Members of the panel at the sitting
By Sunny A. David, Awka
Effective collaboration, team work and respect to professional ethics dominated discussions as Panel of Inquiry into the collapsed building at No: 8, Ezenwa Street, Onitsha, commenced public hearing in Awka.
The public hearing which was held at the Government House Hall, Awka were attended by all the relevant professional bodies in the building industry.
Some of the professional bodies in attendance were there according to reports, including the Nigerian Institute of Building, Nigeria Institute of Architects, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers as well as the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
In his opening remark, the Chairman of the Panel, Igwe Charles Agbala, who is the traditional ruler of Uke, said that the public hearing was meant to listen to various professionals in the building industry in order to help formulate a feasible and practicable policy guideline that will help the government to stop the lingering building collapse in the state.
Igwe Agbala appealed to all the various professional bodies in the building industry to make suggestions and presentations that will bring permanent solution to the issue of building collapse which he said is not peculiar to Anambra State alone.
The President, Nigerian Institute of Building, Builder Kenneth Nnabuife-Nduka, pointed out that greed, professional incompetence, internal rivalry among building professionals are most of the major causes of building collapse in the country, adding that building industry needs effective collaboration and team work for every profession to know their specific roles.
In his paper presentation, the 1st Vice President, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, revealed that from October 1974,
when the country witnessed the first building collapse in Ibadan, Oyo State till 2015, only four collapsed buildings were as a result of natural occurrence, others were human errors and made it clear that no professional body in the building industry is more important than the other.
The man who wrote the site analysis of the collapsed building was equally drilled during the hearing.
The public hearing ended with a discussion to fashion out modalities to end quackery in all the professional bodies in the building industry.
