By YINKA KOLAWOLE

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Ama Pepple, has called on state governments and stakeholders in the built environment to ensure full compliance with the National Building Code (NBC) to help curb the spate of building collapse in the country.

Speaking at a two-day Stakeholders’ Validation Workshop on the on the Revised National Building Code in Abuja, Pepple said that compliance with the code is key to attaining prescribed standards within the sector.

She said the scourge of building collapse in Nigeria is not due to lack of requisite laws, but ineffective enforcement of the laws, adding that the new revised National Building Code would help to address some of the identified lapses in the housing sector.

“To curb the incidence of building collapse, there is no substitute for the immediate unmitigated and committed drive to legally address the root cause, human error, by the implementation of the National Building Code,” she said.

The first edition of the NBC was published in 2006 with mandate for its review every three years and the current review was necessitated by the need to update the code in order to correct the lapses and omissions identified and align it with the current policy direction of government.

The Revised Code has been updated to ensure conformity with the International Building Code, to emphasize the seriousness of fire hazards in buildings and has fully addressed the need for creating separate section for fire protection system in the Code.

Other key elements of the code include its enhanced provision on general building requirements, which has been expanded to include urban planning requirements, while there are additional provisions on green building initiatives and energy efficiency.

“If this revised NBC is to effectively serve as a mechanism to ensure the safety and protection of all of us from preventable hazards, which could be life threatening in the construction and housing industry, the state governments must lead the drive to institutionalise it through adaptation, legislation and enforcement.

“It is in this regard that I fervently hope that the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Administration will ensure that the NBC is adapted and adopted by the executive arm of government as a regulatory tool in their spheres of influence. It should be enacted by their respective legislatures as part of their jurisdictional code after it has undergone the formal process of approval by the highest level of government.”

The minister stated that the NBC was a requirement for institutionalising a minimum acceptable level of safety in the construction of buildings in order to protect public health, ensure public safety and general wellbeing.

She observed that it was by enforcing the provisions of the code that the safety of lives and property from all manner of hazards, particularly those relating to the occupancy of buildings, structures or premises could be assured without any inhibitions. She said if many countries were setting new benchmarks in prescribing, maintaining and enforcing their respective national minimum standards in building construction and building systems, Nigeria could not afford to be left behind.

“I am optimistic that after this validation exercise, the adoption of the revised NBC and its dissemination to the public as well as its effective implementation by all relevant stakeholders, our beloved nation will be greatly assisted in dealing with some of the perennial problems in the human settlement sector.