The Nigeria House of Representatives Committee on Safety Standards and Regulations has urged safety professionals to live up to their responsibility of making the nation safer.
It followed the World Safety Report, which ranks Nigeria as the least safe country.
This was the focus of a strategic stakeholders engagement for the sustainable practice of safety management in Nigeria organised by the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria, (ISPON).
According to the Chairman, House Committee On Safety Standards And Regulations, Hamza Ibrahim, represented by his Vice-Chairman, Sam Chinedu Onwuazo, with the ISPON Act enacted in 2014, the Committee in the discharge of its task, commenced a series of interactive sessions with critical stakeholders.
Their presentations, he said, were insightful, revealing, shocking and disturbing; scenarios that reflect the poor state of compliance to safety legislation and rules across most sectors.
“Having examined the enormity of the work before us, we have initiated a phased process for interaction, investigation, audit, reporting, follow up and intervention.
“We are also demanding a more robust approach to safety management from both government and private organisations to improve our poor international ranking.
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“Safety management in Nigeria has been hindered by a lot of factors which include, lack of competence, poor reporting of incidents, lack of credible data, focus on revenue, unprofessional conducts, focus on hazard allowances and not a safe workplace by workers or unions, unfair rivalry, employment of quacks, monitoring and enforcement lapses, incident cover-up, and many more.”
He added that Nigerians deserve a safe and healthy workplace and environment, devoid of hazards or where elimination seems impossible, reduced to as low as reasonably practicable.
National President of the institute, Mr. Kaizer Ebiwari, noted that safety professionals were operating in a diverse and not coordinated mode, which is not healthy for safety to thrive.
