As part of efforts to minimize hazards at social and corporate events, the Lagos Safety Commission, LSC in conjunction with a major player in the event planning, management, hotel and venues owners in the State, AQAATA Safety, has organised a town hall for stakeholders
Tagged “the Science of Safe Events Conference series, the maiden town hall has as its theme: “Doing the Right Thing in the New Normal”
In his remarks, the Director-General of the Safety Commission, Mr Lanre Mojola explained that the town hall has enabled the Commission to hear from stakeholders and would go a long way in shaping new regulations, implementation of policies and enforcement.
“This conversation is very interesting, we’ve always been very proactive and safeguarding our people is a major priority to this administration of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and there’s no better time for us to have this conversation than at this period being one of the busiest with many end of the year corporate and social activities, it is imperative that people be guided and educated to do the right thing in the new normal, bringing all operators under the same hall to speak truth to themselves, what exactly are the problems, how can we proffer solutions to these problems to indeed ensure that we can all come out, party, have fun and go back to our homes safely” he said
Mr Mojola told the stakeholders that the Commission would continue to operate an open door policy to ensure best practices at all times.
He also warned that the Safety Commission would not hesitate to clamp down on any industry player who repeatedly contravene spelt out regulations as the safety of all during all corporate and social events, was very important to the State Government
In a goodwill message, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Duties and Inter Governmental Relations, Mr Mobolaji Ogunlende announced that government is working on a number of measures, including the Eko Safe initiative, under which event centres would be graded as well as events safety regulations to ensure that Safety becomes a lifestyle.
Mr Ogunlende who listed the recently passed swimming pool regulation as one of the measures currently being implemented, charged the industry players to be united in complying with laid down regulations.
He said “It’s a collective effort as well as an individual effort, no man is an island and to be able to do this and do it properly, we must all come together to be able to speak the same language so that we don’t have somebody leaving event Centre A for example, knowing that they could cut corners at event Centre B, but if both of them are speaking the same language, then, we will have the same rules and regulations across board and that would make it easier to regulate and make the event centres as well as Lagos State a safer place”
Earlier in an address of welcome, AQAATA’s Edi Lawani noted that even though safety is ingrained in human beings, people tend to fight back when it is demanded of them.
According to Mr Lawani, the roundtable has become imperative because if a proper checklist is enforced, ninety-eight percent of events will fail, while ninety-five percent of attendees will not turn up over fear for their safety and well-being.
During the panel discussions and interactive session, participants who highlighted some of the challenges they encounter in the course of drawing up contracts with clients agreed that in addition to being event planners, they must also become educators, sensitizing their customers on health and safety standards.
