From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc (BEDC), yesterday, partnered the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Edo State branch to reduce work related hazards and ensure productivity at workplace.
Speaking at an event to mark the World Safety Day at the BEDC head office in Benin City, Head Safety and Environment, BEDC, Gilbert Nweke, said Nigeria has refused to aggressively adopt the safety procedures at their workplaces like other countries which were once called third world countries.
He said the impact of the refusal of Nigeria to brace up like every other countries in Europe and Asia is telling negatively on the production level of the country noting that a healthy working environment would always lead to a high productivity on the part of the workers.
“We are looking at Europe, we are looking at Canada, we are looking at all those countries that have taken their health and safety to the next level but when we are looking at the third world countries, we are looking at mostly Africa countries and some other asian countries that have not yet moved away but we should also know that China and Japan were once classified as third world countries in the early 70s but today, they have left us behind.
“So, what we are simply saying is that when there is an improved working environment, where there is healthy working environment, productivity seems to go high, there is no doubt about that, the people will be smiling to the bank, the workers will also be smiling to the bank but what you see in the third world countries, is that the employers will be smiling to the bank while the workers will be wetting their pillows with tears”, Nweke said.
The Head Safety and Environment of BEDC said the company, having known the nature of services its workers are into, decided to partner Red Cross to train them on handling an emergency situation which might crop up in the course of their jobs.
“As a member of Red Cross, so I understand safety especially in the area of emergency response and also evacuation procedures.
“So, we have been conducting a lot of drills but we set aside the World Safety Day, to conduct mock drills based on how to respond to unconscious person, somebody who has suddenly dropped or collapsed in the workplace.
“So, we need to empower them , teach them what to do because we have discovered that some of our workers due to work pressure or exhaustion, some of them may collapse in the office or at the work sites and many of them do not have the necessary skills to resuscitate such person.
“You discover when somebody collapse, just a minor first aid treatment can resuscitate that person back to life but when there is ignorance, they allow the person to die not because they hated him but they just don’t know what to do.
“So, that is why we decided to bring in the Red Cross so that they we demonstrate to us how to do it so that we will be better equipped because the nature of our work is an emergency work, is a twenty four hours service and sometimes, people can over stretch their limits and when it happens, what do we do?”, He asked rhetorically.
On his part, the branch secretary of Red Cross, Wilson Ekhomugiazin thanked the company for inviting them to help facilitate the Simulation Exercise.
He said staff of the company were taught on how to handle emergence situations vis-a-vis”how to manage an unconscious casualty that is breathing and how to provide assistance to a casualty that is not also breathing.
He urged the company to sustain the advocacy of safety measures at workplaces.
Caption: Gilbert Nweke addressing members of staff during the World Safety Day at the BEDC office in Benin City yesterday