The National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria, NISCN, has asked the federal government to prioritise the industrial safety of Nigerian workers.
Speaking at the 2023 Nigeria Safety Conference and Workshop in Lagos on Wednesday, the National President of NISCN, Dr Festus Daniel, said safety is not just a responsibility of a few, but a collective duty that falls upon every individual, every organisation and every sector.
Daniel said joining forces with the federal government can pave the way for a safer Nigeria, where lives are protected, risks are mitigated and sustainable development thrives.
He said, “As the leader of the council, there is a sense of resilience in me and in my team, we have tried in many ways to get this message across and it appears that it hasn’t gotten the acceptance it required.
“So, we are working to present our agenda to the new administration from the state level to the federal level because the council has its members across the 36 states and FCT.
“So, we want to see how we can bring that knowledge to the leadership of the states so that we can implement rightful standards in the industry and take it further to the president. Safety should be communicated by the leadership and once the leadership adopts the standards, then others would follow.
“If we are able to get the state governments to buy into it and get national to adopt safety matters, then we would have made our message more efficient. I believe so much in the incoming administration that they wouldn’t want to play with safety standards.
“We are totally committed to driving safety standards at local, state and federal government levels. We will make anybody that needs to know what we are doing to know it. The higher we make the awareness, the prevention will come in better and less expensive.”
On his part, the Lagos State chairman of the council, Adeyinka Oyediran, said the government should encourage the adoption of safety standard teaching in primary schools.
Oyediran said, “Safety is for everybody and it is like when you are talking about your security because it is when you are safe from whatever you are doing that you can say that you are secure. The environment needs to be safe because if you are not safe at home, you cannot be safe at work.
“Safety has to be imbibed by everybody and we have to go as far as the primary schools to teach about safety so that they grow up to know that safety is so important. Again we are going to challenge the government to make sure that all those to put their hands on deck on the issue of safety should do it.
“Organisations have standards they must follow and the establishment of this council in 1964 stipulated out the regulation and the standard that organisations including construction companies must maintain. But the majority of issues of safety are always politicised and that is why we are losing so many people to industrial hazards.
“That is why we are preaching to our people that gone are the days when you can do things as you like or you can cut corners. We used to have first aid boxes in many organisations but today we don’t have them any longer and there is no punishment for those that err.”
