Delay in passage of the Building Code largely responsible for building collapses -Bldr. Yakubu

Building collapses, like the one that recently occurred in Gwarinpa in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is no more news. Several of such occurrences had led to loss of lives and property. Yet, after each tragedy, comes another and yet, another, with no end seemingly in sight. Trying to resolve these knotty issues was the former chairman of FCT Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Buildings (NI­IOB), Bldr, Musa Yakubu who, while speaking with AB­BANOBI-EKU ONYEKA, blamed the stakeholders for the tragedy. His reports:

Before going into the causes of this men­ace, Yakubu called for legislation that would make it mandatory for build­ing designers and construc­tion professionals to possess either the Higher National Diploma (HND) or a Bach­elor of Science (B.Sc) from a recognized institution. He also stated that while in train­ing, the intending licenced builder, should be made to undergo a three-year man­datory practical and profes­sional training under the su­pervision of a recognised and experienced certified builder in preparation for profession­al examinations, before being licenced as a builder.

“After submitting practi­cal log book issued to him from the institution, the per­son should be invited by a panel of professionals and if proven to be competent, such a person should be given an ordinary membership cer­tificate, after which the in­stitute recommends him or her to the Council Of Reg­istered Builders Of Nigeria (CORBON) for issuance of a higher certificate and renewal of such certificate yearly,” he stressed.

He also shed light on the quality of professionals ex­pected to be involved in a building project and their functions which if followed strictly, according to him, building collapses will be a thing of the past. According to him, “about seven profes­sionals should be involved in constructing any build­ing, namely, Land Surveyor, whose duty it is to determine the type of the soil that ex­ist in a place; Town Planner, that ensures that you build in line with the planning regula­tions of the government; Es­tate Surveyor; the Architect, who designs the building; the Structural, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers who will do all the structural, mechan­ical and electrical elements; the Quantity Surveyor, who comes up with the cost com­ponent of the building; and the Builder, who takes up the administration of the project by ensuring that the project is built in line with the design and quality standard”.

He also explained that projects are divided into in­frastructural and building projects. In infrastructural, you have roads, culverts, bridges, dams and similar ones in which civil engineers specialise on, while the build­ers specialise on the building aspect. He informed that as the project is on-going, all the professionals should be com­ing regularly to site to ensure that the project construction is in tandem with mapped-out specifications.

Although he exonerated builders from the series of building collapses, he did not mince words to say that any of the aforementioned professionals could be held responsibile and account­able depending on their level of proven infraction. He said: “It is not always the fault of the builder in cases of building collapses. Let me explain. If there was error in the structural design given to the Builder by the Structural Engineer and he followed the structural design given to him strictly, he shouldn’t be blamed if the building col­lapses, because what he used was the technical handed over to him for execution. There could be instances, for example, where items for the building recommended by the Architect may even not even conform to the require­ments of the building of that nature and such could cause a building collapse.

“Again, a mistake by the Architect and the Quantity Surveyor while playing their own part, could also bring about building collapses. For instance, an Architect designs a specification and recom­mends what would be used and due to the cost implica­tions of purchasing exactly the specified item recom­mended by the Architect, the Quantity Surveyor insists that the owner of the property can’t afford the cost of those items and changes the recom­mended items to an alterna­tive, such changes can also lead to a building collapse. When a building collapses, the blame is not just to be laid at the door steps of only one person. The onus is on you to find out what caused it.

“Another example, if the Structural Engineer makes a mistake in his designs by specifying iron rod y-15mm as loading for a high rise, when the loading is sup­posed to be y-25mm and the person in-charge of procure­ment buys what he sees, the Builder should not be blamed should collapse occur. This is because he used the infor­mation before him. If a Land Surveyor recommends that a particular land is strong enough to carry a 25-storey building and you go ahead and erect the building and after two years the building collapses due to the soft­ness of the land, the builder should not be blamed. Most of the problems start from the foundation and that is why it is important to do thorough soil tests to determine if the strength of the soil can carry the bearings of the building”.

Musa Yakubu did not exonerate building owners. According to him, some of the building owners would make a foundation for a sto­rey building, but due to the urge to make more money, they would go and seek the services of a quack and add more storeys on top of the existing one and when such building collapses, you should not blame the profes­sionals. “Some even would bring a relation or friend who is a quack and engage him in a building project and some of such quacks in order to minimise cost for the owner, would use under-gaged ma­terials which could result in building collapses,” he ex­plained.

On its part, he faulted government, monitoring sys­tem, stressing that most of the collapsed buildings had “stop work” order marked on them by government agency, but would turn a blind eye when money exchanges hands. He wondered why the same agency would keep adamant over such an infraction in­sisting that such should not be treated lightly.

Based on his findings, no less than 25 buildings have collapsed within and outside the FCT in the past couple of years, but that of all these, it was only that of the Syna­gogue Church of all Nations in that was taken to the court, stressing that taking such cas­es to court in order to ascer­tain its causes and come out with punishment would help eliminate further collapses.

On what NIIOB was do­ing to curtail such incidences, he informed that sanctions had been applied to erring members. He added that additional effort led to the Building Code still gather­ing dust at the National As­sembly since it was submit­ted 10 years ago. The Code according to him contains all the rules that would address the problems in the building industry and urged the law­makers to pass the bill with­out further delay.