By Clifford Ejenavi
President of the Society of Occupational and Environmental Health Physicians of Nigeria (SOEHPON), Dr. Musa Shaibu, has said for so long, every effort has focused on the formal and organized sector leaving the informal sector and over 80 percent of the Nigerian workforce at the mercy of myriads of hazards and health consequences in the workplaces.
The SOEHPON President stated this while giving his goodwill message at the first annual scientific conference and alumni meeting of the University of Port-Harcourt School of Public Health held from Monday 15th to Tuesday 30th September 2025, in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
The University of Port-Harcourt School of Public Health is the pioneer School of Public Health in Nigeria. The conference was held to discuss postgraduate education in public health and the allied health sciences and to showcase the research studies of it’s students and faculty.
Each day of the conference was dedicated to sub-specialties of public health and allied health sciences. Dr. Shaibu gave a goodwill message dedicated to Occupational Health (OH) held on Monday, 29th September, 2025 in the capacity as the President of Society of Occupational health Physician of Nigeria.
The sub-theme for the day was “Universal Access to Occupational Health Services in Nigeria”, and a Professor of Community Medicine and Occupational Health, Prof. Steve Abah, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, was keynote speaker. The Chairman of the day was Cheif Dr. Roland Obed-Whyte, a Medical Doctor and Occupational Health Safety expert, while the Special Guest of honours for the day was the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Ekem Emmanuel John.
According to Dr. Shaibu, SOEHPON considered the sub-theme timely and most appropriate as it resonates absolutely well with the ongoing project being undertaken aimed at seeing Occupational Health and Safety behaviors and practices in all work places especially in the informal small and medium scale enterprises.
The SOEHPON President said, “We must now take the practice of Occupational Health and indeed Public Health to the various informal workplace i.e. fisherman/women in riverine communities, hairdressers, vulcanizers, long distance truck/tank drivers, okada riders in the cities, adire makers, akara fryers in our communities, carpenters.
“The model is to deliver and help install some fundamental Occupational Health behaviours and practices among these informal sector workers. A project that we, at SOEHPON, are convinced not only align with your sub-theme, but surely a key strategy that will advance ‘Universal Access to Occupational Health Services’.
“I am therefore happy to state that SOEHPON is currently working on the relevant protocols to ensure quality, uniformity and standards of this project for which a formal launch is planned for Q1 2026. In this regard, SOEHPON is happy to collaborate with our Alumni Association and every other organization to deliver on any project that will help deliver on our common objectives of protecting and advancing the Health and Safety of workers in all conference.”
