Nigeria surveyors demands proper safty compliance.

By Monsur Olowoopejo
As part of preventive measures to halt frequent incidents of building collapse and other avoidable accidents in the country, the
Association of Private Practicing Surveyors (APPSN) has tasked governments at all levels to ensure strict enforcement of safety policies.
The building experts, who blamed most tragic incidents in the construction site, which have resulted in avoidable deaths, on lack or inadequate safety measures, also urged President Muhammed Buhari and the state governors across the country to put in place a working safety policy that will not only be made known to the public but also be enforced to the latter.
Chairman APPSN Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Olufemi Odewale, speaking at the annual professional development workshop at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Building, Alausa,Ikeja, said that cases of building collapse could be avoided if the materials and the workers had been properly monitored.
According to him, it is not enough to have the safety policies written without implementing them, saying that the only way to avert needless disasters and tragedies is to implement effective safety policies.
“Our job is dependent on the environment”, he stated. “So, what we are doing today is part of the sensitisation of the stakeholders on the issue of safety. To ensure safety in our society especially in the building profession, survey is basically the bedrock of meaningful development. That means that there can’t be any major development without the input of surveyors. Therefore, when surveyors are aware of the need for safety, they will be safety conscious which means that every other professional coming to work in the environment would imbibe safety culture and it goes on from there.”
With the theme of the workshop as “Man and his environment: Life-saving measure”, Mr. Odewale described it as apt, saying it is the duty of any surveyor to consider safety while working on the site. “For surveyors, being the first person to work on the site, we make the issue of safety very important, we prioritise it and let the people see the need to their daily activities. So, safety is key. We demonstrate it, we preach and we also encourage people to imbibe it,” he added.
To avert recurrent incidents in Lagos, he disclosed that the association of surveyors is working with the state safety board to ensure that regulations are given serious consideration such that when there are offenders, the law will take its course.
“The issue is that when people know that if they do something wrongly, some regulations are in place, they will comply with the law and be safety conscious.
“For every collapse, there is a measure of something that has gone wrong somewhere. Any structure that is more than two or three floors should be regularly monitored to know whether that building is still standing strong. If we do this over time, we would be able to prevent some of these collapses, “ he added.
Similarly, Mr. Adedeji Sebiotimi , a surveyor, said the use of modern survey equipment on any construction site would be of immense advantage in ensuring safety.