current administration.

Abdullahi however said government was more interested in preventing disaster which necessitated proper training of appropriate personnel at all levels of government.