Former Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIOB) President, Chuks Omeife, tells Special Correspondent, Dada Jackson, the need to abrogate the Land Use Act and explains factors responsible for incessant collapse of buildings.
He insists that Nigeria’s housing shortfall is 10 million, not 17 million, and that the National Housing Policy, if fully implemented, can bridge the gap in one or two years.
Collapse of buildings
The lack of proper regulation of the construction industry is responsible for why we will continue to have incessant collapse of buildings in the country.
The government places so much emphasis on approval because it generates revenue for it, to the detriment of putting in place proper regulation to guide construction.
For any rational building regulatory agency, the issue would have been how to put in place proper management of the construction process instead of looking for ways of making money. No matter how beautiful a design may be, it cannot collapse on paper but it can collapse during or after construction.
The government should intensify efforts in the regulation of the construction industry where every professional would be involved in all the stages of construction, from beginning to the end.
Form C is the certificate of fitness; that is, that a building has been constructed, supervised by a competent professional, and is fit for habitation.
The insistence that form C should be signed at the end of construction is not enough to prevent a building from collapsing. By our nature as Nigerians, the signature on form C can be forged.
A lot of times, form C is taken around by touts looking for people to sign.
The government should make it mandatory that at the construction stage, a builder should be engaged to manage the process and take responsibility for the outcome of the project.
When a building collapses, you don’t see the builder, the structural engineer or the architect involved in the whole construction process. All you hear is that a building has collapsed and that quacks were involved in the construction.
Getting out of the quagmire
The surest way to reduce building collapse is to make and simplify the explanation of the roles of professionals in the construction industry.
If you want to put up a building, contact an architect who would design, the structural engineer who designs the structural elements, the quantity surveyor who provides the costing, and, finally, the professional builder who builds.
If each of the professionals can limit himself to the roles above, I am sure we would have started on a journey of self discovery and nip in the bud, incessant building collapse all over the country.
The main thrust of my submission is that no professional in the built environment should go beyond his or her brief.
National Building Code
The issue of a National Building Code has been on for quite some time.
The delay in passing the Bill by the National Assembly (NASS) to give bite to the code is, to say the least, a great disservice to Nigerians considering that its non-passage is largely responsible for frequent building collapse.
My appeal to NASS members is to expedite action on its passage so as to give legal bite to the document to regulate the construction industry.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has reviewed the existing code which, hopefully, the Council on Housing will endorse at its next meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The essence of the code is that penalties are spelt out for any infringement of the guidelines.
Land Use Act
The Land Use Act should be abrogated. I am not an advocate of any amendment. It has outlived its usefulness and therefore the National Assembly should expunge it from the statute book without further delay.
I wonder why some people are clamouring for its retention in the Constitution. It has done more harm than good to the development of the country. Thank God the national conference addressed the mater in a way that would be beneficial to the country at large.
Let me be frank with you, it should not be retained in the Nigerian Constitution.
Singaporean example of solving housing deficit
As the then President of the NIOB, I and some of my colleagues undertook a tour of Singapore and Malaysia to look at how both countries have reduced their housing deficit through mass housing for their people.
We discovered that mass housing faces a very big challenge, which is the regulatory frame work that has to be put in place.
The National Housing Policy has fully addressed that but the policy has to be implemented. We are confident that if the National Housing Policy is fully implemented, Nigeria can fill the gap and it may not take more than a year or two to witness a drastic reduction in the housing deficit.
We embarked on the tour to complement the government’s efforts and to see how other countries were addressing their housing deficit. The visit was part of the institute’s five-year strategic plan of seeking and engaging in international collaboration to bring about best global best practices that would impact on the Nigerian construction industry.
Singapore and Malaysia have done well in providing housing for the majority of citizens by ensuring regulatory framework that covers construction methodology for fast housing delivery and robust mortgage for the people.
In spite of low population and limited land mass, it was instructive that Singapore provided housing for 95 per cent of the population, while Malaysia was able to provide for over 85 per cent of the population.
Suggestion to government
When we returned from our trip to the two countries, we made our position known to the government informing it that the way forward is to industrialise construction firms because that is the only way we can produce houses faster at cheaper rates and of good quality; and so, the housing problem would be solved over time.
In both countries visited, the majority of their works are carried out by local contractors whose growth in terms of capacity and capability can be seen to be encouraged through deliberate policies by their governments.
In Nigeria, the federal government has a key role to play as the issues of land, mortgage system, and technology are its responsibility since individuals could do but a little.
Bridging the gap in housing shortfall
I personally think that in an attempt to bridge the gap in housing deficit in the country, a gradual combination of the conventional and the new building system would be a good start.
The conventional building system can be used to deliver houses quickly if all resources are available, especially funds. It is the non-availability of funds that makes it look as if it is taking a long time.
With adequate planning, it can be used to deliver houses but not at the same rate compared with industrialised system.
Housing shortfall is 10m
Let me say without mincing words, that the nation’s housing shortfall is not 17 million as being bandied about, but 10 million. I say this because the United Nations Habitat Programme only considers habitable environment and not projections based on assumptions.
Over the years, Nigerians have been made to believe that the housing shortfall is 17 million and the figure has continued to feature in our national psyche. But the truth is that in the eyes of the UN Habitat the actual shortfall is 10 million.