The bill, they say, will reduce the recurrence of workplace accidents and improve general working conditions.
The stakeholders stated this during a ‘walk for safety’ in line with the global World Safety Day, organised in collaboration with Lagos State Safety Commission.
Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, who spoke with journalists after the walk in Alausa, Ikeja, at the weekend, said that proper working conditions were ‘a fundamental human right’.
He said: “The walk is a means of directly engaging with the public and reaching out to employers from all spheres to improve efforts towards workers’ safety.
“It is a fundamental human right to ensure that all workers have access to a safe working environment.”
“So, this walk started earlier in the morning. We went around the manufacturing hub of Lagos to basically sensitise people in terms of safety and working safely. And also to take the message to employers and remind them about the need to create a safe working environment for the people.”
Mojola said that the Commission would stand strong in its effort to achieve the foundational goals of protecting lives and property, and as well identifying and abating hazards to all workers.
Commenting on the progress made on the Occupational Health and Safety Bill being passed into law,
The director-general, while commenting on the progress made on the bill being passed into law, insisted that all parties involved were in favour of the bill, saying: “The bill has been in the House for a while. I understand that there are still deliberations on it. But we support the bill fully, Lagos State Government supports the bill fully, and all concerned organisations have also come out today to also say with one voice that we need to push more to get this bill passed.
“We’re going into the 10th National Assembly, I believe and indeed we will continue to push to ensure that that bill becomes a reality.”
Similarly, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Belinda Aderonke Odeneye, said the health and safety law would improve the well-being of Nigerian workers.
“It is a bill that we must have. As human beings, all we do is live and work. So, we have to work and live safe. We need the bill to become an Act so that it would be operational and implemented to have a safe life free of injuries, illnesses, diseases and death.”
