By Kate Obande-Okewu
Abuja – The Occupational Safety and Health Association, UK (OSHA), says that the safety culture in Nigeria is less than 10 per cent.
Mr Emmanuel Uwalaka, Regional Administrator, OSHA, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that majority of Nigerians were not safety conscious of their actions and in actions both at work places and homes.
“We are in a country where people do not evaluate the risk level of what they want to do before doing it, whether in their offices or at homes.
“Not minding if they are going to die or live after the act and this attitude is very dangerous.
“Being conscious about safety and its preparedness is the key to ensuring sustainability and insuring the lives and properties of individuals and an organisation,’’ he said.
Uwalaka explained that lack of safety could destroy an organization, adding that there were so many areas of safety not just fire accident or flood prevention.
According to him, if an employee does not follow the due procedure in executing an assigned task, such employee can jeopardise the establishment.
He noted that as part of their organisations’ effort to address the safety challenge in Nigeria, they were collaborating with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).
He told NAN that the collaboration involved training of civil servants to enable them have a mental shift and appreciate what safety is all about.
“We have started training some civil servants in our orientation course so that they can be able to live safely in their offices, homes and live safely with others.
“This is also to educate them on how fellow colleagues can pose as threats to an organisation, if they are not well managed or they can collapse an investment,’’ he said.
He added that plans were underway to upscale the orientation course to certificate course.
Uwalaka said that the certificate would enable the civil servants become safety professionals and they could serve as consultants to other organisations even after their retirement.
NAN recalls that OSHA had in April 2018 trained more than 100 civil servants on occupational safety and healthy work environment in the OHCSF.
OSHA is an international organisation with the aim to promote the development and professional best practices on occupational safety and health worldwide.(NAN)
