Nigerian Govt To Engage Several Youths In Fire-Fighting Jobs

The Nigerian government is targeting employing several youths as firefighters to reduce the large rate of unemployment in the nation.

The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said during the launching of new firefighting equipment which includes 16 trucks and six vehicles at the Headquarters of the Federal Fire Service in Abuja on Wednesday that what is delaying the employment is the enactment of new laws to modernise Fire Fighting in Nigeria.

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

Tunji-Ojo while noting that the number of firefighters in a country shows the level of its development, said Nigeria cannot be among the top economies of the world and has a small population of firefighters.

According to him, there is a direct correlation between sophistication, industrialisation and fire service because the more you grow as an economy, the more you need to expand the cost 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.

The Minister said New York with 255 firehouses, and Los Angeles with 160 fire stations give the picture of what fight and rescue operation should be, noting that the US has over a million fire fighters both employed and volunteers.

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

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

He said: “For us as a 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.

“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 in 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 more effort into solving problems rather than planning to prevent them.

The FFS must work very closely with NSCDC for security cover. I understand the issue 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.

“We want your training centres not just for your officials but we want all buildings with more than 10 workers to have fire rescue and safety officers among them. Timely intervention can save lives and billions of Naira.”

The Minister noted that when the bill on fire and rescue service is assented to, the FFS will play a major role in our national development, insisting that: “For any country to attain its potential, Fire Service cannot be relegated.”

Earlier, the Controller General, Federal Fire Service, Engineer Jaji Abdulganiyu said the fire statistics in the first and second quarter of 2023 were a testimony of a truly engineered Service, noting that records at the Data Repository Centre put 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 the state-of-the-art firefighting trucks and Ford Rapid Response Vehicles (RRV), incredible achievements are going to be made.