By Olukayode Idowu
The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed said the agency did not receive any $1 million donation from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for the support of flood victims in 2022.
The NEMA boss stated this when journalists asked to know about the funds promised and widely celebrated in 2022.
The then US Embassy, in a statement by the US. Ambassador in October 2022, Mary Beth Leonard had announced the donation.
The US had explained that the unusual heavy rainfall, which resulted in flooding, had affected nearly 2.8 million people across the country, leaving many homes damaged or completely destroyed, displacing millions of persons.
The US government had stressed that the $1 million in new USAID support would allow local partners on the ground to provide emergency shelter assistance, relief commodities, and hygiene kits to promote safe and healthy practices amid the on-going cholera outbreak and multipurpose cash assistance for people affected by the devastating floods.
Part of the statement had stated that: “The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing $1 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to support the people affected by unprecedented flooding in Nigeria.”
However, after over 10 months from then, NEMA, the lead agency in humanitarian response, is yet to get the donation.
According to the DG NEMA: “I also read about the story in the papers last year but I can confirm that we have not received any $1million from USAID.”
Meanwhile, the director-general of NEMA Ahmed has assured Zamfara State of the readiness of the agency to assist in addressing the humanitarian problems caused by bandits and terrorists attacks.
He stated this when the governor of Zamfara, Dr Dauda Lawal visited him at the headquarters of NEMA on Friday.
He said: “First I commend the governor to appreciate NEMA for the interventions and I assure you that Zamfara will get all the assistant they need just like other states of the federation.”
Earlier, the Zamfara state governor had said he was at the NEMA headquarters to seek assistance with the Internally Displaced Persons resulting from several bandit attacks in the state.