The OAAN president, Chief Emmanuel Ajufo.
Story by Dili Utomi.
Safety is defined as the state of being certain that adverse effect will not be caused by some agents under defined conditions. The World Health Organisation defines safety as the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.
That is an eclectic definition of the word, but various schools of thought have tried to have their own definitions and for the purpose of the business of out-of-home or outdoor advertising, it is simply defined as being free from danger or situations that can cause harm, the absence of harm or the conditions that lead to physical injury or death.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, the sectoral body of out-of-home operators recognises the vital importance of safety in general considerations, but also see it as being vital to their business. The importance attached to safety is the reason that the Association put together a one day training programme for members at its secretariate with the theme: Health, Safety and Environment Management Systems for Out-of-Home Operations.
A safety expert and a lead facilitator in the business of health, safety and environment, Olushola Ogunleye at the training posited that to always have safety in all conditions and situations, one must as a matter of fact be careful not to create conditions for accidents.
Mr. Ogunleye noted that “98% of all accidents are due to human factors and so accidents do not just happen, there are conditions that lead to them”. He insists that “Accidents are preventable because accidents are caused through unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. The accident pyramid indicates that there are 300 incidents (near misses), 29 minor accidents before 1 major accident and this shows that if all safety measures are taken every time, accidents will drastically reduce and people and property will be safer”.
The trainer advises on how to build an effective Health and Safety Management System in the workplace. He opined that for there to be optimum management of resources there should be a balance between the resources allocated protection and production which means that appropriate resources should be allocated to health and safety matters as much as to the areas of production. Mr. Ogunleye advises that HSE matters should be a critical incredient when planning for the entire system. In HSE management systems, he noted that there are 4 critical components namely; planning, doing, checking and acting. “These take you to better safety in all business environments and do also go a long way in engendering efficiency and the other desired values. The sole responsibility of HSE-MS is solely management’s responsibility and they should be held accountable for the proper implementation of all safety rules.
In the United States, he informed, “It is recognisesd that four major factors support the limited rights of a worker to refuse to carry out a dangerous task, two of these are that one must discuss the nature of the risk with the management and the second is that there should be an absence of any alternative”.
There are usual changes in any business environment which can be internal or external and the management of the changes in order to reduce risks and hazards as well as the ultimate improvement and upholding of all safety measures are very much key to the success of such a business.
Mr. Ogunleye said that “To make sure that a continuous HSE promotion is achieved, there should be basic HSE training for all staff, since safety is everybody’s business and this is in order to engender competence and efficiency”.
At the end of the training, we spoke with the president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Chief Emmanuel N. Ajufo who gave us insights on the reason for the training. He said that “We believe that safety is an important part of our business and this a big reason for organising this training, you cannot stop talking about safety, hence the reason for engaging the Safety Commission to organise this training for members”.
Chief Ajufo who is the Fiwajoye of Temidire Ekiti indicated that there have never been issues of safety concerns among members and their companies, but that the association needed to be proactive and bring this to the fore as a large part of their businesses are engineering based. “The essence of training is that a trained person should come out better after the training with his/her horizon of knowledge broadend and so one expects all the participants to now become doubly safety conscious and with the right knowledge at every turn”.
The OAAN president added that “We expect that the industry will be better for it as the right knowledge is acquired in the course of the training because one accident will rub off on all members in the industry. All hands should be on deck in the industry and let everyone take the issue of safety more seriously”.
Chief Ajufo says that his is very much happy with the level of participation in the training and pledges that more of it shall come over time and at a bigger venue as the hall was packed with a lot of trainees.
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