An emeritus professor of Medicine, Oladipupo Akinkugbe, has called for adequate preparations to cater for emergencies in the country.
He spoke in Ibadan on Saturday at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Medical Association.
Akinkugbe, who chaired the event, noted that the level of preparation for emergencies in the country was lamentable.
He said, “In this country, we are protected by providence. Major disasters have not happened. We have fire, air, auto and building disasters but these are pockets of disasters.
“We have never experienced major disasters that would claim the lives of lots of people. If we have that kind of disaster, we probably would not be able to cope. Our preparations and palliative measures would not be qualitative.
“If we have Tsunami here, it would be worse. In case of any major disaster, we are gone. We need to address our emergency preparedness. You have to prepare properly before you can manage effectively. You can’t prepare for a thing in a hurry”.
Also a member of the NMA in the state, Dr. Oluwadolapo Afuwape, who spoke on ‘Emergency preparedness: Be ready, prepare together’, said, “To have an effective preparedness plan, there has to be a major modification of our personal and institutional attitudes towards response to disasters.”
He urged the governments at various levels and other stakeholders to renew their approach to disaster and its management.
Culled: Punchng