Ruth Oginyi
The Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Thursday decry that charlatans, interlopers, and gatecrashers have taken over the profession and now design and approve buildings in the country.
The Architects said the inversion of the non-professional is the course of the increase in building collapse in the country.
They, however, call on the professionals to rise against quackery in the profession.
The Architects stated this in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital during their 2022 symposium with the theme “project procurement and delivery process in Nigeria”.
An Assistant Director, Federal Capital Territory Development(FCDA), Abuja, Arc Moses Ajah, lamented the high rate of quackery in the profession which he said cannot be found in other professional bodies.
He said “why should we not be having buildings collapse in the country when we put a square peg in a round hole and a round peg in a square hole? In many towns and state capitals even in Ebonyi State, Architects who are the leaders of the building industries are not in building plan approval. Little wonder building collapse is pervasive in our country.
“This cannot be obtainable in several other sectors. You cannot have a known Medical Doctor leading a Medical Team even if that Medical Doctor was just one year, a Professor of Radiology cannot lead a Medical Team where that Doctor is. You cannot have a legal team and someone who is not a Lawyer is seen leading the Legal Team, is it done?
“An Architect must stand up to this, if we don’t, it will be to our detriment. I make bold to say that no one can effectively superintendent over the building development and related activities beginning from plan approval, better than an Architect.
“Sanitizing the building plan approval process and enforcement of building development control is most critical and the time to do so is now. It is most disturbing because, in Ebonyi State, we do not have Architects in the various Planning Development and Planning Authority. In Ebonyi State, I am afraid maybe, we are having less than 10 Architects the.
“There is no single local government in the state that has any Architect. I was told that in the entire Capital Territory Development Board, we also do not have any Architects, and yet you want a decent state capital, you want a capital that will compete with other capitals in the whole world.
“Yet, you limit your thinking to thinking that the Capital Development is about concrete roads, flyovers, and structures that are badly and poorly designed and development”.
In his address, the Chairman of the association in the state, Arc Emmanuel Udomiaye said the only way to eradicate quackery in the profession was to register with the professional body.
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