By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, Thursday, advocated the teaching of the compliance to the national building code in the Nigerian schools.
Fashola, who spoke in Abuja when members of the national building code advisory committee paid him a courtesy call, also called for the involvement of students in the process.
The minister, who lauded the activities of the committee which was inaugurated in July 2018, described students as ‘critical stakeholders’ in the implementation of the code nationwide.
Fashola said: “It is good that you want to see the governors so that they will domesticate it (the national building code), but I think there are more critical stakeholders in the built industry that you need to relate with.
“Essentially for me, I think, this committee can be more visible more than it has been. The critical stakeholders for me are students because they are going to be involved in the industry within the decade from now.
“And unless we expose them to the best practices, best charter very early in life, they will learn it very late. To do this, every level of education is involved.
“We can break down what they need to learn in easy module and they can learn it just as we learn the Nigerian history in primary school and by the time you get to the secondary school, the history contents would change, and if you do it as a degree, it becomes tougher.
“I think, this is the place that you can get involved. You should get the school principals, the school owners both at the state and federal levels involved so that basic knowledge and essential of building are inculcated in the people from the childhood’’.
The minister also called for severe punishment for any professional found wanting in any building collapse.
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Architect Mohammed Jimoh Faworaja, had highlighted some of the committee’s activities within the year.
Faworaja, however, said gas piping in construction of houses was part of the drafted guidelines that will be added to the national building code.
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