The rank of professionals in the built environment teeming up to fight the scourge of building collapse is swelling by the day and the umbrella organisation formed specifically for that purpose, the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, appears to be making an inroad among the experts.
During a membership recruitment visit to the secretariat of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners last week, the group sought to have more members of NITP on board in view of their critical role in human settlement and urban planning.
The President, BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, explained that the mission of the group was to completely eliminate the embarrassing incidents of building collapse in Lagos State in particular, and the entire country in general.
In demonstration of its seriousness, Awobodu said the group had embarked on the sensitisation and training of bricklayers, concrete workers and other artisans in the state so as to eradicate building collapse.
He said all professionals in the built environment needed to work together and put their houses in order so as to monitor construction activities in the state and report to the appropriate authorities when errors that could lead to collapse of buildings were found on construction sites.
Awobodu said the visit of BCPG was to let the town planners see the need to join the group, adding that other professional bodies in the built environment had joined.
He allayed their fear, saying that BCPG was not out to compete with them but to complement their activities in the area of building control and monitoring.
The president said members of BCPG, who are experts in the built environment, had been distributed to monitor physical development in all the 57 Local Government Councils and Local Council Development Areas in Lagos State, and would report to relevant government agencies wherever they discovered shoddy jobs.
According to him, the members are to monitor physical development activities in their assigned areas and determine if building owners or contractors were using the right construction method, materials, designs and professionals in order to eradicate building collapse
Responding, Chairman, NITP, Lagos State chapter, Mr. Ayo Adediran, commended BCPG for the various sensitisation and training programmes for artisans and concrete workers it undertook recently.
He said members of the institute were ready to embrace and join the group, but urged Awobodu to follow due process by registering the group according to the laws of the state.
Other town planners, who spoke at the occasion, lauded the initiative and collected registration forms to join the group.
Commenting on the visit, Mr. Chike Enenmoh, a quantity surveyor, said it was part of the collaboration with different professional bodies within the built environment to enable them carry out the crusade against building collapse.
According to him, BCPG has provided the platform for all professional bodies to work in a cohesive manner and in harmony towards providing better value for money to clients.
He said the platform would help to de-emphasise the issues of rivalry among professionals in the built environment.
"The issue of building collapse is a menace within the Lagos environment and in Nigeria, and BCPG has provided the platform for professionals to work together to put an end to it. We are getting good responses. We need to counsel people and carry them along for us to achieve the aim," Enenmoh said.
Another member, Mrs. Angela Jagun, a builder, said essence of the visit was to draw the planners to join the crusade against building collapse.
Other members of the BCPG team in attendance at the meeting were the President, Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers, Mr. Busola Awojobi; first female registered town planner in Nigeria, Mrs. Kehinde George; Mr. George Akinola, an architect; Mr. Adegoke Alani; Mr. Niyi Fatokun; Mr. Lynus Aiteobhor; Jagun and Enenmoh.
