For instance, there are provisions in the code that make it mandatory that building must be designed and constructed by registered professionals and at each important stage of building production, professionals that are responsible for carrying out work at that stage must sign – that they have indeed undertaken such work “as designed and specified in the approved documents.” After the completion of the building a certificate of use and habitation is supposed to be issued by the Code Enforcement Officer, which permits the use of a building in accordance with the provisions of the law for use and occupancy of the building. Also Building survey should be undertaken from time to time, for high rise building in order to determine its structural integrity; registers of attendance and use of relevant tools and equipment are required to be properly kept. Also all measures that will guarantee the safety of workers such as the use of personal protective equipment must be observed. The regulatory bodies and professional associations notably, Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, CORBON, and The Nigerian Institute of Building, NIOB, have organized mandatory training workshops in order to acquaint members of the various provisions of the code and to reawaken them on their role and responsibilities.
Structure of the National Building Code
The NBC 2006 consists of four parts with a total of 15 sections. The details are as follows:
PART I ADMINISTRATION consisting of three sections
Section 1 – Citation and Commencement.
Section 2 – Interpretations, Definitions and Abbreviations.
Section 3 – The Establishment of a Building Code Advisory.
PART II TECHNICAL (PROFESSIONAL) It comprises of 9 sections
Section 4 – Building Design Classifications.
Section 5 – Building construction Classifications.
Pre-Design Stage:
Section 6 – Environmental and General Building Requirements.
Design Stage:
Section 7 – Architectural Drawing Requirements.
Section 8 – Civil/Structural technical Design Requirements.
Section 9 – Services Engineering Design Requirements.
Construction Stage:
Section 10 – Building Materials and Components Requirements.
Section 11 – Building Construction Requirements.
Post Construction Stage:
Section 12 – Post Construction Requirements. PART III ENFORCEMENT
Section 13 – Control of building Works.
PART IV SCHEDULES AND REFERENCES
Section 14 – Reference Standards.
Section 15 – Compliance forms.
Looking at the details of the National Building Code 2006, it can be observed that sincere attempt was made to put in place far reaching proactive measures that will guard against many of the problems facing the construction industry, relating to building control. It should, however, be noted that The National Building code 2006 is quite different from The Nigerian Urban & Regional Planning Law (Decree No. 88 of 1992). The latter is mainly concerned with the control of physical development on land. It regulates land use by zoning land areas for specific type of development. They control types of building, building height and density, building setbacks, floor areas to plot ratios and other physical infrastructure like drainage and road networks. Thus such laws are for development control while Building Code is concerned with details of the building – building control. There is no doubt that they are related but they perform different function. It is absolutely indispensable that in order to have well organized, neat, healthy and highly developed built environment in Nigeria, devoid of frightening and disturbing records of building failures, three very important government statutory control mechanism should be fully developed and implemented. These are: The National Building Code, The Nigerian Urban & Regional Planning Law and Construction Site Regulations. Construction Site Regulations is the statutory instrument that regulates and controls health, welfare and safety on construction site. In other words, Construction Site Regulations is for the protection of construction workers as well as the general public – most especially visitors when construction work is going on. This is particularly important when we take into consideration that building sites are just like factories where building production is carried out, as such, there are many risks associated with it. The human resource involved in construction activities are exposed to various forms of risks and construction industry, has an unenviable record as an accident prone industry second only to Mining and Fishing industries. Moreover, results of various studies have shown that the Nigerian construction industry has poor site safety record. Thus risk is a re-occurring phenomenon in the construction industry. Unfortunately most contractors and professionals pay little or no attention to it in Nigeria. It is interesting to note the effort made my government by promulgating the insurance Act in 2003. There is no doubt that it is a viable fall back measure that will cushion the negative side effects of various types of risks faced in the construction industry. However, the fact remains that there is need to put more effort.
THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
A major feature of good government all over the world is absolute and very sincere concern for its citizens. Good government gives prompt attention to whatever affects its citizens. Building failure and collapse are the most serious problems facing the construction industry in Nigeria. The frequencies of their occurrences and the magnitude of the loses, being recorded in terms of lives and properties are becoming not only, worrisome and alarming, but a major source of concern to government and well-meaning Nigerians. To really appreciate the magnitude of the problem, one needs to study records of building failures in Nigeria. For instance there are 36 reported cases of collapsed building which occurred between 1974 and 1999 in Nigeria. While another report in 2010 noted that between 1976 and 2006 there are 50 different cases of building collapse. In Lagos State alone, between 2000 and 2010 there are 50 cases of collapsed buildings. Recently, there are two reported cases of building collapse in Lagos and Warri.
Many factors were identified as responsible for building collapse such as use of sub-standard building materials, poor workmanship use of quack professionals and contractors, poor workmanship, faulty construction methodology, non-compliance with specifications or standards, illegal conversion, alterations or additions to existing structures, defective design, “Nigerian factor” etc.
Dauda Dahiru Danwata is an Associate Professor at Department of Building, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached at [email protected], 08022601115
To be continued…
