FG Partners Building Professionals on Safety

Fadekemi Ajakaiyei

As part of efforts to guarantee the safety of Nigerians and the need to arrest the spate of building collapse in the country, the Federal Government has said it is collaborating with building professionals to uphold standard in the building industry.

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this during a meeting with the leaders of the Nigerian Institute of Building in his Office in Abuja.

“The safety of all Nigerians is key to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and so we are not leaving any stone unturned to achieve this,” the Minister said.

“As a Ministry that is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring internal security in Nigeria, our goal is to partner with relevant professional bodies and organisations to achieve our mandate,” he added.

Earlier, the National President of the Nigerian Institute of Building, Builder Kunle Awobodu hinted that NIOB had earmarked 13th of March as BUILDERS’ DAY. It was the day a five- storey building collapsed at No 63, Massey

Street on the Lagos Island, killing over 20 people, who were mostly school children.

That sad and painful incident caused by substandard building construction, which has become a common practice in Nigeria should be a reminder to stakeholders in the building industry on the fatal implications of noncompliance with appropriate building construction process.

According to Awobodu, the Builders’ Day, which should be an annual event would commence this year 2020. It would be a nation-wide sensitisation campaign against substandard building construction.

The NIOB thereby sought for the support of the Ministry of Interior to realise this objective.

Aregbesola, postulating the philosophy of placing prevention above damage control or medicine after death, added that his Ministry would collaborate with the NIOB to train artisans in building and also to ensure standardisation of all materials being used in building construction so as to avert the frequent incident of building collapse across the country, which he said had claimed the lives of many Nigerians.

Ogbeni Aregbesola enjoined the Institute to help provide building skills at the correctional centres where inmates could be engaged in more productive activities, as well as generating income for themselves and the country.

The minister further said, “Among the causes of massive unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria is the failure of people to recognise key primary service providers such as the building artisans, so we are addressing this trend as part of our efforts at removing all threats to the security of lives and property of the citizenry,”

He called for training and retraining of artisans in the various fields towards national development.

Considering the pragmatic approach to solving building collapse, the Minister commended Lagos State Government on its new building regulations that have assigned Professional Builders the responsibility of managing construction work at all building sites in the state. A compromise on professionalism has caused the nation losses. Such building regulations if made national should help the nation reduce the perennial crisis of building collapse.