NEMA activates emergency centre for flood season
NEMA has activated its National Emergency Operations Centre to strengthen flood preparedness and response across Nigeria during the 2026 rainy season.
The National Emergency Management Agency has activated its National Emergency Operations Centre to strengthen preparedness and response to flooding across Nigeria during the 2026 rainy season. NEMA Director-General, Mrs Zubaida Umar, announced the activation on Tuesday while inaugurating NEOC team members at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
Umar said the centre’s activation formed part of proactive measures to enhance emergency readiness and ensure effective coordination among stakeholders throughout the flood season. She tasked the team with demonstrating diligence, professionalism and proactiveness in carrying out responsibilities critical to managing flood-related emergencies nationwide.
She said information generated by the centre must be accurate, timely and dependable to support effective decision-making and disaster management efforts. “Information generated and disseminated from this centre must be factual, timely, and reliable to support effective decision-making and efficient management of disasters,” she said.
Umar stressed that credible and timely data remained essential for early action, rapid deployment of relief materials and protecting vulnerable communities from climate-related hazards. She noted that effective information management would help safeguard lives, livelihoods and critical infrastructure threatened by flooding and other extreme weather events.
Responding on behalf of the team, Deputy Director of Planning, Research and Forecasting, Mr Tony Ephraim, pledged members’ commitment to continuous monitoring and information management. Ephraim assured the Director-General that the team would maintain rigorous data collection, analysis and reporting to support prompt decisions during emergencies. “We will sustain round-the-clock monitoring and ensure robust data analysis to support timely decision-making and coordinated national response efforts,” he said.
The NEOC will serve as the central operational hub for tracking flood developments and coordinating intelligence sharing among disaster management agencies. The centre is also expected to drive collaboration among key stakeholders and strengthen national response mechanisms throughout the 2026 flood season.
The activation of the emergency centre comes as the Nigerian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross issued an emergency climate alert warning that severe floodwaters threaten over 151 communities and 6.5 million residents. The Red Cross alert urged federal and state authorities to clear secondary drainage systems and prepare emergency evacuation shelters in high-risk riverine areas.
The winners: communities at risk of flooding, which may benefit from improved coordination and faster response times. The losers: the Nigerian government, which must ensure the centre’s activation translates into effective action on the ground rather than remaining a bureaucratic exercise.
Bottom Line: NEMA has activated its flood response centre. The warning signs are clear. The question is whether the agency will act or just monitor.