Announcing the appointment of Mrs. Zubaida Umar as the Director-General of NEMA, Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity in a press statement claimed that she is the first woman to head the agency.
He said “Mrs. Umar is the first woman to be appointed as Director-General of this pivotal agency, and her appointment further underlines the President’s avowed commitment to gender inclusion.”
To verify the claim, the Explainer fact checker conducted a keyword search on Google. The investigation revealed that Mrs. Zubaida Umar is not the first woman to head the agency. Infact, the first DG of NEMA was indeed a female, Mrs. Oluremi Olowu.
This information was corroborated by a report from the International Network of Women in Emergency Management (inWEM) and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM).
NEMA was preceded by the National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA), established by Decree 48 of 1976. In 1997, NERA, under the leadership of then-Director Mrs. Oluremi Olowu, held a National Workshop with stakeholders in disaster management. The workshop resulted in a communiqué that recommended expanding NERA’s functions and renaming it to NEMA.
Mrs. Oluremi Olowu led NERA and played a pivotal role in its transition to NEMA. She served as the first DG of NEMA from 1998 to 2002. Her tenure was acknowledged in a 2009 article by the Economic Confidential, which celebrated “NEMA at 10.”
Mrs. Olowu’s retirement from NEMA to join politics was reported by AllAfrica, sourced from Daily Trust on 20th January 2003, which also announced her successor, Alhaji Salihu Shuaibu Makarfi.
Verification: False
The Explainer fact checker concludes that the claim by Ajuri Ngelale that Mrs. Zubaida Umar is the first female Director-General of NEMA is False. The credit of being the first female Director-General belongs to Mrs. Oluremi Olowu, who served from 1998 to 2002 and was instrumental in the agency’s formation and early years.
