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Evacuate
Nigerians from Zimbabwe
NIGERIANS resident in Zimbabwe, troubled by constitutional crisis,
should be evacuated and returned home, the Director General of
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Vice-Marshal (retired)
Mohammed Audu-Bida has suggested.
He made the call over the weekend in Abuja when the Vice-President,
Dr Goodluck Jonathan, visited the agency.
Audu-Bida said the agency had evacuated about one million Nigerians
from some trouble spots, including Liberia, Guinea and Equatorial
Guinea. Others are Morocco, Algeria, Thailand, Ethiopia, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Chad and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Director-General said the agency had established a geographic
information system (GIS) and laboratory for collating, storing,
analysing and displaying necessary data for prompt and efficient
management of disaster.
He blamed the agency’s lapses on inadequate funding as well as
shortage of manpower and equipment, among others.
Audu-Bida therefore appealed to the government to strengthen and
equip the agency for effectiveness and efficiency in the execution
of its mandate.
He said some of the challenges being faced by the agency were in the
areas of office accommodation and shortage of staff, adding that the
organisation had only 217 employees.
The other, he added, was in the training of its pilots and
technicians, currently being handled by the Nigeria Air Force.
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