Quote from Kola Adebayo on April 19, 2018, 10:15 AM

In the picture is Lagos State Governor, Ambode on 12th April 2018. He is doing well in construction of roads and bridges to ease transport in Lagos but something REALLY BIG was missing as I use red highlighter to indicate it. No Personal protective equipment (PPE) e.g. Helmet, him while at a construction site. The others weren’t wearing too but that should not be surprising. They followed and follow him.

 

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a standard requirement in the construction industry. It DOES NOT and SHOULD NOT exclude anyone whether Governor, politician, pastor, cleaner or police man.  If you must go to a construction site or even a production site (e.g. where they manufacture), you need PPE.

 

Helmet and safety boots are generally known (even at lowest cadre) to be the basic part of PPE but if we have people at Governor level who, either do not know (I don’t believe they don’t) or for any other reason not willing to use it/them, our infant construction industry will face huge safety challenges in the future.

 

As I discussed in this piece, it is important we get it right, right now and not the future. Many of the problems we are having today as a nation exist because some of our leaders did not put things in place many years ago. We just cannot afford to do the same for the next generations. Construction is one sector we can hardly do without. Be it road infrastructure or even housing, we need construction so seriously.

 

On housing alone, look at our population numbers (180m) and growth rate, you will see that we must build for many years to come otherwise, there will be big crisis. How can we build bridges, roads and houses without all the safety measures either at the point of construction or post construction? I don’t expect your answer, but you should get the point by now. The construction industry is at infantry level. You need to visit the central of London as at this time of this writing (April 2018), you will marvel. There are cranes everywhere. I was standing on a 4 level building at Elephant and Castle (E&C) and I counted over 21 high rise constructions going on with over 12 at around (E&C) while the rest looks to be close to central or at central London. The point is, the infantry level of our construction sector presents an opportunity to grow with the safety culture. By the time we go big, we should be at that top level expected in any part of the world.

 

I am using Lagos as a case for a reason. Lagos is the leading economy in Nigeria and it has shown exemplary leadership in many areas. Many states are using Lagos “templates” to model their own state which is good in a way. No need re-inventing the wheel. If Lagos get it right, many states can just “copy and paste” or well they can as well “paste special”-to suit their own case if you get what I mean.

 

Just if you think that was a one off, there are many others and I will show you just two more below

 

Image Source

 

I am also using the Governor to drive this because he has a huge responsibility to. Lagos population is the 1st or 2nd (depending on which report you are looking at) in Nigeria with at least over 10m people. He has huge number of “followers”. Check how many people are following him to the sites. If he insisted the PPE must be used and let the site managers understands the importance of passing the message to everyone working on site and that come to sites, we will be getting there quicker than any other means. In the private sector, the practice has been there for a long time. I know. When I was in private sector, you cannot be allowed in the production areas without short training on safety, plus your PPE which includes eyes protective glasses. If you check the image below, you will notice how Vice president, the same Lagos State Governor, Ambode and Even the finance Minister was wearing helmet. It happened because they were at Dangote Refineries site. The Governor should emulate the good practise in the private sector and bring it down to the public sector. Safety is as important as whatever we are building.

 

Image Source

 

If he has worn PPE in those sites, many construction workers will learn what it means and will carry that culture wherever they go so also will those who visit the various sites where Government contractors are working.

 

Other benefits of being safety cultured apart from the obvious ones.

It will chart a new course for specific sub-skills within the construction industry and or within health and safety sector. It will create an avenue to look at our laws and create the industry regulation where they don’t exist or enhance them if they already in place. Lastly as I conclude, if we use PPE everywhere they are deemed needed, demand will increase, and we will need to produce more of these items and create more jobs in the process. You can see the good spill over effects. It great.

 

The time to start that Safety Culture is now including at primary, secondary and higher institutions and everyone must practise it no matter your position. Please wear safety boots, helmet, hand gloves, Highly Visible Vests (HiVis), eyes protective glasses, ear plugs e.t.c as needed.

 

Of course, this is not all Safety is about but getting the basics right goes a long way. The time to start that Safety Culture is now, Starting with the Governor.

 

that is involved in safety but that is the least individuals can do. I have just done one of mine.

 

Kola Adebayo

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I write for Practical Positive Changes

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