PROPERTY NEWS

Representatives of professional bodies in the built environment sector have blamed the various building collapses across the country on the Federal Government’s failure to sign the bill for the enforcement of the National Building Code (NBC) on culprits.

The experts made the observation when the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Nduese Essien, met them recently in Abuja to find a lasting solution to the building collapse crisis.

Lamenting government’s inability to pay critical attention to the Building Code since the constitution of an Adversary Council in that regard, the Second Deputy President of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Bala-Bawa Ka’Oje, said the council had since inception in 2006 not met due to government lackadaisical attitude to the adoption of the code.

He added that, though approved by government the NBC’s enforcement and adoption by the relevant bodies had not been effected by the National Assembly.

Calling on all tiers of government nationwide to establish building code units, Ka’Oje, former President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) as well as Minister of Sports, urged the minister to ensure that the National Assembly wakes up to its responsibility.

"Public hearing on the enforcement of the adoption of the NBC has been done at the National Assembly on this issue since 2002, after which nothing has been heard about it," he said.

President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Alade Ajibola, underlined the need to revamp and rejuvenate technical institutes across the country.

According to him, lack of the needed skills by the unskilled labours involved in construction activities could be traced to the incidence of building collapse. He added that unskilled manpower needed to be given some form of education.

The meeting was called by the minister on the heels of recent collapse of structures in Auchi in Edo State and Oshodi in Lagos State, barely a month after his assumption of office.

A representative of the Surveyors’ Council of Nigeria (SURCON), Martins Osuzoka, asserted that surveyors should be involved in the monitoring of high-rise buildings to ensure that errors are quickly identified and corrected.

Essien said, "It is no longer news that the case of collapsed building in the country has reached an alarming rate and has been a source of embarrassment to the Federal Government. While millions of naira has been lost each time a building crumbles, it is impossible to quantify, in monetary terms, the value of innocent lives wasted during such occurrence."

He posited that the nation and its professionals must not pretend that all is well in the sector.

"As a government, professional groups and regulatory bodies, we must be prepared to stop the indiscriminate dumping of inferior and fake building materials in our markets," he declared, listing such products to include iron rods, tiles, as well as electrical and plumbing materials.

He called on industry stakeholders to forge an alliance with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and other regulatory agencies to ensure that only quality materials are put to use.

"We must ensure that only qualified engineers, architects, surveyors, and builders are engaged in the construction of buildings, and we must not sacrifice the quality of our structures on the alter of cost cutting," he added.