By Aderogba George

Dr Christopher Emefiele, a building expert, has attributed incessant building collapse in the country to lack of structural integrity.

Emefiele said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday, on the need to tackle the challenges in major cities in Nigeria.

He said that failure in structural integrity had been traced to the desire of some developers to cut corners due to high cost of building materials.

”Many developers tend to use sub-standard materials to cut costs and raise profit margins, thereby endangering lives,” he said.

The expert attributed some of the negligence to inefficient regulation, poor supervision, incompetent artisans, and ignorance by contractors.

He noted that outright jettisoning of building codes and specifications had also contributed to the challenge of building collapse in the country.

Emefiele, however, advised the Federal Government to enact the National Building Code by the Construction Industry Commission to tackle the menace.

He called for training and retraining of building practitioners as well as strict adherence to quality building materials according to specifications.

He also said there should be adequate improvement on safety performance from the planning stage of building projects.

According to him, the safety performance includes giving quality control and assurance high priority in execution of building projects to curb early collapse.

He reiterated that lack of capacity had long been identified as the clog in the wheel of appropriate building control, adding that it was imperative for professionalism to be exhibited in all stages of the infrastructure project cycle.

This, he said included from concept to planning, to design, to construction and maintenance stages.

”Professionalism is key to ensuring sustainability of infrastructure.

”Professionals are enjoined to exhibit a high level of professionalism by adhering to the ethics when discharging their duties,” he said.

Emefiele decried poor design and lack of periodic assessment and maintenance, adding that government regulatory bodies should take actions to enforce standard in the construction industry in Nigeria.

”We must look at the national building code and enact a legislation that will prescribe serious punishments for defaulters who put up building structures without using professionals and quality materials,” he said. (NAN)