The price of building materials in the country has been on a steady increase and has been decried by the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE).
According to NICE’s Vice Chairman, Lola Adetona, the rising cost has pushed players in the building business to seek alternative routes in a bid to cut expenses.
She said that these building players like engineers, contractors, and builders, were more interested in “making profit, regardless of what happens to a building in the long run.”
Adetona said that the alternatives to quality building materials would lead to the country experiencing more building collapses in the country.
She explained, “Skyrocketing cost of cement is making construction engineers, builders and contractors, particularly quacks, to find shortcuts at the expense of Quality Control and Assurance (QCQA), because they are more interested in making profit, regardless of what happens to a building in the long run. This is why we may continue to experience building collapse.
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“We are in danger. Deep danger! We no longer have any other option than to find a way to stem this tide. We have an opportunity now to talk and take this matter to the next level.
“I speak as not just an engineer but as a concerned mother, wife, resident and tax-paying citizen.
“The reality of these tragedies when they happen are more graphic than we know; particularly to victims of collapsed buildings. When a building collapses, children, parents and even families are affected. Generations are destroyed and scarred forever, future of children is stunted, capital is lost, people lose jobs, while some end up in hospital or jail.”
“You will agree with me that we cannot fight COVID-19 on one hand and at the same time do damage control of buildings that will be collapsing, when contractors will be forced to cut corners.
“We can save those buildings today and as NICE, we must move our narrative in this direction because time is of the essence.”
A former chairman of the institution, James Owivri, also lamented the high costs of building materials, stating that a bag of cement that went for N2,500 has risen to between N3,800 and N4,000.
