From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Following the rampant collapse of buildings in Nigeria, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has come strong against the perpetrators of the ugly incidents in the country, saying that henceforth offenders would be prosecuted.
The minister stated this during a review meeting of recommendations of the ministry’s building collapse committee along side regulatory bodies in the built environment.
To ensure proper investigation and prosecution of the culprits, the minister also charged the ministry’s committee on building collapse to develop a checklist of professionals involved in the construction process in order to ease investigation and identify the culprits.
” You must come up with a checklist of things to observe during inspection or assessment of building collapse and there must be a column to apportion blame to who is culpable” Dangiwa told the committee.
According to the minister, the checklist must ensure quality assurance of the design, concrete quality, slum and soil tests before the construction; who designed the building, who certified the design, who approved the design and who supervised the construction so as to identify those culpable to stop the embarrassing tie of building collapse in the country.
“Once there is building collapse, we should immediately move there with our checklist, identify it and fill in. Once that is done, you can independently sit down and identify the culprit and support it with tangible evidence that this is the person that hasn’t done the correct thing, either the design had not been done or the professional not certified or development control has not given approval or supervision was not done by a professional and it was converted to different use”he said
The checklist when developed would be presented to the National Council on Housing for all to understand and be carried along in the implementation.
Dangiwa requested the regulatory bodies in the built environment to forward their submissions and inputs to the committee on building collapse set up by the ministry for consideration and inclusion in the checklist.
Earlier, the committee on building collapse had presented 12 recommendations for consideration among which are:
Reconstitution of the National Building Code Advisory Committee, Review of the Acts establishing ARCON; CORBON and TOPREC to make them more effective in curbing quackery; Implementation of punitive measures and sanctions for professional negligence, regulatory bodies to collaborate in the event of collapse amongst others.
Commenting on the committee’s recommendations, the Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Builder Samson Ameh Opaluwah commended the minister for this initiative and his laudable achievements within one year in office.
“Before, when there was an incident of building collapse, nothing was done to it but this initiative shows that the Federal Government and the ministry are concerned and ready to tackle this issue to ensure safety and security of lives and property.
Many of the regulators advocated the implementation of punitive measures on those found wanting to curb the menace of building collapse in the country.
They called on the ministry to resuscitate the training schools for artisans and technicians to train more artisans, carpenters and technicians to follow exactly the specifications in the drawings while doing their work to ensure a perfect job.
The regulatory bodies present at the meeting were: Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN), Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Town Planners Registration Council (TOPREC), Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, (NIESV) Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) and others.ENDS