The legal luminary, Mr. Femi Falana has vowed to resist the engagement of fake builders in the building industry. He said that henceforth, if a building collapses, the builder will be made to page adequate compensation to the owner.

Speaking at the Builder’s Day held at the Ndubisi Kanu’s Park in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said his team would not charge the organization rather they will render their services Probono Probico so that they can put an end to builders killing the people through building collapse in the country.

“We are also going to sit down with your leaders to make sure that those who cause these against humanity are brought to book and prosecuted. By the time we have led an example with some of them, building collapse will stop. It is unacceptable that in a university where people are required to trade under the law, and exhibit excellence, you cannot allow the people to put up Buildings that would collapse,” he said.

Addressing the various sectors under The Institute of Building (NIOB) during the Institute’s Day, the national President, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, said construction of buildings to standard in Nigeria is the Institute’s demand from the government. He said that frequent building failure in a nation due, majorly, to quackery is an abnormality that should not be allowed to continue in a sane society where the rule of law prevails.

According to him, as far back as (circa) 1754 BC, the 6th King of Babylon, Hammurabi recognised the need to protect building occupants by including in the Law, Building Codes 228 to 233 that proclaimed various punishments for inadequate building construction. “Building production is a complex process that requires expertise in order to achieve serviceability and safety at reasonable cost. To forestall poor production of buildings on sites, Nigerian Government took some proactive measures by enacting into law the Builders’ Act through Decree 45 of 1989, now CAP 13 LFN 2004. The essence of the Act is to ensure that trained and licensed builders solely manage production of buildings on sites in order to ascertain quality output.

“To ensure that adequate trainings are provided for the would-be professional builders, the government approved the establishment of Building Departments in 27 Universities and 56 Polytechnics in Nigeria. Intensive training in Building Technology involves knowledge acquisition in various aspects of building, spanning from Foundation to Roofing. Certain periods during their academic training, students of Building undergo SIWES under the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) scheme to acquire practical knowledge on building sites.

“At the inception of the one year mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), many building graduates are usually posted to construction companies to initiate them into full time building production management. After the NYSC, the building graduates proceed to professional cadres for various stages of examinations and mentoring in the Nigerian Institute of Building.

“Once their competence has been ascertained with the Performance Index while working on building sites and gaining required experience, the corporate members of the NIOB undergo stringent interview with the government regulatory body, Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON). Those who succeed in this practical-oriented interview become Registered Builders that are licensed by CORBON to manage building production on sites.