The Deputy Director, Planning, Research and Forecasting of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Kayode Fagbemi, has said that despite the climate change and global warming challenges facing Nigeria, only 25 states presently have emergency management structures to manage disaster.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on “Strengthening Disaster Risk Management and Recovery Project” in Abuja.

Fagbemi who represented the Director-General of NEMA at the occasion said: “You know, we are in a federation and disaster management is not on the exclusive list like the army and police, so each state is expected to have its own state emergency management agency and we have been doing advocacy, visiting governors. We are only encouraging them because you can’t force it on them. They have their own executive powers, they have their own budgets. We will continue to encourage them that they need state emergency management agency.”

He said though many of the governors had seen the need to build their own state emergency management agencies, NEMA had opened up six zonal offices and operational offices to get closer to the communities.