By Palma Ileye
Federal Government through the Ministry of Interior, has commissioned the National Fire Academy, NFA, in Abuja.
Speaking yesterday during the unveiling at the premises located in Shedda, Abuja, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, described the new Fire Academy of the Federal Fire Service, FFS, as the best in Africa and the first in Nigeria.
Aregbesola said that the customized training prop was to meet specific training needs of firefighters.
He went further to declare that “there is no doubt that the firemen trained at this facilities would have the best training and would be well prepared for fighting fire and other emergencies”.
The Minister made reference to the fact that we face the ravages and devastation of fire on a daily basis, due to negligence or involuntary acts of nature.
He therefore reminded Nigerians of the need to have ready fire fighting equipment like fire extinguishers and carryout regular simulated fire drills.
He charged the Management of the Fire Academy to regularly update their training curriculum to reflect the latest innovations in fire fighting and indoctrinate every fireman on the raison d’etre of the Service, which was to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
He urged the firemen to let the message of serving Nigerians in fire fighting and protection of lives and properties ring laud and clear in their hearts.
Speaking further, the Interior Minister said, “Our administration under the able leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has taken firefighting to a very high and unpresidented level in the nation’s annals. When the administration came to power in 2015, the service was only represented in Abuja and Lagos with two functional fire engines, but now the service is represented in all the states of the federation with state-of -the-art firefighting and disaster management infrastructure.”
In the same vein, at the commissioning of the Kubwa Metropolitan Fire Station, the first amongst the 13 approved Stations across the country, the Minister said the Ministry of Interior and the Agencies have never had it good like this until the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari.
He reiterated the fact that the Federal Government has provided 106 modern fire fighting trucks to Federal Fire Service, upgraded 44 firefighting engines, provided 15 water tankers, 15 rapid intervention fire engines and 20 basic live support ambulances.
He also stated that the Metropolitan Fire Station was positioned strategically in the urban Kubwa Distric for rapid fire and rescue operations to the community in a much shorter live saving time.
Aregbesola, in what could be regarded as farewell speech, encouraged the officers and men of the service to dwell more on advocacy and campaign for fire prevention in public places, religious centres and schools, rather than quick response to fire fighting.
The Minister also advised architects, builders, house owners and regulatory officials to insist on factoring fire and other emergencies in building plans.