Building collapse: Senate president advocates legislative interventions

PRESIDENT of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan is advocating legislative interventions to halt cases of building collapse in the country.

Lawan stated this during the 2021 Architecture Annual Awards and Fellowships Investiture of the Nigerian Institute of Architects held in Abuja.

He stated that the incessant cases of building collapse in the country would need the attention of the National Assembly to halt the ugly trend.

“I believe that the building collapse that we experience, in our major cities particularly, needs the attention of the National Assembly.”

He stated that it was high time the nation made it mandatory for certain procedures and processes to be respected and obeyed so that buildings will not collapse easily.

“Probably, we have been infiltrated by quacks. People who have no proper training in all these professions, whether architecture or surveying or building and so on and yet they participate in the building processes.

“We want to see how we can stop such people from participating in the building and construction industry and this time around, we should be going for legislation so that appropriate incentives will be provided and appropriate penalties will also be provided for failures or infractions of the law,” Lawan said.

All these were contained in a statement by Lawan’s Media Aide, Ola Awoniyi, titled:  “National Assembly will insist that Nigerian professionals be involved in projects” – Senate President.

Speaking on behalf of the awardees, Lawan expressed gratitude to members of the institute who he described as the “designers of the world.”

Also, the Senate President said that the National Assembly will want more participation of Nigerian professionals in the design and execution of projects in the country.

Lawan, who was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award along with the Governor of Taraba State, Mr Darius Ishaku, pointed out that despite the relevance of architects in making the environment a comfortable place, they were yet to be accorded their rightful place in the country.

The Senate President said, “I believe that architects have not been given their rightful place. In the National Assembly, from this time on, you have distinguished architects. And our starting point will be that we will look into possible legislations to actualise the dreams of Mr President of getting local contents considered very well in Nigeria.

“My brother, the Governor of Borno State alluded to it when he said we must utilise our indigenous professionals, and of course we must also be creative enough. Just like my brother, the Governor of Taraba State said, we must look into how to utilise our local materials.”

He stated that Executive Order 5 which Mr President signed meant a lot and has explained deeply the feelings of the administration that indigenous professionals must be involved in every project as far as it is possible.

This, he assured the architects that the legislators will follow through.

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