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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

2018 Safety Day marked in Lagos with awards



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

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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 Short URLs: goo.gl, mcaf.ee, cli.gs

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