NEC Okays 112 As National Emergency Response Lifeline

The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the adoption of 112 as the national emergency number at all levels and across relevant agencies.

It is part of measures to strengthen Nigeria’s emergency lifeline and build a unified and coordinated national response to emergencies.

NEC also approved the establishment of a multi-agency implementation committee and programme coordination led by the Office of the Vice President and the National Communications Commission (NCC).

The approval was part of decisions taken at the 157th meeting of the NEC held virtually and chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Shettima said the 112 emergency lifeline had become necessary to prevent delay caused by bureaucratic bottlenecks, noting that what the citizens seek urgently when confronted by a natural disaster or insecurity is an urgent response and not bureaucracy.

“This is not only a technical reform. It is a test of the state’s humanity. In moments of fire, accident, robbery, medical emergency, flood, violence, or panic, citizens do not need bureaucracy.

“They need a response. They need to know one number to call, one system to trust, and one coordinated chain of action that moves quickly enough to save lives,” he stated.

He explained that while Nigeria is not beginning from zero, as the emergency number had been in existence, what is required at the moment “is coordination, adoption, standard operating procedures, public awareness, institutional ownership, and trust”.

The vice president described NEC as the nation’s economic engine room, where the federal government and the states must convert the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu into practical outcomes.

“We cannot build our way to a one-trillion-dollar economy by federal effort alone. We cannot create millions of jobs by speeches alone.

“We cannot expand exports, attract investment, secure communities, or unlock productivity unless every tier of government understands its role and performs it with urgency,” the VP noted.

While urging NEC members to focus on decisions that would have a positive impact on the lives of Nigerians, Shettima said, “History will not ask how many meetings we held. It will ask what changed because we met.

“It will ask whether our decisions reached the farmer, the manufacturer, the artist, the investor, the accident victim, the unemployed graduate, and the child waiting to inherit the country we are rebuilding.”

NEC also received a presentation on the rehabilitation of police training institutions across the country from its ad hoc committee led by Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and commended the ad hoc committee for the work done so far.

It also called on the Ministry of Finance to expedite the release of the balance of approved funds for the take-off of the project and urged the committee to ensure national spread by capturing training institutions in each geopolitical zone in the first phase of the intervention.