Curbing Building Collapse in Nigeria: Structural Engineers Task National Assembly to Invoke Doctrine of Necessity

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Nigeria Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE) has urged the National Assembly to exercise the political will of backing a qualified practice of structural engineering in Nigeria by a passing a special structural engineering law, in the mould of the doctrine of necessity, to tackle the unsettling loss of innocent lives to collapse of buildings in Nigeria.

A former President of NIStructE, Dr. S.K. Ilugbekhai, made the appeal yesterday in his keynote address at the 2024 Conference of Nigeria Institution of Structural Engineers.

He decried incidents of building collapse in the country, lamenting that the cases of collapse of buildings in Nigeria have continued from low structures through medium rise structures, to high rise structures.

Ilugbekhai said: “A 21-storey luxury residential building collapsed at Ikoyi, on the 1st of November 2021; forty-two people died. On the 12th of September, 2014, a six-storey guesthouse building, under construction, belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, collapsed in Lagos, killing 115 people, including 84 foreigners.

“Early this year, about five notable incidences of collapsed buildings occurred in Anambra state alone, including the 5-storey Dennis Memorial Grammer School building in Onitsha. Twenty-one students died when a school building collapsed in Jos, Plateau State, a few months back.”

He equally tasked government to provide the enabling environment for structural engineering to thrive through free market economic operations.

Ilugbekhai recommended that structural engineering services rendered should be robustly remunerated as motivation for qualified and experienced structural engineers to be more forthcoming in providing safe engineering solutions and safer built environment in Nigeria.

Similarly, he charged engineers to incorporate earthquake resistant design solutions in their professional assignments, while NIStructE should lead the conversation by providing regular training courses and examination in earthquake resistant design.

In his welcome address, the President of NIStructE, Johnson Adeyoye, said the theme and the sub-themes of the conference were carefully selected to effectively address the happenings in the built environment and to offer knowledge on new frontiers in structural engineering and construction practice in Nigeria.

The occasion was chaired by President of NSE, Margaret Aina Oguntala, while FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike was the distinguished special guest of honour and Minister of Works, David Umahi, was the guest of honour.