Engineers emphasize the importance of a maintenance culture
Engineers have advised their coworkers, governments, and individuals to adopt a maintenance mindset.
Many infrastructural amenities in Nigeria, such as schools, hospitals, government offices, and monuments, are in bad shape due to negligence, according to Chidiebele Uzoagba, Managing Director, Jecmeralds Engineering Limited, who spoke on “Poor Maintenance Culture in Nigeria, Role of Facility Management” at a meeting of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Victoria Island Branch, Lagos.
He bemoaned the fact that Nigerians lack a strong maintenance program, which he claims has resulted in varied degrees of construction and infrastructure failures across the country.
Lack of cash, indiscipline and illiteracy, terrible economics, corruption, the absence of the owner, and the building’s distance are all reasons for poor maintenance culture, according to Uzoagba.
He also mentioned improper design and construction, poor workmanship, and the use of inferior materials as reasons of maintenance issues.
“It’s unfortunately true that people’s commitment to maintenance in Nigeria today is inadequate,” he added, emphasizing the need of facility maintenance as a catalyst for fostering a good maintenance culture in the country.
According to him, there are construction facilities across the country that are badly maintained due to a lack of culture or terrible attitudes.
He emphasized that the formal education strategy should include facility maintenance as part of the nation’s university curriculum. He pointed out that no university in Nigeria now provides facility management as a first degree, only as a master’s degree.
The Chairman of the NSE Victoria Island Branch, Emeka Ibeh, stated that the true life cycle of all infrastructure can only be achieved if maintenance is prioritized.
All components of infrastructure projects, he said, should include facility management and value engineering.
