Federal government has said that it will employ more Nigerian youth as firefighters to reduce unemployment and boost the sector.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this known during the launching of new fire fighting equipment which include 16 trucks and six vehicles at the Headquarters of the Federal Fire Service in Abuja, yesterday.

He explained that what has so far been delaying the employment is the enactment of new laws to modernize firefighting in Nigeria.

“Your strength lies in the decline of fire outbreaks and not the number of fires you fought within a period.

“Extinguishing fires, saving lives and property, rescuing people during accidents and protecting people on the event of other emergencies remained part of your responsibilities.

“Federal Fire and Rescue Service will be expected to collect information across Nigeria and also take care of the health and safety of your personnel.

“I need to have the full range of foreseeable fires, the areas and what we have to combat them. It is very important that this becomes your next line of action. As government agencies, we put in more efforts in solving problems rather than planning to prevent them.

He noted that when the laws are ready, the number of firefighters needed would be alighted and the need for fire fighters in every public infrastructure in the country would be stipulated, and subsequently allow for more hands to be employed.

Tunji-Ojo said the number of firefighters in a country shows the level of its development, hence Nigeria cannot be among the top economies of the world if it has a small population of firefighters.

There is a direct correlation between sophistication, industrialization and fire service because the more you grow as an economy, the more you need to expand the coast of your fire service. Fire service is directly related to development in any nation.

Nigeria with just over 6,000 federal firefighters is among the least number of employed firefighters in the world, he said .

Making comparison, Dr. Tunji-Ojo pointed that New York with 255 fire houses, Los Angeles with 160 fire stations give the picture of what fire fighter and rescue operation should be, noting that US has over a million fire fighters both employed and volunteers.

He said the bill before the National Assembly if assented would change the narratives of fire fighting in the country.

“FFS is a sleeping giant. Your response should not only be combating fire but even forecasting danger. You must be proactive,” he added that: “I don’t want your performance to be valued around the buildings or infrastructure you prevented from burning down, but rather preventive mechanism to rescue and prevent hazards.”

“For us as people, we cannot continue to pay lip service, non-challant attitude to the issue to fire. As an individual, I believe that the FFS should be the major employer of labour in Nigeria. All we need to do is put on our thinking caps. It is time for the FFS to rise up to her responsibility which is not just about combating fire.

“It has to do with forecasting dangers. We have to migrate from the era of corrective activities to the era of being proactive which will lead us to preventive measures that can save us millions of Naira.

“The FFS must work very closely with NSCDC for security cover. I understand the issues that our FFS men are attacked when they go out on their legitimate duties but with the NSCDC providing such cover, such attacks will be reduced,” he said.

Controller General, Federal Fire Service, Engineer Jaji Abdulganiyu said the fire statistics in the first and second quarter of 2023 was a testimony of a truly re- engineered Service, noting that records at the Data Repository Centre puts fire call for the period at 1,096, lives saved -111 successful rescues at 91 and total property saved at over N300
billion.

He assured that with the launching of state-of-the-art firefighting trucks and Ford Rapid Response Vehicles (RRV), incredible achievements are going to be made.

Credit: The Guardian