FG should harmonise, strengthen existing laws to check building collapse-CORBON President.

Prof., sir, How would you rate the performance of the building industry at the moment with inflation hitting the rooftop. Can low income people still afford to build houses for themselves?

Well, before we talk about the performance of the building industry, it is important to look first at what the industry is all about. Section 43 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees citizens the right to own properties anywhere in Nigeria. When we talk about properties they include buildings, immovable land. There are service providers in the sector including people who specialise in building construction and people who handle different aspects of building projects from design to finishing. We can also include those who produce building materials and those who sell the materials to end users. It is a very huge sector of the economy which has forward and backward linkages with several other human engagements. We can also talk about standards and regulations guiding the practice of professionals in the industry. The building industry has made some progress in Nigeria in terms of capacity. The industry has been able to deliver very complex projects successfully. So, in terms of capacity, I would say that the industry has achieved much in boosting capital infrastructure throughout the country. We have also made considerable progress in the building materials sector because we now have many indigenous building materials manufacturing firms although they are currently coping with many problems due to the economic downturn the nation is experiencing. Due to the unpredictable exchange rate, the cost of raw materials has not been favourable to the industry for the ordinary citizen to afford buildings of their choice.

Are you not concerned that building materials and the entire building industry  are currently growing beyond the reach and capacity of the citizens to own houses and what is the way out?

Well, even food items have gone up. Almost every other sector is experiencing general inflation and high cost of material items. It may be right to say that we should be concerned that this sector which depends mainly on local materials ought not to witness continued spiral of prices in goods and services. The Nigeria Institute of Building has said several times that the continued increase in the cost of building materials is not acceptable and that something urgent needs to be done to check the problem otherwise, it will defeat all the efforts being made to provide houses for the people.

Today, when we talk about providing houses and we calculate the cost of owning a house, it is frightening. Nigeria has one of the poorest chances among the countries in Africa where home ownership is becoming impossible. When we think about the cost of building materials and the high cost of labour, the average civil servant and the ordinary Nigerians cannot dream of owning a house. The major issue of high cost of building materials should be looked into and something drastic should be done to check the situation. With the commencement of the new administration, every effort should be placed on the table and necessary measures adopted on the matter to ensure that the continued increase in the cost of building materials is checked.

There was a time when building collapse was something that happened in foreign countries only. Today, Nigeria has increasingly taken the lead among nations where building collapse is common with Lagos and Abuja taking the lead.

What are the causes of building collapse? Is high cost if building materials part of the problem and why has your institute done nothing to check the trend?

There are many dimensions of looking at the causes of building collapse but in my view, the number one reason is the poor state of regulations in the building industry. I am talking about paucity of building regulations and where there are laws, there are also paucity of enforcement of such laws. It is not only in the building area but other sectors are also complaining about quacks whose activities are not being regulated. The building sector is worse because the regulations are not being enforced. People who do not have proper training in the building sector are having a field day at building sites and causing havoc all over the country. Where people are not being held accountable for doing the wrong things, buildings will continue to collapse. It is not only the issue of officials compromising, it is also the issue of absence of relevant laws to prosecute offenders in the industry.

For example, the National Building Code which was approved by the Federal Government in 2007 gives us the minimum standards for integrity tests for materials that should be used in buildings and also prescribed other regulations such as the types of  professionals that should be concerned with building projects. Except a code is backed by an act of the National Assembly, it may be difficult to enforce such codes in a manner  that anybody who acts against the letters of the law can be brought to book. In all the cases of building collapse in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, among others, we have never seen people being prosecuted to serve as deterrent. It is the paucity of regulations and enforcement that are responsible for building collapse. We are therefore calling upon the National Assembly to prioritise the issues of the National Building Code above other legislations that are needed to ensure sanity in the building sector. I want to also commend the new Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Architect Dangiwa  who, during his maiden speech, spoke about dusting up all the laws for harmonisation. After harmonising the regulations, he should ensure that appropriate actions are taken and laws provided to make them enforceable because this is what the building industry needs now so that quacks will know that their time is over and that it will not be business as usual again. Buildings are collapsing because many building designs are lacking in integrity. People who are trained and qualified to handle housing projects are not the ones handling many buildings.

The general public must know that not everyone at a building site who calls himself a building engineer is qualified as an engineer or a registered member of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON). If you check all the cases of building collapse in Nigeria, you will see that the projects were not handled by our members but by quacks. This is the crux of the matter. We are hoping that the nation’s building laws will be decentralised up to local government levels and the starting point should be the registration of every building in existence in the country. We need comprehensive reforms in the building industry and the value chain of building production. It can begin from the very point where the project circle starts to where it will end. We hope that the Land Use Act, the Urban and Regional Planning Laws of Nigeria should be given teeth while the National Building Code should also be given legal backing or enforcement laws by the National Assembly.

The Urban and Regional Planning Boards in the states and local governments should properly police the environment so that it becomes impossible for any building to spring-up without the knowledge of the authorities.

Are there blueprints for proper quality control guiding the building construction industry?

For the building industry, every member knows that they are required to follow the building professional template and produce high standard structures that can withstand the test of time. The institutions of higher learning gives engineers templates and the templates are very important documents that have quality management plans such as health and safety plans and a construction programme. These are templates that are deployed in the construction of buildings, which when properly observed will ensure buildings of high quality and produce the standards expected by clients. At the level of our council, we also have our own ethics, which is binding on every licensed practitioner. It is a profession that has templates and codes of ethics for practitioners. Also, we keep hoping that we can elevate professionalism in the building industry to the point where only people who are trained for certain functions get the jobs.

This is already happening in other professions such as health, where people who are not qualified doctors cannot practice in the hospitals or the judiciary, where people who are not trained lawyers cannot practice law. Why is the building sector different? Why is it not being regulated?

Still on building collapse, is it not necessary to test soil meant for buildings to ascertain the suitability and quality of the soil or its ability to hold the type of structure intended for the area?

Road construction engineers test soil before road construction.

Yes, it is good practice to do environmental assessment or investigation of site to know the  physical properties of the soil before construction but in the value chain of the building industry, it is assumed that members of the design team must have done all the preliminary investigations before handing over the work to the builder. It is good practice to test because soil properties can change at short notice. The Nigeria Institute of Builders is the training arm of the council and we provide relevant training including workshops and conferences for our members on every aspect of the building industry to ensure that they are up to date on developments in the industry. Recently, we commenced the training of artisans to enrich them professionally and we are partnering with many vocational institutions to enrich their course content for the benefit of the nation. The institute is responsible for the assessment of artisans among others for occupational standard certification.

Why do you not go out for enforcement to get rid of quacks in the profession like the Council of Registered Pharmacists do from time to time?

CORBON has a monitoring unit which moves around building sites to ensure that buildings meet the minimum standard expectation. Logistic challenges have been the major issues hampering our activities. So, within the limits of our constraints which include the largeness of the country, although we have zonal branches, we would soon intensify our surveillance to cover every area.

What advise would you give to the present administration to improve the building industry in Nigeria and ride the country of frequent building collapse?

The first advise is to urge them to break the jinx of housing shortages in Nigeria. I want to commend the adminstration for creating a Ministry of Housing and Urban Development without combining it with works. Secondly, the appointment of experienced professionals in the sector. The minister is a well versed and competent professional that should be able to drive the sector as a former Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank (FMB), who has been involved with funding housing in Nigeria. He is a round peg in a round hole if given the appropriate support. For instance, we expect him to face the recapitalisation of the FMB with determination to the tune of N500 billion as requested. This will help boost the housing financing sector to enable workers and low income wage earners in Nigeria who desire to own houses to do so. It will provide the necessary liquidity in the sector to enable people build houses. Liquidity in the housing sector will also help to solve unemployment. If the administration can provide 500,000 houses annually, it will go a long way to reduce the housing shortage in the country.

Do you agree with critics of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike who condemned him for engaging in massive demolition of people’s houses in some parts of the city barely four days after resuming office, without considering other issues involved like compensation and resettlement?

The long time vision for the FCT goes beyond demolition of houses. The minister should have devoted few weeks for comprehensive review of the documents and files before knocking down the structures. He should have first checked what made people to go outside the FCT Master Plan to build houses, for example on flood plains. Am not saying demolition is wrong. If people willfully violate the laws, there should be consequences. We thought however, that there should have been a comprehensive plan on how to restore the Abuja Master Plan.