The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has called for the enforcement of its existing role in the building approval process, saying greater involvement of qualified engineers would help prevent structural failures and save lives.
The demand followed the collapse of a four-storey building in Enugu State, which claimed a life, as COREN officials visited the scene to assess the incident.
Engineer Bartholomew Ede, Chairman of the Enugu State Technical Committee on Engineering Regulation, Monitoring and Enforcement and a COREN member, said it was too early to determine the precise cause of the collapse before a forensic investigation.
“Engineering has standards and immediately you, just like every other profession, anyone that shifts from the standard, you know, you expect catastrophe,” he said, cautioning against prematurely blaming undersized reinforcement, poor-quality concrete or inadequate supervision.
Ede said COREN already has a regulatory role but has not been given sufficient opportunity to participate in the construction approval process. He noted that development control authorities, the Enugu Capital Territory, the Ministry of Lands and other government agencies already perform aspects of construction regulation, but said COREN’s involvement would provide an additional layer of professional scrutiny.
He explained that COREN’s proposed involvement would begin with the examination of structural designs and identification of the professionals responsible for each project before construction approval is granted.
“For example, here, we don’t know who is the owner. We don’t know who designed it. We don’t know who is in charge of the site in terms of engineering supervision,” he said, adding that COREN would also use approved work programmes to monitor foundation work, reinforcement, concrete quality and professional supervision.
“When we look at that drawing, we want to know from the development controller, from the owner of the building, who is it?” Ede said. “We will come there and see what is happening, how the foundation is being done, what is the quality of concrete that is being put, what are the reinforcements, are they according to the design? Who is supervising it? Is that person qualified to supervise it?”
He therefore appealed to development control authorities to enforce COREN’s existing role before granting construction approvals. “Before you give approval for construction, let COREN play its own role. If you don’t have the current certification of that design, you are on your own,” he warned. “And you are taking a very big risk. And you are endangering the lives of a lot of people from the Enugu State. And that is what we are crying for.”
Ede said the problem was one of implementation rather than the absence of regulation, noting that professional bodies had repeatedly warned about structural failures. “It is a policy issue or an implementation issue? Implementation issue. Because we have a law,” he said, adding, “if that disconnect is fixed, this issue of collapsing will reduce drastically.”
Also speaking, Engineer Ede Magnus, representing Aninri State Constituency in the Enugu State House of Assembly and a member of the House Committee on Works, described the collapse as a serious development, particularly because a life was lost.
“This incident is a very bad one indeed. A very bad development indeed, most especially when a life was lost,” Magnus said.
He said he had been involved in discussions with the Commissioner for Works on the need to strengthen COREN’s participation in construction regulation.
“As a lawmaker, I want to take the bull by the horns by making sure we raise a motion of urgent attention for the state to allow COREN to do their work,” he said.
“Because if they eventually allow them to do their work, developments such as this will be a thing of the past.”
The Regional Head of COREN for the South-East, Engineer Peter Awunde, said the outcome of the forensic investigation would determine responsibility, with sanctions awaiting anyone found culpable.
He explained that COREN has an MOU with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for cases involving non-engineers who undertake engineering responsibilities. “COREN has an MOU with ICPC. If we discover that a non-engineer was involved in a project that collapses, he’s handed over to the ICPC,” he said.
Awunde said registered engineers found culpable would face COREN’s disciplinary tribunal in Abuja and could lose their professional licences. “If at the end of this investigation, we are able to get one or two persons who are culpable and are engineers, we will invite them to Abuja to go and face that disciplinary tribunal,” he said. “If he cannot defend himself properly, his licence will be withdrawn. If the nature of the offence is so enormous, he can, at that point, be taken to Kuje prison in Abuja.”
He said previous investigations into building collapses had revealed instances where unqualified persons supervised construction, citing a case in Port Harcourt where a pharmacist was allegedly found to have supervised a collapsed building. “But people have taken engineering as an all-comers affair. But it shouldn’t be so. Because this is about life,” Awunde said.
The COREN regional head urged government authorities to treat the council as a partner in ensuring construction safety and allow it access to project information before approvals are granted. “We are partners in the Nigerian project. Our aim is to make Nigeria good. We are not trying to take anybody’s job,” he said. “If from the onset you let us know who is handling a particular project, before you even append your approval as development control, it will help us a lot.”
Awunde concluded that early involvement would make it easier to identify professionals responsible for projects when failures occur. “Because the details of such an engineer must have been with us,” he said. “But in a situation where you shut your doors from COREN, we are not magicians.”
