Disaster Risk Management, Control and Compensation in Nigeria: The Need for Public-Private Partnership Mitigation Policy Option

The importance of adequate financial compensation for victims of disasters has been stressed in various streams of literature. Public policy that guides decision making related to mitigation assistance to disaster victims, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, has not been comprehensively methodologically tested for effectiveness. This study employed a quantitative approach to examine the behaviour of a public policy for a mitigation programme using neural network software as a research strategy to determine whether the current policies under the National Emergency Management Agency Act comply with the guiding efficiency principle related to disaster victim compensation. Data from NEMA related to the recovery from landslides across states in the South Eastern Region were used as the basis for the model. The neural network analysis of this study indicated that federal assistance decisions after any disaster tended to focus on the naira value of losses as the determining factor in decisions. Concentrating on the naira value of losses is consistent with the formulaic approach codified in public law. This approach overshadows the importance of adequate financial compensation for disaster victims. Consequently, the existing policy is legally equitable but not necessarily morally fair to those impacted by disasters. This study's positive social change implications include recommendations to federal policymakers to more equitably structure recovery efforts in alignment with the efficiency principle related to disaster compensation rather than a primary focus on providing some form of assistance based on the cost and value of real property.