VICTIMS AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF ENVIRONMENTALLY INDUCED DISASTER IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Environmentally induced disasters are spatially and temporally bound in any part of the world and especially in 
Nigeria. There has been an increase in the occurrence and prevalence of environmental disaster in Kogi State which 
has led to displacement and impacted negatively on victims‘ livelihood of the inhabitant of the study area. 
Unfortunately, many of the inhabitant of the study area do not have access to firsthand Information about the 
spatial, temporal and resultant effect of the environmentally induced disaster occurrences in their vicinity and as a 
result, they lack the prevention and preparedness information in mitigating the effect of these disaster at the time of 
occurrence. This paper examines victims‘ awareness and perception to environmental disaster in Kogi State. A 
multistage sampling technique was employed to select a total of 450 disaster victims. Structured questionnaire was 
used to elicit information from the disaster victims. Also, focus group discussion (FGD) was used to support 
information extracted from the questionnaire. The finding show variation in each of the communities‘ vulnerability, 
occurrence of disaster, risk preparedness socio-economic status as well as past experiences of disaster victims has 
great implication on their level of awareness and perception.  The study therefore suggests among other 
recommendation that increased public awareness, integration of risk assessment and preparedness orientation for 
the community to enhance better understanding and attitudinal change will influence the community perception of 
vulnerability in the study area. The achievement of this will bring about reduction in loss of lives, livelihoods and 
properties as well as total safeguarding of the environment.