By Dele Ogbodo
The presidential committee set up by the federal government through the ministry of science technology has recommended
the urgent release of ecological funds to avert future earthquake disaster.
The Director General of the National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA), Prof. Seidu Mohammed and his counterpart from the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Prof. Danladi Matawal, who are members of the committee, said the fund will be used for earthquake monitoring and hazard assessment across the country.
They made the disclosure while submitting their report to the Minister of Science Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, urged government to release funds to experts in seismic studies so as to unravel the cause and immediate solution to the occurrence of earth quake in the country.
Speaking while receiving the report, Onu, admitted that government will conduct further research and monitor earthquake prone areas in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria so as to predict and forestall probable negative fallouts in future.
On the impact of building and excavation as trigger of earthquake, Onu said it is high time the country worked on its building code and materials used in housing construction in case tremor occurs in future, adding that our buildings and building materials should be such that can withstand any likely tremor.
According to him, the inclusion of the Director-General of NBRRI in the committee would be of immense benefits to the work of the committee
He explained that the NBRRI DG was included in the committee so that the right building code and materials that would withstand future tremors will be used in future construction.
He commended the Committee for doing a thorough job by collecting data from all seismic centers, earthquake monitoring laboratory in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife and the center for Atmospheric Research in Ayangba, Kogi State.
While also speaking on behalf of the committee, its Chairman and DG of NASRDA, Prof. Mohammed said Nigeria is now prone to seismic hazards following recent earthquake occurrence in kwoi, kaduna state, Saki, Oyo State and Ibgogene in Bayelsa State all in 2016, adding, that the latest occurred in the first week of September in Mpape, Abuja.
“Though these earthquakes may have been of low-magnitude, it is now certain that earthquake occurrence has become a potential hazards to the nation.” He said.
Mohammed said there is need for an integrated study to be thoroughly carried out to properly delineate the fault systems in the area while ensuring that building should be constructed with the right engineering design and materials on approved sites.
Infra-red satellites technology Space management data for earthquake monitoring are showing more prospect. It is advised that this technology must be adopted and funded adequately, he proferred.
At present, he said, there is no Nigerian Code of practice that cover Nigerian Seismic building code, as according to him, there is urgent need to established the Nigerian standard for the seismic building code.
He also advocated that NBRRI should be given the responsibility backed up with budgetary allocations.
He said: “Earthquakes happen all the time. The key is to monitor, identify and catalog their location so that we can improve on future forecasts in time and space.
“To do this we need to upgrade the infrastructure of the current seismic network system to state of the art digital seismic network with real time telemetry capabilities.
“Based on the results obtained using the probability of recurrence theory of Abuja via indiscriminate sinking of boreholes because this has been the primary reason for the stress build up leading to the Abuja tremor in the first week of September.
“Government should therefore release fund for the training of Geophysicists, Geologists, Engineers, Technologists and Researchers to participate in earth science research, in order to improve our understanding of Nigerian and West African geophysics and tectonics dynamism.”
According to him, the committee emphasized that this research has crucial societal value as evident in earthquakes hazards readiness and mitigations, explaining that government of Nigeria should take proactive and not reactive measures.