Sam Philip
Nigerians Institution of Civil Engineers(NICE) has called on Ondo State government to ensure all ongoing structures and buildings across the state meet all criteria laid down to prevent building collapse and loss of life.
The group made the call on Saturday during a walk against building and structure collapse in Akure, the state capital.
Converging on Alagbaka roundabout, Akure, members of the institution were chanting against quackery and building collapse.
The state Chairman of the group, Engr. Rasak Ejibunu put blame of building collapse at the doorstep of owners of structures and buildings because they are fond of cutting corners.
He, however, called on the appropriate ministry and departments responsible for monitoring of buildings under construction to ensure proper monitoring all ongoing projects in the state to prevent building collapse.
Engr. Ejibunu said: “A lot of factors contribute to building collapse.
It may be on the client’s side, trying to cut corners. Maybe what he supposed to spend N10 million on, he wants to spend N5 million, because it’s a businessman.
“On the professionalism, when clients patronize carpenters and other vendors to come and supervise their work, definitely there will be defects in such structures.
“There are many categories of engineers, if it is about building patronized civil engineers. Among the civil engineers, we have structural engineers, we have building engineers, we have water engineers and all that.
“So I advise that everyone, including the government parastatals and the public in general, when it comes to their building, they should patronize civil engineers.”
In his comment, the state Vice Chairman of the Institution, Engr. Oluwafunmilayo Oluwatayo noted that people patronize quacks in an attempt to save money.
He said the people didn’t know that they are prone to losing more money when they give their construction jobs to non-professionals.
Engr. Oluwatayo explained that the essence of the nationwide walk is to inform the people on the need for them to patronize professionals.
He said: “In the recent past, the rate at which we have occurrence of building collapse was ridiculous.
“So we need to rise up against this. And we have discovered most of these problems happened because most of our people always run away from professionals. We also discovered that they are not well informed. And this is part of this of what we are doing to inform our people, so that they know the necessity of patronizing professionals.
“Government has a lot of arrangements, and this is the reason why we have the department that is in charge of approval. When you are to construct a building or structure, there are steps. We have the design stage. This design stage, you are expected to produce your design copies to the approving ministry. These are part of the rules the government has laid down.
“But you still see our people cutting corners. Our men and people are fond of cutting corners. These are some of the reasons why we have incidents of building collapse.”
The chairman, Nigeria Society of Engineers(NSE), Akure Branch, Engr. Oluwaseun Adeyeye explained that the walk is “to create awareness for the public on the essence of giving their job to the professionals.
“It’s not the carpenter that should be taking the roles or the responsibility of a civil engineer. So that is why we are all out today to sensitise the people on the essence of giving their jobs to the professionals, especially civil engineers.”