By SALISU SANI-IDRIS

The National Economic Council (NEC), on Thursday approved the adoption of 112 as the National Emergency Number at all levels and across relevant agencies.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the approval was part of the decisions taken at the 157th meeting of NEC held virtually and chaired by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.

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

Shettima said the move was part of measures to strengthen Nigeria’s emergency lifeline and build a unified and coordinated national response to emergencies.

He explained that the 112 emergency lifeline had become necessary to prevent delays caused by bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Shettima noted that what the citizens needed urgently when confronted by natural disaster or insecurity was 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 outbreak, accident, robbery, medical emergency, flood, violence, or panic, citizens do not need bureaucracy.

“They need 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.

“Nigeria is not beginning from zero, the emergency number has been in existence.

“What is required at the moment is coordination, adoption, standard operating procedures, public awareness, institutional ownership, and trust,” he said.

The vice president described NEC as the nation’s economic engine room for the Federal and State Governments to convert the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu into practical outcomes.

He urged members of the council to focus on decisions that would impact positively on the lives of Nigerians.

“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.

“It will also ask whether our decisions reached the child waiting to inherit the country we are rebuilding,” Shettima said. (NAN)

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