Workers of the National Emmergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday protested over poor working condition, and called on Federal government to urgently address the situation.
The workers under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) who defile the heavy down pour, also alleged that six of their colleagues died as a result of unfriendly working environment and without life insurance among others.
Chairman Of ASCSN, NEMA branch comrade Justine Uwazuruonye the agency is not under funded, but that there is no required working materials.
“The issue for which we are agitating about is welfare. Our staffs are dying in Maidugiri, they are unfortunately not covered under insurance. We took the issue of our staffs not covered under insurance to the minister and our national body last year and after 12 hour of discussion, we reached an agreement and called off our strike.
But the unfortunate thing is that from that time till now, nothing has been done and we don’t have any form of insurance even as we are workers of government owned agency.
“What we are saying is that our DTAs and other necessary entitled should be given to us through the appropriate channel as is obtainable with other government agencies.
“So we demand for better working condition and that all the agreement we reached since 2017 should be implemented. And we are demanding that our DG should use the money government has given him to provide the necessary working tools we need for work”.
Speaking further, Comrade Justine called on Federal government to investigate happenings in the agency with a view to unravel the inefficiency of the DG.
“Our working condition is very bad. Our emergency ambulances are not working. From pen to paper and even ink we don’t have in our offices.
“Our DG lacks the required capability to effectively and efficiently manage NEMA. So far, he has proven he does not have what it takes to manage an agency as NEMA and place it in the path of progress.
“When we talk about disaster management in this era, it means a complete and effective circle. Meaning from preparedness to response, but unfortunately what we are doing in NEMA under this DG is but relief. We wait for an incident to happen before we start going there.
“If the government want to know the whole truth about what is happening in NEMA, it should ask our DG to present a report of NEMA’S activities for the 13 months he has being the DG. We don’t have anything like annual report since he came to NEMA”.