The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has disclosed plans to certify engineers trained in forensic investigation and enlist them on a new national register of specialists who will be deployed to probe building collapses and other engineering failures nationwide.
The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of COREN, Engr. Prof. O.A.U. Uche, made this known on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a three-day workshop on Engineering Failure and Forensic Investigation.
He explained that the initiative was designed to help unravel the root causes of engineering failures, forestall future occurrences, and protect lives and property across the country.
“The pool of trainees from this workshop will be added to our new register of trained and certified forensic engineering failure and forensic investigators who will be empowered by COREN to carry out this novel regulatory function in their different engineering disciplines and locations on behalf of COREN,” he said.
According to him, the programme was far more than an ordinary capacity-building exercise, as participants would be armed with the requisite skills and tools to carry out proper forensic investigations whenever structural failures occur.
“This training is not just mere training. We want to go into forensic investigation so we know the root cause of failures, and that is the essence,” he stated.
The COREN boss lamented that engineering failures often leave devastating consequences that go beyond destroyed structures, pointing out that human lives are frequently lost in the process.
“When you come to failure and collapse, it’s not only the infrastructure. At times, human lives, which are not quantifiable, are also being involved,” he said.
He also raised concerns over the growing habit among some developers of bypassing certified professionals in handling construction projects, warning that this trend was partly responsible for the rising cases of building failures in the country.
“Time has come when you see developers, they don’t take care of who are actual practitioners, experts in those areas that are supposed to be in charge of this construction,” he said.
Uche, however, noted that while no engineering structure could be completely immune to failure, such incidents could be drastically minimised through sound design practices, proper professional engagement and rigorous investigation whenever failures occur.
“We don’t say that engineering structures cannot fail. We ensure that failure is reduced to the minimum, but we need trained experts that will be involved not only in developing the structures but also in investigating failures where they occur in order to prevent future occurrences,” he added.
He disclosed that the workshop, put together by COREN in partnership with the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) and the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria (CIFCIN), was the second in a series, following an earlier edition held in Lagos.
The COREN registrar said the council intended to extend the training to other parts of the country in order to build a larger pool of qualified experts who can investigate failures across various engineering sub-sectors.
He further revealed that COREN was working towards securing full signatory status to the Washington Accord, a move that would grant wider international recognition to engineers trained in Nigeria.
“This will ensure that our trained engineers can practise engineering in the US, UK, Canada and other countries that are members of the International Engineering Alliance,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the COREN President, Engr. Prof. S.Z. Abubakar, a member of the council, Engr. Felix Ebuzoeme, charged participants to imbibe the culture of continuous learning, maintain professional integrity, and mentor younger engineers coming behind them.
“Let us also mentor the people below us. Let us not be afraid to update ourselves and we will become better professionals,” he said.