From Emmanuel Uzor, Awka
As building collapses persist in Ananbra, State, the Nigerian Institute Of Building, NIOB has disclosed the state is not implementing the domestication of the National Building Code and attributed it to the reason for the collapse.
Chairman, Builders In Private Practice under the NIgerian Institute Of Buildings, NIOB, Bldr Chijioke Okeke said builder is the mother of all construction work at any built environment, contending that it is not the duty of the Structural Engineer nor that of the Mechanical or Electrical Engineers.
“For any state in Nigeria to talk of safe environment as in the case with Anambra state, you must obey the National Building Code and what that means is that you cannot be a Nigerian without recourse to the constitution of the country”
“If the National Building Code is domesticated in Anambra state, you will no longer be hearing of building collapse and that is the solution to the cases of building collapse”
“With the National Building Code, it is the duty of a registered Builder to put, assemble all the documents produced by other professional bodies in the built environment; coordinate and interpret all these designs and also managed the project and the building personnel including Artisans “
“After all the designs by the Architect, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and structural Engineers, the Builder would carry out durability analysis to be able to produce Builder’s documents like a guide towards building construction”
Okeke noted that it has become important for the general public to know what happens in the building sector and should not be misinformed or ill informed about the state of affairs in that sector.
“It is unfortunate that everyone is called Engineer and you see an Architect delving into the area of a Builder or a Structural Engineer going into building proper and this is because the National Building Code is not domesticated in Anambra state,” he said.