By Kingsley Adegboye

COncerned about spate  of collapsed  buildings, abandoned projects and proliferation of  substandard materials in the construction industry,  the President of Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria APBN, Mr. Segun Ajanlekoko, has called on members of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild BCPG, to take a major step towards resolving challenges with relevant regulatory agencies for more proactive actions in the industry.

Ajanlekoko made the call while receiving members of the Guild who paid him a courtesy visit at the weekend. He enjoined them to continue the struggle started by some himself and senior professionals to compel the government to establish ta National Construction Industry Board.

The board, he said should have the mandate to manage the construction industry and effectively coordinate the built environment professional activities and programmes.

Some members of the Guild at the meeting were the Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, Mr. Afolabi Solesi; Vice Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Mr. Olufemi Shodunke; Chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Institution of  Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Sola Fatoki;  Chairman of  Lagos State Chapter Nigerian Institute of Building NIOB, Mr.  Jelili Akinpelu and the Executive Director of Shelter Watch, Mr. Segun Olutade.

Ajanlekoko said the BCPG platform could complement government efforts with adequate professional inputs towards providing lasting solutions to the problems of building collapse the fight against quackery in the built environment.

The APBN president advised the Guild to ensure that its composition is made up of major stakeholders who are highly competent professionals of like minds in order to strengthen the passion for service that is being developed presently.

The Chairman of BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, a Builder told the APBN boss that unabated incidents of building collapse in Nigeria which have become a source of embarrassment and discomfort to professionals in the built environment, prompted notable stakeholders to form the Guild.

He said, “BCPG is an independent body of stakeholders in the built environment. It is a body of various professionals but united by a common goal.  The Guild is constituted by those who have passion for safe environment, professionals, who believe things ought to be done right, men and women with unalloyed resolve to find lasting solution to a man-made problem.

“Preventing building collapse is a cause not meant for profit-oriented people, but those who consider such initiative as a social responsibility actuated by humanitarian feeling and the philosophy of giving back to the society.”

Members of the Guild sought government’s support to realise the dream of making the nations landscape collapsed buildings free.