ILO and Lagos State Government to Promote Occupational Safety and Health

ABUJA (ILO News) – The Director of the ILO Country Office Abuja, Dennis Zulu, has pledged to work with Lagos State Government to promote safety and health at the workplace in the State. He stated this while receiving the Director General and Chief Executive Officer (DG/CEO) of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Hon. Hakeem O. Dickson who paid him a courtesy visit at the ILO Office in Abuja.

The promotion of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in Lagos seeks to highlight the fact that all injuries, ill health and deaths that occur in the workplace are preventable. This calls for a paradigm shift at every level of an organization, from one of fault finding to one that focuses on finding solutions to prevent injuries and ill health.

Mr Zulu commended the DG/CEO for his commitment to the issues of Occupational Safety and Health at work which had culminated in the convening of “Lagos Vision Zero Conference” which brought together OSH experts and organizations to work together and promote “Vision Zero”. He noted that Lagos State has demonstrated a practical example that was worthy of emulation by others States in Nigeria.

In his remarks, Hon. Hakeem O. Dickson explained that he had decided to pay a courtesy visit to the ILO to request for the ILO’s assistance towards the promotion of the “Vision Zero” in Lagos State and in Nigeria at large. He emphasized the fact that the ILO held the key to development which Nigeria had not effectively exploited.

Hon. Dickson reported that his participation in the XXI World Congress on Safety, Health and Well-being which took place from 3 to 6 September 2017 in Singapore has enlightened him on what to do to reduce the rate of occupational accidents. This informed the decision of the Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Safety Commission to adopt the theme of the XXI World Congress on Safety, Health and Well-being as its theme to organize a similar conference in Lagos State with a view to mobilizing resources and cooperation of stakeholders to achieve zero occupational deaths and accidents in Lagos State.

He requested the ILO’s support towards building the capacity of the officials of Lagos State Safety Commission; institutional strengthening of the commission to effectively promote safe and secure working environment for all workers; empowerment of the commission to conduct investigations of occupational accidents and dangerous occurrences.