‘Govt aids rather than abate building collapse incidents’

You had the institute’s conference recently. How good was the meeting?The conference was very good. Attendance of invited guests from the international community both as resource persons and keynote speakers was overwhelming. The conference has shown that the institute has come of age. The way forward now is to latch onto this particular success to […]

You had the institute’s conference recently. How good was the meeting?
The conference was very good. Attendance of invited guests from the international community both as resource persons and keynote speakers was overwhelming. The conference has shown that the institute has come of age. The way forward now is to latch onto this particular success to continue to sensitize the public on activities of the institute.

Your theme, tackling building collapse was apt and interesting. What informed this choice?
What informed the theme and sub-themes were the articulations of the institute on issues of transformation agenda of the federal government which we felt are very important in our national development. Some of the sub-themes you saw there were things we advocated for at different fora which we felt government should take note of. That was why much time was devoted to ensure the themes were well discussed so that the public, the press and Nigerians will be aware of the advocacy that Nigerian builders have been doing for many years.
As an institute, our mandate is to advocate for things that will add value to government’s intentions, policies in the building environment. The conference was a collection of issues that if government takes time to look at, will add value to the various policies…some of the issues like housing policy, building collapse across the country.

It doesn’t mean government doesn’t know these problems are there. The snag is implementation of suggestions, solutions. Conferences come and go, the problems remain there. Is there anything you think can be done so positions you articulate are implemented?
Many Nigerian professionals in the building environment aren’t conversant with many issues that affect the industry. That was why when the issues were being discussed, you heard people asking questions that a layman should be asking. It shows that even in the corridors of power people have to be enlightened about various policy platforms and framework that impart on the building environment. Government needs to be properly advised by people who know.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where the more noise you make, the better position you get. We’ve decided to go a different way by showing that issues that we articulate are central to government establishments so that they can look at them and if they feel can add value to their policies, they can take them.
Yes, I agree that policy implementation has been a problem in this country. But implementation has to do with government legislation. Building collapse and housing deficit are issues that demand legislation. The only thing the institute can do is to advocate.
I’ll give you example-the issue of building collapse. How do you stop building collapse? Despite several building collapse incidents across the country, there’s no legislation that says people can be prosecuted if they’re involved in building collapse. Except government puts in place legislation to prosecute individuals involved…

If government fails, don’t you think you as an institute can check your professionals? Can’t you delist your members?
 No builder has been found responsible or involved in any building collapse incident in this country. It’s not to say we’re perfect but we’ve taken time to carry out our due diligence on buildings that collapsed and we’ve not found a single member of our institute responsible or involved in a building that collapsed in this country. That tells you that charlatans, imposter, pretenders and quacks have taken over the industry. And because there’s no legislation to curtail their activities, they’ve had a field day. They’re all there doing buildings that collapse and there’s no law that says they can be prosecuted.
As an institute, we’re creating awareness about our roles in the building environment. But beyond our role in advocacy, provisions must be made to address critical issues that Nigerians can be deterred in doing what is wrong.
That’s why the bill that is in the National Assembly since 2006 on the National Building Code, to give it a legal backing – making it possible that anybody who contravenes the building code can be prosecuted, over seven years, it’s still in the National Assembly. It’s still awaiting passage into law.
Once these things are missing, no matter what noise you make as a body, as a person, nothing can be achieved. As it is now, legislation is the only thing that can help.

Let’s get one thing clear. Is it that those who built these houses that collapsed are not members of your institute or they were just not builders?
They were not builders. Some of them are not even professionals in any field. They’re just businessmen and charlatans whose motive is to get profit. We’ve checked the list of houses that have collapsed, nobody from the institute is involved. And it becomes difficult – how can you regulate somebody who’s not member of the institute? You can regulate or deregister only a member of your institute who’s involved in something that’s wrong.
When you go to many sites in this country, you see people who have no identity, they say they’re doing building construction. When the building collapses, you don’t see them – they disappear into thin air.
Again, government has put a policy that is very comfortable for them. The law is, if a building collapses, the owner forfeits the land! How are the people that lost their lives compensated for? The person who’s responsible, how does he get punished? Government has left that out. It’s very sad.

But this is a big embarrassment to you as a professional body because to a lay person, builders are the ones that build houses.
Let me take you back memory lane about the process of procurement in the building environment. One of the sad things is the law that regulates building approval in this country dates back 1938. There’s not much change to that law.

It should be a colonial law.
Yes, Lagos City Council Law when Lagos was capital of the country. That is a law that people have tried to change to an extent that…what does the law say? It says for you to start a building project, there should be plan approval, a plan drawn by an architect. That’s normal. For your plan to be approved by the planning authority, you must submit your structural design to the authorities.
That’s where the law stops. The law does not say who manages the process of construction of this building. The same law has made it engaging builders not mandatory. Once a building is approved, which should be a sign of having met requirements…today, what we have is approvals are granted to building owners and buildings collapse afterwards. What that simply means is that the effect of the approval…the building document which has been approved by the National Building Code should form part of the conditions for approval. Those documents should be part of the things to be submitted in addition to the plans by the architects, plans by the structural engineers including the builders’ documents should form part of the documents for approval.

Is that why architects design and build?
Architects are supposed to simply design. But most of them say they are into Design and Build. Architects are only known to design and they come to supervise inputs during the construction. Engineers are designers; they come to supervise input to the construction. But the builder is the one that puts all these designs together and translates them into reality using different methods, programming and ensuring that…
The builder’s documents must be captured at the design stage and have impact in the construction stage. Unless that is done, the incidents of building collapse will remain with us.

The federal executive council last month approved the draft National Fire Safety Code. Do you think this is capable of tackling fire incidents?
Again, for me, it’s well and good that the federal executive approved the fire safety code but the efficacy of that approval is my concern. Just like what happened to the National Building Code, the National Building Code has been in the senate for years. The question is how far has it impacted on the building environment?