Why buildings are still collapsing in Nigeria —Omeife

APPARENTLY worried by the incessant building collapse incidents, the former President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr Chuck’s Omeife, has said that inability to adopt modern methods and usage of outdated laws were reasons for the continuation of the menace.

He said the stakeholders could not be doing things in the old ways, using outdated laws and expecting different results.

Omeife stated this in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune in Lagos.

He said “The major reason why buildings are still collapsing is because we are doing things in the old ways and using outdated laws and expecting different results.

According to Omeife, the National Building Code (NBC) was put together and seriously articulated looking at the peculiarities of the built environment sector,  the prevailing attitude of Nigerians, the excesses of some professionals, the demarcation of professionals boundaries and standardization of the operations of the agency responsible for managing the affairs of the sector, only for the majority of built environment stakeholders to back out on its implementation.

“Unfortunately while all the stakeholders in the built environment were involved in the articulations of the provisions of the NBC, majority of them has backed out on the enthronement of the provisions of the NBC which would have created a new order in the sector.

“Basically some of them are very comfortable with the old order despite it’s inadequacies in tackling the associated problems of building collapse.

“It’s important to mention that the birth of the NBC was at a time when buildings were collapsing across the country. It was a collective decision of all stakeholders in the sector under the umbrella of Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) to stop this professional embarrassment that resulted in origination of the National Building Code.

“That some professionals in the sector are not backing the implementation of the NBC at all levels is the cause of the building collapses we are witnessing today.

“We have continually tried the old ways and the result has been very very unpleasant,” Omeife said.

The former president of NIOB pointed out that the implementation of the provisions of the building code might not totally stop building from collapsing but that it would reduce the problem to the barest minimum.

“As it is, many government ministries and agencies are shoddily and selectively adapting some parts of the provisions of the NBC as it suits them. This is unfortunate and unprofessional. The advocacy for now should be let us try the NBC and implement its provisions and see the result. If we are not fully satisfied we can start making adjustments to the provisions to meet our peculiar needs,” he said.

For the reasons itemised above, he was convinced that building collapse will not stop as long as stakeholders keep applying the old laws and regulations.

He said: “We just must do the right thing and apply the only ever produced National Building Code in Nigeria tailored towards our professional peculiarities, our attitudes, dispositions and environment. That is the only place to start from. Whatever effort outside this is a distraction and shadow chasing.”

According to him, if professionals were allowed to play their roles, the issue of fake subsoil test and report will not happen, condemning a situation where one professional annexes to himself all the roles of other professionals in the industry.

This, he said, “is unacceptable and needs to be checked.”

He urged that it’s high time professionals remain within their trialing and maintain designated boundaries.

“As a principal consultant the role should be to assemble requisite professionals to assist the client to deliver on the project. Not to cut corners looking for quacks to undertake roles made for professionals.

“The major problem of the built environment sector are the professionals in the sector. There is no synergy for teamwork instead adversarial relationship is the trend simply due to greed and avarice,” he said.

Omeife urged the professionals in the sector to come together and take charge of the industry instead of fighting amongst themselves over crumps from multinational contractors and consultants who, he said have relegated them to second class citizens in their own country.

“It’s so sad that indigenous professionals struggle and fight amongst themselves over less than 10 percent of national capital vote while the multinationals are smiling away with over 90 percent. This can be changed only through our collective resolve, respect for each other and enthronement of teamwork mindset,” Omeife said.

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