Ikoyi Building Collapse: APBN Calls for Better Govt Regulation, Monitoring

The Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) has called for more effective regulation and better monitoring mechanism on the part of the government, so as to avert a re-occurrence of the 21-storey building collapse, witnessed at Gerrard Road, in Ikoyi, Lagos, recently.

The President of the association, Mr Akinloye Oyegbola, made the call on Wednesday in an interactive session with the media, organised by the association, on the unfortunate incident.

While commending the Lagos State Government on its prompt response to the tragic incident and efforts at ensuring such occurrences were minimised in the state, Oyegbola noted that the time had come for the state government to come up with a mechanism that would ensure proper monitoring and regulation of such projects in future.

He described it as unfortunate that despite the array of quality and qualified professionals in the country, the regulatory environment had continued to be a disincentive for such professionals to function effectively.

The APBN boss attributed government’s inability to deal with the issue of building collapse, which had become a recurring decimal in the state, to the method of execution of the stipulated control/monitoring in the built industry and the state in general.

While calling for a complete review of the control mechanism, Oyegbola described the recent building collapse as a systematic failure both in the building and the policy on regulation, control and monitoring.

He decried a situation, where getting building plan approval for construction in the state, takes up to three years, adding that such bureaucratic bottleneck would continue to manifest in unsavoury incidents such as the recent one.

“How would one explain a situation where it takes upwards of three years to get a building plan approval for construction? Does one need a soothsayer to know that it is just a matter of time before the products of the different aspects of the engendered corruption will manifest?

“Maybe the upscale method of generating the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is due for a holistic review.

“There is the need to establish an appreciable level of parity between the generated revenue and the quality of service rendered to the public. The building plan approval issue is an example of a possible lack of commensurate quality of service to the revenue generated,” he added.

The APBN boss also called on the government to provide a better quality of service, since that would eliminate all bottlenecks and generate more money for the government without the public paying more.

While calling on governments at all levels to make use of Nigerian professionals, Oyegbola said: “The professionals of a country constitute its vehicle for development and the level of government patronage determines the rate of development.
“The developed countries of our time challenged their respective professional bodies for provision of both intangible and tangible infrastructure to attain their present socio-economic state.

“On behalf of APBN, I am affirming that we will continue to update and upgrade our competencies in preparation for that much needed quantum leap in challenges from the three tiers of government for a sustainable development of our nation.”