Building Collapse: SON Calls for Law to Punish Culprits, National Building Code

Bennett Oghifo

To prevent the incessant collapse of buildings across the country, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has said there must be a law to punish defaulting professionals, professional bodies, quacks, clients and investors, who are found culpable.

The Organization also called on the National Assembly to pass the National Building Code, which had been on the shelves for years, into law as part of efforts to stem building collapse.

The Organization stated this in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day national conference on the Building/Construction Sector it organised in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment at the Nigeria Air Force Conference Centre, Abuja, recently.

The theme of the conference was: ‘Adherence to Standard Practices: Bedrock of Sustainable Development in the Building/Construction Sector.’ 

The conference brought together industry experts, government representatives and private sector stakeholders.

Participants said, “Regular integrity tests must be conducted on buildings, particularly when their intended purposes have been altered.” 

The conference declared that the directive issued 13 years ago to evict SON from the ports in an attempt to enhance ease of doing business should be reversed.

This, it observed, has become necessary because SON cannot be issuing the Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificates without being at the ports to inspect and test materials imported for the construction and other sectors.

It observed that rapid urbanisation and rising population had placed immense demands on every infrastructure, making the building construction industry both an opportunity and a challenge.

It observed that Nigeria’s growing population required rapid increase in affordable housing, which brings with it the challenge of meeting demand without compromising on quality. 

It observed that in spite of many sensitisation and awareness campaigns carried out by SON, many industry stakeholders and practitioners still lacked awareness of the standards required for safe, durable and sustainable buildings.

The conference also recommended that professionals in the building sector should stay strictly within their areas of competence.

Every stakeholder, from contractors to suppliers, and artisans must be committed to using approved materials and adhering strictly to standards. 

It recommended collective efforts to bridge knowledge gaps, particularly from the tertiary institutions level.

It recommended that SON must continue to maintain membership of the African Organisation for Standardisation and other international standardisation bodies.”

The Summit’s participants said they gave these recommendations, “Having observed that safety and security of lives and property is at the forefront of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration;

“Having observed that adherence to standard practices is at the bedrock of sustainability in the building and construction sector;

“Having observed that non-adherence to standards and codes of practice in the construction process have resulted in building collapses, endangering lives, loss of property and damaging public trust,

“It noted that while there was nothing wrong with the adaptation of foreign codes and standards, such adaptation needs needed to address local conditions and peculiarities.

“It noted that current economic hardships and hyper-inflation had affected the prices of construction materials in an upward trend and adherence to standards had become a challenge.

“The conference declared that to arrest the spate of building collapses, design of structures must be done solely by qualified professionals.

SON must ensure adherence to certification in construction materials to be used.

“The law on the use of professionals at all stages of building construction should be enforced.”