Worried by the incessant collapse of buildings in Nigeria and the attendant blame game in the system, the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), has called on the government to establish Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).
The need for the establishment of the board has become imperative as most construction engineers now seem not to take the rules regulating construction seriously.
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An independent developer in the eastern part of Nigeria, Mr. Reuben Okeke, has stated that most of the causes of building collapse noticed in the country are due to avoidable issues and lack of supervision.
According to him, maintenance culture should be re-introduced as a way of giving our infrastructure a new lease of life. “If nothing is done in that regards, the country will continue to engage in white elephant projects. These are reasons, Nigeria infrastructure do not last,”he said.
Earlier the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, (NIQS), renewed the clamour for the urgent formation of a Construction Industry Development Board, (CIDB) following the seemingly no direction and supervision in the construction industry.
President of the Institute, Mr. Obafemi Onashille explained that CIDB or Construction Industry Development Council, (CIDC) will be responsible for the formulation, implementation and regulation of policies that will galvanize and breathe life into the ailing sector which is regarded as the barometer for measuring the economic health of a country.
Onashile who briefed newsmen at the Institute’s liaison office in Victoria Island, Lagos, canvassed a partnership between the government, built environment professional bodies and contractors to midwife the birth of the Board which is expected to play a leadership role in the construction industry.
He listed the challenges impeding the growth and development of industry to include housing deficiency, degradation of the urban environment, over-stretched infrastructure, high construction costs, government’s non-patronage of local experts and non-payment of contractors and consultants for completed jobs.
The NIQS President who decried the gradual but persistent lowering of standards and quality of construction materials, called on the government and industry stakeholders to collaborate with a view to forming a Construction Industry Training Board, (CITB). The Training Board, according to Onashile will promote and manage technical/vocational training of skills for the industry.
Reeling out the panacea to the festering challenges confronting the industry, Onashile also canvassed the creation of what he called “purpose-fit judicial systems for the industry”.
Source: The Sun
