Abuja: The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Saturday organized its mid-year route walk for staff members to enhance efficiency in emergency management operations. The exercise took place at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, and was led by NEMA’s Director of Special Duties, Mrs. Fatima Kasim, representing Director-General Mrs. Zubaida Umar.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the walk is part of NEMA’s commitment to promoting the health, fitness, and wellbeing of its staff. Kasim, speaking on behalf of the director-general, emphasized that the core objective of the initiative was to ensure the workforce remained capable of handling the rigorous demands of disaster management. She stated, “The whole essence of this exercise is for us to ensure we are fit and able to carry on our day-to-day activity, which is managing disasters in the country.”
Kasim noted that the exercise was the second route walk organized since Umar assumed office and highlighted the director-general’s commitment to making the fitness exercise a quarterly event. Plans are underway to decentralize the initiative across NEMA’s 17 offices nationwide to ensure simultaneous participation across the Federation.
She urged staff to take personal responsibility for their health beyond official agency events, stressing the importance of being fit to assist during disasters. “In our various homes and corners, let us try to keep fit. There are different forms of exercises we can do on our own to maintain our health, aside from the ones the agency will be organizing subsequently,” Kasim added.
The agency’s Director of Search and Rescue, Air Commodore Usman Bature, reiterated that a healthy workforce was fundamental to achieving NEMA’s mandate of providing timely and effective emergency response services to Nigerians. Bature encouraged staff to adopt healthy lifestyles and make regular physical exercise a permanent part of their daily routines.
NAN reports that the Mid-Year Route Walk is part of NEMA’s ongoing staff welfare initiatives aimed at fostering a healthy, motivated, and productive workforce capable of delivering top-tier disaster management and humanitarian services across Nigeria.