Building Failure Causes in Nigeria and Mitigating Roles by Engineering Regulation and Monitoring

Joseph Apagu Tanko, Felix Aromo Ilesanmi, Sunday Kilkabu Balla

.

DOI: 10.4236/eng.2013.52026                

Abstract

This paper assessed some of the reported cases of building failures and their possible causes in Nigeria between 1977 and 2011. The reported major failure causes are structural failure (SF), Carelessness (CLSS), poor workmanship (PW), poor supervision (PS), poor materials (PM), and quackery (Q).These causes of failure were subjected to Chi-Square statistical test at 5% significant level and 4 degree of freedom to know the most common cause of failure in Nigeria. The analysis showed quackery as the principal culprit in the reported building failures in Nigeria with prevalence of 8 over poor supervision being the minimum in occurrence. Structural failure occurred 5 times, while poor materials, carelessness and poor workmanship occurred 4, 2 and 2 respectively. The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) with Engineering Regulation and Monitoring (ERM) as her arm as a technical professional group discouraging quackery and failures generally in Engineering Practice. The holistic approach needs effective training of Engineers starting with strong mathematical and scientific background at the secondary and tertiary education levels in conjunction with rigorous field and Industrial training exercises. There after effective scrutiny, professional registration process of competent engineers is followed.

Keywords

Building Failures; Mitigation Roles; Registration; Practice; Regulation of Engineering

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	COREN, “Programme of Events for the 14th Engineering Assembly Held on 20th & 21st September 2005 at the International Conference Centre,” Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, Abuja.
[2]	S. K. Balla, “Assessment of Value Engineering Implementation in Building and Construction Industry in Nigeria,” Unpublished M. Sc. Construction Management, Federal University of Technology, Yola, 2008
[3]	F. A. Ilesanmi, “Polytechnic Education Response to Quacks Multiplication in the Nigerian Environmental Sciences Disciplines,” Paper Presented at the Second National Conference of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), The Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, 10 July 2003.
[4]	Gazette, “The COREN Engineering Regulation Monitoring Programme (ERMP),” Official Gazette, Vol. 26, No. 86, 1985, pp. 338-339.
[5]	F. A. Ilesanmi, “Problems of Further Education in Nigeria,” Paper presented at the Seminar on Critical Issues on Technical Education in Nigeria at the Institute of Education, University of Jos, Jos, 1991.
[6]	H. Stark, “Engineering in Microsoft ? Encarta ? Encyclopedia 2003,” ? 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
[7]	S. P. Ejeh, “Building Collapse Phenomenon in Nigeria: The Role of Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI),” Proceedings of NBRRI Stakeholders’ Forum, Abuja, 24-25 May 2011, pp. 67-98
[8]	NUC (National Universities Commission), “Approved Minimum Academic Standards,” National Universities Commission, Lagos, 1989.
[9]	P. Procter, “Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,” Longman Group Limited, Essex, 1981.
[10]	Federal Republic of Nigeria, “The Nigerian Policy on Education,” Federal Ministry of Education, Lagos, 1979.