Building Collapse, Construction Defects Worry Engineers

Structural failures, collapse of buildings and other similar matters in Nigeria’s construction engineering endeavours were key issues that dominated deliberations of the Nigerian Institute of Structural Engineers (NISE) during their recent meeting in Lagos.

The NISE in their gathering sought to determine the causes, implications and prevention of structural failures that have become the rule, rather than the exception in the country, which effect had been disastrous.

Making this known while speaking to journalists at the NISE secretariat in Lagos, the institute’s president, Victor Oyenuga said that the body deliberated  extensively on the collapse of engineering  structures, causes, implications, as well as preventive measures.

According to  him “The gathering brought together practising engineers and other stakeholders that are involved in the design and development of structures, and the institute had earlier issued statements and papers on the matter, advising government and other stakeholders on what to do to stem the tide”.

He said “we remain undaunted in our vow to play our roles as professionals in seeking for how to prevent collapse of buildings, steel and concrete structures and the effect on the design of defective drawings that are capable of causing collapse of buildings among other issues”.

While absolving his colleagues from blame in the cases of building collapse in the country, Oyenuga also appealed  to the public to ensure that their buildings, irrespective of the size, are handled by structural engineers, because, as  he said “ignorance is more expensive than education”.