Building Collapse: Engineers Want Use Of Experts In Projects

The Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers has advocated the exclusive use of registered structural engineers in the building of houses so as to reduce the number of collapsed buildings in the country.
Speaking with newsmen at a dinner night in Port Harcourt to mark the end of the two-day 31st Annual General Meeting and Dinner with the theme, “Engineering Infrastructure: The Environment And Humanity,” last Wednesday, the National President, Engr Eddy Atumonyogo said that if structural engineers are allowed to do their jobs, there would be less collapse of buildings.
Atumonyogo pointed out that Structural Engineering was a specialised course and profession, insisting that only members of the profession should be allowed to do their jobs.
He noted that the challenge was that almost everybody in Nigeria dabbled into other peoples’ professions, thereby making it difficult for them to adopt best practices and ethics binding the affected professions.
“The Nigerian Society of Engineers passed a resolution last year mentioning that some categories of buildings can only be designed by structural engineers registered by the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers. The civil engineers can handle some aspects of the structures, but they should not go beyond their limit, just as a general practitioner in medicine cannot do brain surgery,” he argued.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana