Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, has outlined essential protocols that event organizers must follow when planning future distributions of palliative aid in the country.
This guidance comes in response to tragic incidents of stampedes and fatalities that occurred during distribution events last week in Abuja, Ibadan, and Anambra.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Yilwatda emphasized the importance of adhering to protocols such as event registration, the involvement of police operatives, conducting risk assessments, and performing vulnerability checks, among others.
He said “First, I want to sympathise with the families and the country for the lives we lost. As a government, we are so depressed by what happened.
“However, despite the empathy, we still have to talk about the safety measures that are supposed to be taken at this moment.
“Mark you, we distribute food more than any organisation, and you would never hear of a stampede.
“We even distribute more than what these people are giving, even in harsher conditions but you won’t hear of any hazard. We go to areas where people are more desperate, IDP centres.
“So what are the protocols involved in such distribution of food? Whenever an event is not properly organized, then, we have these kinds of situations we have right now – stampede and loss of lives. We have challenges of protocol in this country. And these stampedes happen globally, even in countries that are developed.
“You can’t just throw open distribution of palliatives. For instance in Ibadan, they have a population of over 2 million, and you are saying you want 5000 people to come and collect.
“Or in Abuja where you have a population of between 2-3 million, and you say anybody can come and receive- maybe like 2000 people. The ratio is too small and you are going to have. And you know social media doesn’t even help the matter because you put the information there and many people show up.
“However, when you have such a programme, you ask people to come and register, and then you select those that will benefit.
“Then you pick distribution points if there are too many. You mount police officers there.
“You do vulnerability checks and risk assessments- these will prevent the stampede and deaths.”
According to the minister, such security measures need to be adopted by the government, a country, churches and organisations that have good intentions towards the people.
He advised the state and local governments to adopt the protocols currently being put in place by the federal government.
“The most important thing is for state governments to domesticate these protocols because they are still at the national level. Even the local governments need to adopt it because events are organised at local and state government levels.
“At the federal government level, we have minimal events we control. So, they need to adopt the federal government protocols. Again, the police have protocols. So, police need to enforce the protocols, such as asking people to register for the events and then penalising those who fail to follow those protocols,” he said.
When asked to list more of the protocols that needed to be put in place, he said;
“If we are organising food distribution, we write to the police and inform security agencies.
“We tell them our location and how many people we are expecting. We list our beneficiaries, then we pick venues together with the police.
“We do vulnerability checks and risk assessments of the venue.
“Then we set up a crowd management team.
“Before the crowd starts arriving, the protocol team will be there first, so that they check in the people. If we discover that the crowd will be too much, we can postpone the event.”
He also urged organisers of such food distribution who do not have the resources to put all the protocols in place, to meet with the federal government team for assistance.
