By Mohammed Mohammed
The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Mansur Matazu, has acknowledged that his recent meeting with the state governors on upping awareness about weather forecast and early action, especially in vulnerable communities will no doubt help in mitigating the impact of flooding across the country.
The NiMet boss who made the disclosure in TV programme, monitored in Abuja by NEWSEXTRAORDINAIRE, said: ‘Mitigating Flood Amidst Rising Water Level’, said he led his team to raise awareness and to brief the governors on the hazards inherent in extreme weather conditions.
According to Matazu, the state governors remain one of the quickest and most effective channels through which to pass the message to communities that may be difficult to reach.
He acknowledged that many of the extreme events happened, but getting in touch with them with necessary information has been an arduous task.
Moving forward, the DG, said plans are in top gear to present the current status and state of weather before the National Economic Council (NEC) soon.
He said: “At the last meeting with the Governors, we were given the opportunity to talk and freely raised the level of alert especially to be well prepared and based on the agreement, it was established that we really need to work closely and together.
“For us in NiMet, we have 100 offices across the country and we have capability to do state level forecast of not only rainfall but we want Nigerians to look beyond the negative aspect of weather and because the old is developing, we have to key in, thanks to the policies of government, we need to explore other weather information and utilise them positively.
“We are very optimistic, we have got strong words from the governors that some of the issues that are beyond us would be taken to NEC,” he said.
The NiMet boss, who expressed sympathy with farmers, noted that the present weather condition, especially, in the North is not favourable stressing that July to September is the ‘wetest’ period in the rainy season.
He added that most farmers across the country were not aware of critical forecast even though the information was translated into other languages when the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) was released in January.
Matazu, said: “As discussed earlier, July up to September is the wetest period in our rainy season, especially in the Northern part of the country and we’ve seen buildup of these rains in the Noth with some pockets of dry spell because presently, we are experiencing El Nino globally.
“We have seen extreme weather condition in the US, Australia and some parts of Asia and Europe. We are also experiencing such impact and shocks within the country.”
