By Joy Baba-Yesufu
President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Arc. Mobolaji Adeniyi has urged Federal Government to dutifully implement the “Presidential executive order for planning and execution of projects, promotions of Nigerian content in contract and science, engineering and technology (Executive Order 5) which was signed into law on 20th February2018.
Mobolaji who stated this in Abuja while addressing journalist on the sudden surge in the price of cement and other building materials said the intent of the executive order is that local professionals and technologies be used during constructions in the country.
She noted that sometimes back, architect were imported from South Africa, China and so on when the country has local architects, engineers that can do the work adding that this is what that executive order addresses.
Adeniyi said there is nothing that architects and engineers all over the world are doing that their contemporaries here in Nigeria cannot do saying that as a matter of fact, our professionals are sort for all over the world and are doing very well so why should we here then be importing not only technology but man power. “But we still see up till today that some governments agencies and organizations use a lot of foreign architects and foreign professionals. All of these things, if removed, will cut down the full cost of construction”.
She further said with the hike in prices, many architects went back to the drawing board and started planning on how Nigerians can start using what is called stabilize earth blocks, which contain laterite, earth and a little bit of cement fiber to produce blocks.
“As soon as this happened, many of us architect went back to the drawing board, we started planning on how we can start using what we call stabilize earth blocks, that means we use our laterite, earth to make blocks with a little bit of cement fiber, so the cement content in it is so small so we don’t need so much cement. These building that are done with such materials are as a matter of fact better, ecofriendly, cooler. In fact, it is bullet proof. We need to go back to that. We are going to do a lot of research about this. What about our bricks, Red bricks, burnt bricks.
“For now we believe that deregulation of the market is the way to go if not we will be at the mercy of the manufactures who are dictating prices and that is affecting so many areas of our economy even beyond the building material sector because you can see the ripple effect of this issue of cement. Like I said unemployment, criminal activity, insecurity and so the way to go maybe deregulation, opening of the borders so that we can have more influx of this materials have enough to meet the demand.
“Government will need to sit down and articulate this in a way that it will still not make us suffer at the end of the day. I believe that deregulation is the way to go” she said.
Adeniyi further urged government agencies and Nigerians as a whole to curb their excessive appetite for foreign goods and services.
