NIOB Seeks Policy Implementation To Curb Building Collapse Menace

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB) has urged the federal government to formulate policies on building collapse to prevent the ugly trend in the country.

The call was made by NIOB chairman, Omale Peter Ameh in response to the recent building collapse incidents in some states of the federation, especially Lagos, Kano and Abuja.

Ameh lamented that in the current month (September) alone have been three building collapse cases in the country.

He therefore urged the government’s regulatory agencies to up their game and ensure strict checks on constructions across the country.

Ameh also stressed the need for projects to have sign boards that show details of builders in charge of the construction for accountability in case of a collapse.

He said, “When these things happen, people come out to say it is substandard materials, substandard workmanship, substandard professional input or design failure, who vetted the design before the construction started? Who approved the setting up? After the approval of the setting up who approved also the stages of work being carried out?

“These are the responsibilities of the various development agencies responsible for development of these three locations, Lagos, Abuja and Kano.

“So, if we have people in the regulatory or the government agencies that are not doing their work, they should be called to question.”

It is not just about coming out to make statements, we have heard so much of this, every year we talk about building collapse, people will die, lives are lost, properties destroyed and money is gone and at the end of the day government will come out and say they are doing investigation and that ends the matter.

“I think the time is now ripe that every project must have a sign board and that sign board must show that a builder is in charge of the building production and it should show his registration number with the council of registered builders of Nigeria. I think we need to go a step further, by so doing when you see a project sign board that does not contain those details, we should draw a red flag from there.

“And I think it should form part of the policy that the government will draw up to enable us to say yes the construction and the project that is ongoing in this location, there are professionals that can be held accountable for it,” he stated.

He said it is high time people start demanding for the practicing license of individuals and organisations before they are engaged in building their structures.

He said the continuous occurrence of building collapse was a national embarrassment that needs to be addressed urgently.