FG Urged to Enforce Infrastructure Maintenance Policy, National Building Codes of 2006

Oluchi Chibuzor

The Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) has urged the federal government to enforce maintenance policy and National Building Codes of 2006 which stipulates provision of building survey reports every five years for public infrastructures.
This is as they explained that periodical survey of infrastructural assets would help to determine if they are still functioning as designed and commissioned as against emergency maintenance.

This is as the school also advised that the federal government should ensure that every new infrastructural development in the country should come with a maintenance manual as a national policy, in order to avoid a culture of waste arising from delayed maintenance across public infrastructures thereby saving scarce funds.

Speaking at the 16th Inaugural lecture of the college held in Lagos recently, the Rector, Yabatech, Dr. Ibraheem Abdul, explained that the lecture highlighted the significance of infrastructure maintenance to national economy.
According to him, “It is evident, that the nation is more prone to breakdown and emergency maintenance rather than prioritising, preventive maintenance. Government at all tiers should encourage the use of preventive maintenance more than breakdown and emergency maintenance as currently used in the country.

“Yaba College of Technology, like most tertiary institutions surveyed has no maintenance policy despite its 70-year history. Furthermore, there are no maintenance manuals for the college’s multibillion naira buildings.
“These buildings running to billions of Naira if not trillion do not have maintenance and repairs manuals, whereas a handset of N20,000.00 comes with a maintenance and repair manual.”

He added that the growing challenges of facilities maintenance management are of national dimension.
He noted that Nigerian situation is of a peculiarly different dimension, due to the developing nature and quantum of funds allocated to development annually without corresponding adequate allocation to facilities maintenance.
He said: “It is clear from the lecture that the result of this neglect culminates in the total collapse of our infrastructures, equipment and building components thereby denying the citizenry the benefits of their functionality. No doubt there are numerous public infrastructures which are underperforming.

“Those ones critically examined by this lecture include housing, stadia facilities from the class of federal facilities, hostel buildings, office accommodations, infrastructural components such as power and energy, facilities for conveniences, comfortability and efficiency of buildings.

“The lecturer focused more on these areas because they not only improve the quality of living but enhance productivity and impact the national economy as well as create a functional working environment, whereas proactive actions on these facilities’ maintenance reduce a colossal waste of funds.”

The lecture themed, ‘Facilities Management Of Public Infrastructures: A Cinderella Without A Suitor-Absit Culture Of Waste’, saw the guest lecturer urging government to implement the National Building Codes 2006 across the country.

According to him, “This lecture highlighted the importance of periodically surveying of our facilities assets to determine if they are still functioning as designed and commissioned. The maintenance tools like maintenance manuals, facilities condition assessments and building surveys should be carried out at five years interval to know where attentions are required a stipulated by the National Building Codes 2006. government need to enforce this.

“The need for facility handbook or operational manual has been emphasized by the lecture. Thus, every new development should be accompanied with as built drawings and maintenance manual, just as new handset comes with maintenance manual.”