By Adetunji Ayo-Brown
Governance becomes easier through regulation of building codes, advancing social welfare on the citizens becomes easier while contributing immensely to Nigeria’s economic development. That Nigeria has a national building code but with no voice of law.
Client’s requests should be in conformity with building code, while professional builders should handle such in accordance with the professional mandates while clients’ insatiable wants and wishes are considered.
President Nigeria Institute of Building, Prof Yohanna Izam said that “benefits are numerous if local governments would have orderly developments, every LG should have well-marked out streets, with proper house numbering, which would improve security and help in the database of buildings and citizens occupiers”.
Prof. Izam who is also the Vice Chancellor, Plateau State University, Bokkos, said “building sector can be used in growing the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), used in creation of employment and in enhancing the economic prosperity of various regions and sub-regions. We must pay more attention and organise the building sector at our local government levels”.
He said “national building code is the benchmark requirement and standard, used for professional practices and processes. Which must be approved by FG, through the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing”.
“Every nation that has developed has standards and codes for its building industry. Since 2006, the national building code has remained in draft trying to get the National Assembly passage on it to have a voice of law. Which must be domesticated at various state levels”.
Iza, a PhD holder in Construction Management and a member Council of Registered Builders and former state commissioner marshalled these views and many more on a live television programme. He said that “many think because it is their money, they can do whatever they like in the building industry. Many sit at their comforts to generate architectural designs with no proper calculations of building patterns, not to talk about prescriptions of sizes and quantities of structural elements that must be used in a building”.
Buildings are capital investment meant to produce public outcomes for the growth and development of the economy. Izem said “laws and regulations are done only for public projects; such mentality has to be corrected. Whether it is private or public sector, regulation is a must for all building”.
“Nigeria lacks law to prosecute building code defaulters. The issue of professionalisation of state ministries is key. State government should ensure that the right people are employed and allowed to do the work. Towards a successful building project, there are assigned various professional groups in the building industry. They include engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, builders and town planners.”
“According to Information from the studied data, there is a larger number of building collapses involving the private sector developers. We must revise urban development laws; its decentralisation would be helpful with well managed qualified manpower at the local government levels.
“Construction of storey buildings is of huge monetary value. Government and professional groups must come to the round table to agree because the political will is needed to drive the process of sanity in the building industry”.
“Something drastic is needed to be done. With efforts from the National Assembly, Nigeria will have a national building code which will be domesticated by states. FG and state governments can also further strengthen building regulations when the law exists.
“Data from the Nigeria Institutes of Building and investigation showed that as far back as 1974 to 2018, reported that there have been over 250 cases of building collapse with information about some of the causes, preliminary and outcomes of investigations and even the fatalities rates as well”.
“Any building constructed must be on the government’s register at the board. Looking around the whole country we seem to have indicators that building control agencies are short staffed and underfunded, little bit of decentralisation in terms of control functions will also help”, he further stated.
“Nigeria has an industry that had for long suffered from lack of regulations and enforcement of building law. Lack of regulations in Nigeria building industry had quackery going into the industry.
