Independent 20170816-readme.ng

C4
Real Estate
/<strong>Independent</strong>ngr @independentngr www.independent.ng
INDEPENDENT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017
Town Planning Officers, Quacks
Subvert Nigerian Architects – Ladega
As Lagos State government
makes efforts at embarking
upon its urban renewal plan,
Olusegun Ladega, Managing
Director, Interstate Architects
Limited spoke to NKASIOBI
OLUIKPE on what he thinks
should be uppermost on the
plan. Excerpts:
However, the truth must be told. What is
the state of our economy?
If you say we need more architects, have
the over 6,000 you mentioned been fully
engaged?
They are not fully engaged because
of a number of factors. The first reason
is the economic forces, which means that
projects of the kind and size and scope and
dimension that were easily available in the
days when we entered into the profession,
which kept us very busy, with lots of projects,
do not exist any longer. Secondly, we
also have a big problem. The fact that the
biggest market for architectural services is
the residential building market but it is the
sector where unfortunately, we architects
face biggest challenge because you have
so many quacks and imposters competing
with us to render the services that architects
render; services such as design of the
building, providing documentation for the
building construction and the monitoring
and supervision of the construction.
Ladega
In your own opinion, do you think the Nigerian
architects have done well to meet the
challenges of the 21st Century?
I would say yes. You will actually be
shocked and surprised to hear certain
stories. There is a building in Cairo in a
metropolis called Heliopolis. The building
there is the headquarters of the African
Export Import Bank. Interstate Architects
Nigeria Limited designed it. There was an
international competition amongst firms
of architects based across Africa for the
design and Interstate Architects won the
competition.
The kind of things that the expatriate
firms imported into Nigeria, we, Nigerian
professionals have also gone elsewhere to
do them.
There are buildings designed by Nigerian
architects that have won international
awards for creativity, innovation and for
the quality of architecture.
It is not that the Nigerian architect cannot
design a 50-storey building, why not?
But the point is, there isn’t a need for a
50-storey building in Nigeria yet. For that
reason, no one has made a demand for the
Nigerian architect to design one. So, the
fact that you do not have a 50-storey building
in Nigeria does not mean that Nigerian
architects cannot design one. The simple
truth is that there hasn’t been a need for
one yet. If the need for one arises and it
has to be done in Nigeria, a Nigerian architect
will be contacted to do it and he
will go ahead and do it, ditto other kinds
of complicated or simple buildings.
So, there are three things here: is there
a need for it? Is there a patron for such a
project and can they finance such a project?
What I am trying to say is that, we have
the capability, creativity and the resourcefulness
to handle practically any kind of
projects.
The quacks have so
empowered themselves
that they influence what
happens in the town
planning office to subvert
the architects and whether
we like it or not, failure to
enforce the laws of the land,
and failure to sanction, are
part of the reasons we are
where we are
When your generation graduated, hopes
were high and opportunities abound but
same do not apply to the new generation
of architects. Why?
It is a reflection of the state of the economy
and the absence of sufficient opportunities
for these young architects to express
themselves. I told young architects in our
firm here that years back when I graduated,
it was a completely different Nigeria, a
Nigeria when there was a lot of confidence
in what the economy had to offer. Unfortunately,
things have changed.
When we graduated from school, we
were among the highest paid professionals
in Nigeria. But unfortunately, things
have reversed because of the state of the
economy and the demand for the services
of architecture practitioners. Those changes
are not the fault of the practitioners but
that of economic forces that have come into
play, which means that there are fewer opportunities.
Now if we look at our population, and
the number of architects we have here,
you will discover we need more architects.
But don’t you think it has to do with the
service charges of the architects, which
some of the patrons of these quacks think
is beyond them?
That I will even say is also a large bit
of misinformation. Nigeria is a country
where superstition meets with oldwife’s
tale to influence people more than truth
and reality. It’s a pity. The architects’
services are directly proportional to the
cost of the project. It means the architect
charges a percentage (seven and a half) of
the cost of constructing the building as his
fees. A small insignificant percentage! People
without even inquiring assume based
on inaccurate information.
According to the laws in the state, drawings
presented for planning approval are
supposed to be produced by an architect.
And the way to determine the authenticity
of the drawings is that there will be an
architects’ stamp on them. There is also a
challenge here as there are fake architects’
stamps. It is so bad that in some states, the
quacks have so empowered themselves that
they influence what happens in the town
planning office to subvert the architects.
Whether we like it or not, failure to
enforce the laws of the land, and failure
to sanction, are part of the reason we are
where we are. So many buildings are collapsing
all over the place. Has anything
happened to those quacks responsible for
the collapse? Has anything even happened
to the civil servants who are supposed to
be monitoring all the building constructions
going on in the states? In every state,
there are officers who are paid through our
tax, who have a duty to go around the state
and check on buildings under construction
and if there is any form of non-compliance,
they are supposed to shut down the
building. My question is how come some
of those constructions continue, some of
them even completed? People have moved
in before they collapse. Name any state
of the federation where the officers who
are supposed to ensure compliance with
building procedures have been sanctioned
for a collapse?
This is not an issue for the professionals
alone. The state has structures that are supposed
to prevent these things from happening,
and people earn salaries for occupying
positions of compliance officers and there
are non-compliances all over the country.
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