Nigerian Engineers Plan Safety Awareness to Prevent Disasters
The Nigerian Institution of Safety Engineers has said it would evolve strategic awareness campaign to assist in preventing disasters and improving safety, particularly in respect of fire, flooding and building collapse across the country.
The Nigerian Institution of Safety Engineers (NISE), a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), was inaugurated in January 2016, and it is made up of engineering practitioners who are registered with NSE and are active in safety practice.
The pioneer National Chairman of NISE, Engineer Abiodun Oyedepo said the Institution of Safety Engineers would carry out its awareness campaign through state chapters across the country.
According to him, NISE was not formed to compete with other safety bodies and agencies but that it would rather collaborate with all, to better improve safety, as an engineering body.
Oyedepo said, “Safety is embedded in engineering,” stating that membership of NISE was open to engineers but that those who were not registered engineers but are involved in safety were also welcome in the Institution as associate members.
The NISE Chairman said people have been wondering if there were no engineers in Nigeria in view of the incessant disasters caused by fire, flooding and by building collapse across the country.
He said one of the strategies the NISE adopted in sensitising the public to proffer solutions and preventive measures to such disasters, was the leadership’s visit to organisations and agencies that are stakeholders in safety and engineering, such as Chevron, NNPC Retail, NERC, NPA, DPR and the Minister of Labour and Productivity, among others.
Oyedepo said the response to their visits was impressive, “with people expressing appreciation that Nigerian engineers have eventually risen from their slumber.” He added that “we are building a foundation for others to build on, and are setting up chapters in more states of the federation, with the first one recently being inaugurated in Awka, Anambra State.