‘Quacks, substandard materials cause building collapse’

The president, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Babagana Mohammed, has said that the use of quacks and substandard materials were major causes of building collapse in the country.

Mohammed, who spoke at the 2020 Engr. Charles Mbanefo Distinguished Lecture in Abuja at the weekend, said: “I keep telling people that building collapse is in two facets. Major causes are either substandard materials or the use of quacks. When the names of engineers are mentioned during building collapse, I get angry because those currently facing lawsuits due to building collapse are not engineers.

“One cannot hold engineers for the acts because people are patronised without knowing fully their qualifications.

“I had cause to investigate a project in Lagos when I was the chairman of Victoria Island. Someone was claiming he was an engineer because he had worked in the building environment for 30 years and people kept calling him an engineer because he was building houses for them.

“He has built very fine houses but that does not make him an engineer. If there is an issue from the work he has done, people will say it was the work of an engineer. I told him that he was not one but a builder.”

The NSE president urged Nigerians to be vigilant and ensure that they hold whoever was responsible for any building project to account whenever there is building collapse.

The Abuja branch chairman of the NSE, A.B. Abdulmalik, who explained the theme of the lecture, ‘Contractual Duties and Tortuous Liabilities: Law and Ethics in Engineering’, said it was meant for engineers to learn from it and implement it to facilitate project execution during the award of contracts.