NCDMB launches emergency preparedness campaign, warns Nigerians against panic during disasters
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has commenced a nationwide Emergency Preparedness and Fire Prevention Awareness campaign to equip Nigerians with practical skills for responding to fire outbreaks, building collapses, workplace accidents and other emergencies.
The initiative, according to the Board, is aimed at reducing avoidable deaths and losses by improving safety awareness and ensuring that individuals, businesses and communities know what to do during the critical first minutes of an emergency.
Speaking during the Lagos edition of the training at Lekki Grandview Hotel, Lagos, the Managing Director of Matosi Nigeria Limited, Mr. Tosan Bolorunfe, described emergency preparedness as an increasingly important national issue requiring deliberate commitment from government, businesses and communities.
Bolorunfe, whose company is the consultant for the programme, said the rising incidence of fire outbreaks, workplace accidents, building collapses, panic during emergencies and poor response coordination had exposed serious gaps in public safety awareness.
“Fire incidents, workplace accidents, panic during emergencies, poor response coordination and lack of basic safety awareness continue to cause avoidable losses across homes, offices, hotels, markets, public facilities and industrial sites,” he said.
He stressed that the first few minutes following an emergency could determine whether lives and property would be saved or lost.
“A society that waits for disaster before discussing safety is already late,” he said.
“Many lives are not lost because help does not exist. Many lives are lost because people do not know what to do in the first few critical minutes.”
According to him, emergency preparedness should be viewed not merely as a safety requirement but as an investment in human lives, business continuity and national productivity.
“When people are safer, businesses are stronger. When workplaces are prepared, productivity is protected. When communities understand emergency response, lives are preserved,” he said.
Bolorunfe also addressed what he described as a common tendency among Nigerians to resort to panic and prayer during emergencies because of a lack of practical knowledge about what action to take.
He said while prayer remained important to many people, it should be complemented by preparedness and appropriate emergency-response skills.
“In many emergency situations, people resort to prayer because they genuinely do not know the next practical step to take. Prayer is important, but preparedness is also responsibility,” he said.
“People need to know who should act, what to switch off, where to go, who to call, and how to evacuate safely.”
The consultant stressed the need for emergency training to move beyond theoretical classroom presentations, saying practical exercises and simulations were essential to ensuring that participants could translate knowledge into action during real emergencies.
“Training adults, especially on emergency subjects, requires more than reading slides. It requires experience, clarity, discipline and the ability to connect knowledge to real-life situations,” he said.
He commended the NCDMB for supporting the awareness campaign, describing it as a practical human-capital development intervention capable of strengthening safety consciousness across workplaces and communities.
Bolorunfe urged government agencies, private-sector operators, institutions and community leaders to make emergency preparedness a continuous exercise rather than something undertaken only after disasters occur.
“To government agencies, private sector operators and community leaders, safety training should not be optional. It should be deliberate, repeated and practical,” he said.
He called on stakeholders to treat emergency preparedness as a national productivity issue, a community protection responsibility and a fundamental human obligation.
The Lagos training featured classroom sessions, interactive discussions and practical demonstrations designed to expose participants to appropriate emergency-response procedures.
Participants also took part in controlled fire-response exercises, fire-extinguisher handling, first-aid awareness and emergency-response sensitisation.
The campaign comes against the backdrop of recurring fire incidents, building collapses and other emergencies across the country, reinforcing calls for stronger preventive measures, public safety education and improved emergency-response capacity.
