General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, has called on the Federal Government to embark on massive infrastructure development to boost economic growth and development.

He said this while delivering a lecture on, ‘Disaster and Emergency Management, prevention and survival strategy in the current increasing Emergency challenges in Nigeria’, at the occasion of a public lecture and induction ceremony of International Logistics and Administration, held in Lagos, recently.

Oke-Osanyintolu said infrastructure development is imperative to economic growth and development, especially at a time the government is trying to restructure the economy for greater productivity.

“Emergencies are not random and do not occur by accident, they are the convergence of hazards risks and vulnerable conditions in the human environment and could have adverse effect on the economy if not properly managed.  Disasters not only reveal underlying social, economic, political and environmental problem but unfortunately contribute to worsening them, such events pose serious challenges to development, as they erode hard-earned gains in terms of political, social and economic as well as infrastructure and technological development”, he said.

He said: Global and national trends have revealed that disaster occurrence is at an escalating level and requires the global communities to intensify collective efforts towards reducing and mitigating the number and effects of natural and man-made disaster.

Statistical survey has revealed that there is an increased level of human-induced emergencies/disasters in Nigeria with particular reference to highly- urbanised states in Nigeria with special reference to mega-city Lagos .

This upsurge is as a result of high entropic interaction between man-man/man-environment producing simultaneous interesting reactions thereby making the environment a space of opportunity and more a space of risk with negative undesirable output (emergencies/disasters) which include but is not limited to; Flooding, collapsed building, explosions, fire outbreak, epidemic outbreak in the economic environment.