By Yinka Kolawole

Investigations have revealed that the Lagos State government agency responsible for monitoring construction sites had just 200 employees to monitor 42,000 construction sites in the state in 2010.

Against this backdrop, and in view of the incessant cases of building collapse in the country, a non-governmental organisation in the construction industry, Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), has commenced mobilisation of professionals in the built environment to help monitor construction sites with a view to curtailing the menace.

Chairman of BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, made the disclosure when he led his group on membership and sensitisation campaign to the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Lagos Chapter. He urged members of NIQS to join BCPG in combating building collapse in the country.

Awobodu noted that the mismatch between the number of construction sites and the number of government officials available to effectively monitor them underscores the need for professionals in private practice to make up the number, by helping to monitor and enlighten construction workers on the need to follow due process and not to cut corners.

In his response, Chairman, NIQS, Lagos Chapter, Mr. Tijani Lasisi, pledged the support of the institute for the BCPG initiative, adding that three of its members had already been nominated to be in the inner caucus of the body.

A lecturer in the Department of Architecture, University of Lagos, Mr. David Moses, said it was imperative for each state and local government to adopt and implement the National Building Code, noting that the problem of shoddy jobs in the housing and construction industry had been traced to the non-implementation of procedures as stipulated in the code.

He wondered how the government agency responsible for building approval would be able to cope with 200 workers going round 42,000 construction sites. “There is a need to have National Building Code enforcement officers. The code has to be enforced state-wide and at the local governments. There is the need for professionals to work hand-in-hand with the government and support it to achieve sanity in the construction industry,” he remarked.