By Our Reporter
The Risk Managers Society of Nigeria ( RIMSON ) on Wednesday said that a proper risk management procedure, if entroned, was a panacea for the Nigerian government to record greater results in tackling its range of national challenges.
Mr Raymond Akalonu, President and Chairman of RIMSON’s Governing Council, said this at the opening of the Society’s 2019 Conference on Tuesday in Lagos.
The Conference has as its theme, “Emerging Risks: Rising to the Challenge”.
Akalonu said that the theme of the conference underscored the worry of the body concerning the vulnerability of the national space to emerging risks, and notably, cyber related ones.
He said that tragic incidents such as the unabated petrol tankers fire, building collapse, flood ,among other disasters that befell the nation were a matter of concern.
“The incident on Otedola Bridge in Lagos in 2018 and the Upper Iweka, Onitsha, Anambra State incident just last week are sordid and avoidable.
“It has remained our expectation that these tanker fire incidents, incidents of collapsed buildings and massive flooding of cities across the country could be risk managed.
“This is to avoid their occurrence or provide mitigants to the collateral damages which trail such incidents, ” he said.
According to him, the professional body has continued to canvass risk-based management of critical national infrastructure .
Akalonu said these include various national assets such as the National Theatre in Lagos, National stadia in Lagos and Abuja, various national and state hospital complexes, petroleum refineries, Ajaokuta steel rolling mill which for many years has been moribund, railways, sea ports, among others .
The Association’s President urged respective authorities to also integrate risk management as inevitable policies in order to effect far-reaching changes in the scheme of things.
He said RIMSON had accordingly proposed the engagement of qualified risk managers as part of the civil service structure.
“Apart from national infrastructure and assets, so many decision-making processes could be enhanced through effective risk management.
“Areas such as National budget planning , Urban and regional planning ,waste management ,Urban renewal , National population and immigration policy thrusts, Sea level control , Agriculture and Health policies , Erosion and other ecological issues, among others , ” he said.
According to him, risk management must be made an integral part of national consciousness in the country.
Akalonu promised his members that the new executive committee would pursue the actualization of all the identified prospects in the journey of making risk management a necessity and not an option.
Mrs Adetola Adegbayi, Executive Director , Leadway Assurance , in her lecture ,titled : Artificial Intelligence and Liability Issues ; Rising To The Challenges of Emerging Risk, said every Society comes with it’s own risk and challenges.
Adegbayi said that the country must begin to look into the future and adopt humanoid robot to do public service work for prompt and effective delivery .
“We will still need humans to create the robot and make them work, so it does not mean that the use of robots would increase unemployment ,rather it will create a different type of employment for people ,” she said.
According to her ,redefined laws must however hold the makers of such machine accountable and responsible for any criminal offense it commits.
RIMSON, established since 1985, is the premier risk management body in Nigeria with membership cut across the diverse sectors of the national economy.
The society is committed to the regeneration of qualified risk managers through well articulated training and retraining opportunities.
The annual conference is geared towards the propagation of risk management education, centering on the promotion of risk management awareness and culture across all spheres of our national life. (NAN)
