An expert in the in estate industry Edmund Onu, has called on the National Assembly to accelerate action towards delivering a law that would give legal backing for the domestication of the National Building Code.
He noted that the absence of an enabling legislation for the domestication of the code had largely contributed to the ineffectiveness in the regulating procedures and processes in the nation’s real estate industry.
Onu, an architect, who disclosed this in an interaction with aviation correspondents, Monday, noted that domestication and development of codes, standards and regulations are necessary for building and engineering  infrastructure in Nigeria.
“The code is yet to be backed by any legislation, which explained why most professionals had yet to accept it as a document to guide real estate development in Nigeria.
“The code provided that all State governments and the Federal Capital Territory should domesticate the document, but uptill now, you might notice that many of the states had yet to begin the process of domesticating the code”, he said.
According to him, the aim of the building code was to establish minimum requirements to safeguard public health, safety and general welfare in the process of pre-design, design, construction and post-construction stages of the life cycle of buildings and structures.
“Building code and regulations exist to safeguard the public health and general welfare from fire and other hazards attributed to the built environment.
“It is to establish minimum requirements to safeguard public health, safety and general welfare in the processes of pre-design, design, construction, and post-construction stages of the life cycle of building and structures.
”The code was produced and approved in 2006 for use in Nigeria. It is to, among others, address incessant collapse of buildings, fire incident in buildings and other disasters; dearth of referenced design materials for professionals; and use of non-professional.
“Others include the use of untested products and materials; inadequate planning of our towns, cities and other built environment abuses; lack of adequate regulations and sanctions for non-compliance; and inadequate database to aid sustainable building process”, Onu explained.

By: Corlins Walter