Builder Omale Peter Ameh is the Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), FCT Chapter. In this exclusive interview, he discusses the legacy challenges of Building Collapse in the country, stating that Lagos and Ogun State must be commended for their responsiveness to the call to address the challenge.
He called on regulatory authorities at all levels to rise up to the responsibility of ridding the sector of quacks, and explained that although the NIOB is a body of professionals, it cannot perform regulatory function as it is not empowered by law to do so.
Buildings have continued to collapse even after a decade of your institute’s advocacy for the passage of the National Building Code. Would the NIOB fold its hands and watch buildings continue to collapse?
No, NIOB will not fold its hands, we cannot afford to watch people die as a result of quackery which became possible due to ineffective regulations of the Nigerian built /construction industry.
However, a point of note is that NIOB is an institution, not a regulatory agency or body of government. As a result, it is not possible for NIOB to enforce the law, be it a local government law, a state law or law at federal level.
Advocacy remains the role of the NIOB, and we have been doing that. We have continued to train construction artisans and tradesmen who should be employed by those who want to ensure quality workmanship of their buildings. But like I said, it is not part of our mandate to pull down poorly built buildings or to embark on enforcement or regulatory function, but we can help to identify them and we are very willing to do so as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So, we have been very successful in terms of mandate delivery.
As a professional body, we try to educate and enlighten the public. This is how we have continued to reduce and mitigate the longstanding challenge of building collapse in the country. It is unfortunate that as a country, we find ourselves in this avoidable situation. However, people must learn to do the right thing.
Please give a rating: which State would you say is most committed to averting building collapse?
To be fair, Lagos and Ogun States come first on the list when you talk of states that are responsive to averting building collapse, based on what they have done and what they are trying to do. Although some other states are trying to also come on board, in that regard. Well, this is my own opinion. Some other States are beginning to see the cost of building collapse when compared to the cost of averting it.
The enforcement effort of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is also commendable, and we see their efforts to control development, but there is still so much more to be done. As an institute of professional Builders, the NIOB wants regulatory authorities at all levels of government to do all that needs to be done toward ensuring that buildings stop to collapse. We have done our part as an institute.
The NIOB celebrated the 2021 Builders Day in March. We paid advocacy visits to the Department of Development Control, FCTA. We also discussed with the Director of Development Control, and it was rewarding for us and for the country. The aim of the advocacy visits was to ensure that regulatory authorities do what they should do to justify their existence. I assure you that the NIOB will not relent in its effort.
The Federal Government has seen the need for what the NIOB has been advocating for, and I think that is a step in the measure of the goals we want to achieve.
The NIOB will not wait for buildings to collapse before we start making efforts, we will work to avert the tragedies. We don’t want to discuss who is responsible for a collapse or who is not, our goal is to avert building collapses, and we want regulatory bodies to support us in this, by carrying out their regulatory functions effectively.
Professionals bear the brunt when a building collapses. The public would say, “Builders have failed,” but the public fails to understand that so many buildings were not built by professional Builders, rather, they were built by quacks. In fact, in some cases, there is zero-professional input, so the structural integrity of such buildings is questionable. In some other cases, clients are responsible for the issues that lead to building collapse.
What is your rating of the effectiveness of regulatory authorities at state and federal level?
The regulation of buildings and such physical development is usually done at state level. In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), there is the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Department of Development Control which are jointly responsible for controlling the physical development of the FCT.
In Nasarawa State, there is the Nasarawa State Urban Development Agency; in Kaduna State, there is the Kaduna State Urban Development Agency (KADSUDA). So, every state has its agency and law that guides its physical or environmental development as the case may be. The point is that the provisions are either inadequate or there is inadequate or total absence of enforcement of the provisions of the law.
When there is no enforcement, the building industry becomes an all-comers affair and you have quacks taking over the industry, which leads to building collapse and the accompanying loss of lives and properties. This is the situation in some states.
C-STEMP collaborate with NIOB to train and qualify construction industry artisans toward providing the needed skill. To what extent has the training and competition addressed the challenge?
Yes, the partnership aimed to provide skilled workmanship for the construction industry, and the government gave NIOB the mandate to train and certify artisans for practice under the buildings trade. As an institute, NIOB has made remarkable success in this regard. What C-STEMP does is to create a competition where artisans come to showcase themselves. At the end, the Institute evaluates them and qualifies them based on their level of competency.
There is an NIOB Artisans and Craftsmen Qualification Awarding Board which examines the artisans. Now, Certified artisans understand what the certification means, and they are very proud of it. Only qualified artisans are certified, and this is one of the great gains in our effort to eliminate quackery and building collapse in the country.
Kindly discuss the successes of your administration so far?
We came on board in November 2020, the restrictions triggered by Covid-19 pandemic affected us. We could not even meet. We could not carry out site visitations. However, we had a will, and “when there is a will, there is a way.” We took advantage of technology, and started virtual meetings and also conducted virtual training sessions. We were able to interact and carry out our activities as we should. We conducted the examinations online, and we had virtual and physical workshops. These became necessary in order to ensure that we comply with the Covid-19 protocols handed down by the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.
We expanded the capacity of our website and its platforms to accommodate virtual registrations and payments. For the last workshop we had in September, all participants registered online and they also received their certificates online. A link was generated and they were able to do all that they needed to do. There was little or no physical interaction, and this is a great step in the right direction.
By the end of November 2021, the FCT Chapter of the NIOB will be fully automated, When this is done, existing and prospective members of the Chapter as well as artisans and the general public will be able to assess our services from wherever they are in the world. They only need an internet-compliant gadget to reach us. They can make enquiries online, and we will also respond via same means.
The FCT Chapter took advantage of Builders Day and we visited some educational institutions in the FCT. The essence is to encourage young ones to embrace science and technology, through the Building Trades. We enlightened young people about the profession and why they should consider studying Building in the universities and Polytechnics
We visited the Federal Science and Technical College, Orozo, Rex Cristus College, Kubwa, the School for the Gifted in Gwagwalada, Government Secondary School, Gwagawalada, among other secondary schools.
We also visited the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, where we had a condition survey, and advised on what they should do to keep the building functional, we were also at the Central Mosque.
We are also working toward getting a media gadget that will enable the chapter to conduct training and reach a wider audience without congregating people.
