“Those Who Award Government Contracts Should Be Trained” – Fadayomi

Mr. Oreoluwa Fadayomi, in an interview with Emmanuel Badejo of The Guardian spoke extensively building collapse, state of contracts/projects in the country and the future if his profession among others.

Mr. Fadayomi who is the President, Nigerian Insitiution of Structural Engineers and Chairman, Safety Buildings Committee of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and a fellow of both the society and institution said there is need to train those who award contracts in government.

Read excerpts below:

So many structures are failing in this part of the world, what could be done to prevent collapsed building in Nigeria?
It is a wide chapter but we will start from somewhere. First of all, there is a law and if you run foul of the law, particularly with impunity and there is no repercussion, it is obvious that, you’ll do it again. Why do we have issues of kidnapping, commercial drivers driving one-way, it is simply because we lack enforcement of the available laws. The first thing is for the governments to live up to their responsibility of enforcing laws. The starting point is to put flagrant breakage of laws and order under control.

Another thing is the design. All projects begin with planning, then, the design, approval, the bidding process and the usual construction. For the design, we, the structural engineers, are taking care of that. And we are putting together series of training sessions to update and expose the younger ones to latest technologies and how to handle all issues relating to soil test and foundations before going into super structure in another module. After the design, the clients are expected to see it to be sure that it is still pocket friendly so as to avoid the project being abandoned. Every client has the role to be diligent to know the kind of structural engineers he or she is giving his jobs to. It is quite unfortunate that most clients fail in this responsibility. Most government projects also fail and that is why you find contracts awarded to the wrong people. There is need to train those who award contracts in government. All these are to ensure that the right team is on board to handle your project, as this will eliminate low quality jobs, which often leads to project abandonment. Clients should ensure that the right people are patronized and allowed to do their jobs.

As the president of the institution, what enquiries have you made on the collapsed Lekki Gardens building?
I was there on the day it happened, though for rescue operation. Honestly speaking, it is too early to begin to deduce. Besides, it is not what our own institution can single-handedly handle, as it has become a state matter. As you know, the government is involved; COREN, NSE are involved. There is nothing we can do on our own other than to try to sensitize the general public. What has happened, has happened, we need to move ahead to raise the tempo of campaign through various forum by which we shall be putting the public on a red alert on signs that could lead to a building collapse.

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