April 28, of each
year since 2013, has been set aside by International Labour Organisation (ILO)
as World Day of Safety and Health at Work. It is a day dedicated to the safety
of workers as well as offer ample opportunity for safety and Health (medical)
professionals to promote safety Culture in the work place in addition to
remembering workers who have paid supreme prizes for lack or inadequate safety
provisions in their respective work places.
As a publication
committed to the safety and security of all, Safety&SecurityWatch (SSW)
magazine instituted and had its inaugural Nigeria Safety and Security (NSAS)
Lecture and Awards on May 8, 2014 as an avenue to encourage and promote
safety culture not only in the workplace but as a way of life.
Ever since this day,
SSW
has consistently marked the ILO Day of Safety and Health at work using it as
another avenue of creating awareness and sensitization on HSSE as the way to go
in the work place. The 2018 edition just
took place in Lagos.
Records has it that, 541 million young workers (15-24 years
old) - which includes 37 million children in hazardous child labour, account
for more than 15 per cent of the world’s labour force and suffer up to a 40 per
cent higher rate of non-fatal occupational injuries than adult workers older
than 25.
This global ugly trend in addition to the campaign aims to accelerate
action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.8 of safe and
secure working environments for all workers by 2030, and SDG target 8.7 of
ending all forms of child labour by 2025 prompted the coming together of; the
World Day for Safety and Health at Work (SafeDay) and the World Day Against
Child Labour (WDACL) in a joint campaign to improve the safety and health of
young workers and end child labour under the common theme: eliminating child labour and promoting a
culture of prevention on occupational safety health (OSH for the 2018 SafeDay.
As a way of encouraging all especially employers of labour,
SSWatch, instituted an annual lecture series during which various honours and
recognitions are accorded persons and corporate organizations that tow the path
of safety in words and actions (operations) by way of awards and medals.
Safety is no doubt a novel idea in this part of the globe
except for those in the zero tolerant oil and gas sector, who embrace safety
because they are constrained to do so.
It is not surprising that going by the many security infrastructure
put in place by the Governor Akinwunmi administration of Lagos, all of which
support safety, health and environment, he emerged the Safety Man of the year,
while the Director of Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Modecai Danteni Baba
Ladan, clinched the Safety Icon of the Year Award as Nigeria Maritime and
Safety Administration Agency, NIMASA took home the Safety Organ of the Year
Merit Award.
The guest lecturer, a former Safety manager with the Federal
Airport of Nigeria, FAAN, Engr. Godwin Anokwa who brought the theme home,
speaking on, Curtailing the Menace
of Child Labour in Nigeria blame the inglorious act of child labour in Nigeria
on poverty and ignorance as major offenders.
In another presentation on the theme, Engr. Jamiu Badmos of Safety
Advocates and Empowerment Foundation, SAEF, a non profit organization, minced
no words saying that child labour may not be eradicated in the Nigerian or
African setting as it is propelled by hunger and tradition. According to him,
the African tradition demands that children obey their parents and elders as
well assist them in whatever they do just he questions the possibility of
stopping the youth who is already his/her family breadwinner from doing so. He
therefore called on employers of labour to provide conducive environment that
accommodates the under-aged worker.
In her remarks, the managing editor of Safety&SecurityWatch magazine,
organizers of the annual event, Dr. Chinyere Amaechi urge employers of labour to
assign age appropriate tasks to the young workers.
To the awardees, Dr. Amaechi told recipients of the different categories
of recognitions that the essence of the recognitions accorded them was a way of
encouraging them to do more particularly in the area of application as well as bring
more of their likes to embrace HSE in their various operations.
The lecture/award event which took place in Lagos attracted awardees from
across the nation and from every work of
life.
Speaking on behalf of the Awardees, the head of Fire Service in Anambra
State, Engineer Martin Agbili, who bagged home Outstanding Safety Personality
Award, saluted the organizers of the annual event for the gesture, saying as
expected, the Awardees will do more to whatever they have been doing that
prompted the recognitions.
Uj. N. Dominic/GEE
Pix: L-r: Dr. Chinyere Amaechi (Convener), President National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria, NISCN and Chairman of the occasion Mr. Cletus Akhigbe and immediate past Director of Factories, Fed. Mins. of Labour Mrs. Nofisat Arogundade
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