Worried by the spate of collapsed buildings across the country, concerned citizens that converged on Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, at the weekend, have renewed calls for a robust construction policy and code to eliminate the dangerous trend.

The calls served as a reminder to both the Federal and State governments on the need to activate actions to enhance the general implementation of the National Building Code (NBC) document across the country. Lending support to the call during the Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) was the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji (Dr.) Abdulfatah Ahmed.

The theme of the conference was: "Construction Industry development: Collaboration, Innovations and Capacity Development."

Expressing worry over the incidents, the governor stated that he was convinced that the incidents were caused by untrained builders and unscrupulous developers who, he said jeopardised lives and property while seeking to cut corners.

The governor noted, anyone who has recently constructed a building or visited some building across the country would indeed be disappointed with the low standard of work. "I therefore recommend a law to ensure that only trained and experienced construction professionals and artisans are allowed to construct buildings in the country based on the proposed construction code," the governor said.

This, he said, would create uniform construction standards across the country "so that no matter where you are in the country, you can be assured of quality and save buildings." For safety, economics and aesthetics reasons, the governor said the introduction of the uniform standards became imperative in order to clearly spell out building policy including a building code that would bind the builders and those who engage them across the country.

The governor also raised concern on NIOB's determination to sensitize people on the need to avoid engaging quacks for their building projects in order to avoid wastage, and tragic loss of lives.

He described the conference as a clarion call to enhance partnerships and capacity building to boost professionalism in the building sector, adding that one could decipher the quality of life from the quality of housing that a people dwell in.

Expressing the importance of the construction industry to the nation, he said the sector is one of the first to suffer when an economy goes into recession.

"It is therefore of vital importance that we develop our construction industry to grow our economy as well as enhance the welfare of the people in tangible ways," he stated.

According to him, NIOB on its part must justify the expectations by ensuring that members complied with high quality standards especially the provision of the proposed building code.

He said: "On our part, a concern for high standard in vocational trades such as building and construction as well as the need on plug gaps in middle level manpower led to the establishment of International Vocational Centre, Ajase-Ipo where building and construction is a major course." The center, he said was affiliated with City and Guilds of London to provide skills bench marked against global standard and trends.

He expressed readiness of the state government to partner with NIOB to ensure high standard building and construction in the country through capacity building and vocational centre. He said the government is also keen to partner with private sector and the institute to provide low cost housing for the people through Public Private Partnership (PPP) ventures backed by cheap mortgage service.

Justifying the choice of the conference's theme, the President of NIOB, Mr. Tunde Lasabi, said it was derived from a deep concern to explore the potentials of research, collaborations and professionalism, in the positive growth and development of the building industry.

The annual general meeting, he stated, was set in an international context to provide opportunity for peer review in global best practices. According to him, as builders, the foremost concern is to ensure that the construction of buildings would not be left in the hands of quacks but that builders in Nigeria would continue to play their role effectively as the critical link in production management.