ARCON Tasks NASS On Law Backing National Building Code

Registrar, Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has called on the National Assembly to expedite action to deliver a law that will give a legal backing to the National Building Code in the country.

Murnai said the absence of an enabling legislation for the document has largely contributed to its ineffectiveness in the area of regulating procedures and processes in the nation’s real estate industry.

The ARCON boss stated this during a week-long programme organized by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, where engineers within and beyond the country gathered to discuss “Domestication and Development of Codes, Standards and Regulations as Panacea for Engineering Infrastructural Failure in Nigeria.”

Harping on, “National Building Code: “Challenges and Solutions for Modern Infrastructure”, Murnai argued that the code was yet to be backed by any legislation hence most professionals were yet to accept it as a document to guide let alone the public who are always apprehensive of new ideas.

He said that the code provides that all state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should domesticate the document, but wondered how many of the states have the full document in operation.

According to him, the building code was aimed to establish minimum requirements to safeguard public health, safety and general welfare in the process of predesign, design, construction and post-construction stages of the life cycle of buildings and structures.

He added that by implication it applies, in terms of control of all matters concerning the design and specifications, cost effectiveness, construction, alteration, addition to, moving, demolition, location, repair and use of any building or structure, for existing or proposed building work accordingly.

“Building code and regulations exist to safeguard the public health and general welfare from fire and other hazards attributed to the built environment.