FG tasks engineers on halting incessant building collapse

The Federal Government has urged the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to check on incessant building collapses in Nigeria.

Speaking when members of COREN visited, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Mahmuda Mamman, charged the council to strategize and ensure proper checks and mandatory monitoring on construction activities.

Mamman said this would ensure that Nigerians would be living in well-built, solid buildings without any fear of building collapse.

” COREN being a federal government regulatory body is vested with the mandate and powers to check and control building standards in Nigeria to ensure that cases of building collapse is stopped.

”There seems to be a disconnect somewhere between Nigerian Engineers and COREN. COREN, must as a matter of urgency proffer an urgent solution to this situation,” he said.

He also urged all regulators in the engineering body to come together and seek audience with the Ministry of Finance especially as regards the recent federal government policy directive of self-funding for all such bodies .

He told the delegation to consider of levies as a way of generating revenues to assist the council.

He urged the council to come up with implementable plans and guide lines by going back to the drawing board for them to be able to reposition COREN for better performance and impactful services to Nigerians.

Earlier, the Registrar of COREN , Prof Adisa Bello, said the council was ministry to brief the permanent secretary on the activities of the council.

The registrar said COREN is a statutory regulatory organ of the Federal Government of Nigeria , established by Decree No. 55 of 1970 amended by Degree No. 27 of 1992 , now Engineers ( Registration ).

The registrar said the promulgation of Decree 27 of 1992 , COREN was merely a registration body of engineers and it was then known as Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria .

“However with the expansion of its functions in 1992 , which now includes regulation and vontrol of the engineering family , COREN’s name was changed to what it is now, but still retaining the acronym , COREN .

“Our mandate include regulate and control engineering practice in Nigeria with all its aspects and ramifications, among othersm” he said.

The News Agency of Nigetia (NAN) reports that the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, BCPG, has said 62 buildings collapsed, either fully or partially, in 2022 alone.

The immediate past President of BCPG, Eddy Atumonyogo, disclosed in his speech at the Guild’s Annual General Meeting, held virtually on December 27, 2022, that in the 48-year period between October 1974 and November 2022, Nigeria recorded 541 incidents of building collapse.

The guild said that Lagos State is at the top of the table with 322 incidents, followed by Anambra -20; Oyo -19; Abuja -18; Kano-17; Ogun -12; Delta -12; Ondo -11; Abia -11; Rivers -10; Enugu -9; Kwara -7; Imo -7; Plateau -7; Kaduna -6; Edo -6; Osun -6; Ebonyi -5; Jigawa -5; Cross River -4; Benue -3; Adamawa -3; Niger -3; Ekiti -2; Akwa-Ibom -2; Nasarawa -2; Zamfara -1; Kebbi -1; Sokoto -1; Bauchi -1; Kogi -2; Katsina -1; Borno -1; Taraba -1; Yobe -1; Bayelsa -1 and Gombe -1.