EFFECTS OF POOR PUBLIC AWARENESS OF BUILDING AS A PROFESSION IN

THE PRACTICE OF PROFESSIONAL BUILDERS IN NIGERIA

BY

NWEKETE CHINASA JONATHAN

2015..

PROPOSAL

TO

DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
AND
SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY,
AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ADMISSION

INTO DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PH.D) PROGRAMME IN CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT

SUPERVISOR:

SEPTEMBER, 2015

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Building profession has for a long time in memorial being in existence, looking backward to
the construction of tower of Babel in the early days after the creation of the world, according
to the Holy Bible this emanates in a struggle to modernize the of provision of shelter as one
of the primary needs (food, clothing and shelter) of man. In lieu of this, the practice of this
profession has been without dimension and regulation, and this has made the profession to
undergo shamble and poor productions which delivery could not provide optimum
satisfaction to the users. This have led to several researches that have to provide adequate
solution to this all important need of man.
According to en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/history_of_construction, the history of building is
marked by number of trends. One is the increasing durability of the materials used. Early
building materials were perishable, such as leaves, branches, and animal hides. Later, more
durable natural materials such as clay, stone, and Timber, and finally synthetic materials like
bricks, concrete, metals and plastics were used. Another is a guest for buildings of ever
greater height and span; this was made possible by the development of stronger materials
and by knowledge of how materials behave and how to exploit them to greater advantage. A
third major trend involves the degree of control exercised over the interior environment of
buildings; increasingly precise regulation of air temperature, light and sound levels,
humidity, odours, air speed, and other factors that affect human comfort has been possible.
Yet another trend is the change in energy available to the construction process, starting with
human muscle power and developing toward machinery used today. Also, a trend toward
more fire-safer or resistance materials.
The renaissance in Italy, the invention of moveable type and the reformation changed the
character of building. The rediscovery of Vitruvius had a strong influence. During the middle
ages buildings were designed by the people that built them. The master mason and master
carpenters learnt their trades by word of mouth and relied on experiences, models and rules
of thumb to determine the size of building elements. Vitruvius however describes in detail
the education of the perfect architect who, he said, must be skilled in all the arts and sciences
Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the first of the new style of architects. He started life as a
goldsmith and educated himself in Roman architecture by studying ruins. He went on to
engineer the dome of sanda mans del fiore in Florence.
The seventeenth century was the birth of modern science which would have profound affects
on building construction in the centuries to come. The major breakthrough were towards the
end of the century when architects-engineers began to use experimental science to inform the
form of their buildings. However, it was until the eighteenth century that engineering theory
developed sufficiently to allow size of members to be calculated, seventeenth century
structures relied strongly on experience, rules of thumb and the use of scale models.
The eighteenth century saw the development of many ideas that had been born in the late
seventeenth century. The architects and engineers became increasingly professionalized.
Experimental science and mathematical methods became increasingly sophisticated and
employed in buildings. At the same time the birth of the industrial revolution saw and
increase in the size of cities and increase in the pace and quality of construction.
The industrial revolution in nineteenth century was manifested new kinds of transportation
installations, such as railways, canals and macadam roads. These required large amounts

of investment. New construction devices included steam engine, machines tools, explosives
and optical surveying. The steam engine combined with two other technologies which
blossomed in the nineteenth century, the circular saw and machine cut nails lead to the use of
balloon framing and the decline of traditional timber framing.
As steel was mass-produced from the mid-nineteen century it was used, in form of I-beams,
and reinforced concrete. Glass panes also went into mass- produced, and changed from
luxury to every mans property.
Plumbing appeared and gave common access to drinking water and sewage s collection.
Building codes have been applied since the nineteen century, with special respect to fire
safety. Continue
These had lead to specialization and professionals to further a develop the technological need
in production a perfect and satisfied building.
In building profession, a body known as The Nigeria Institute of building is the professional
body for builders and those who are about to be engaged in the building profession.
The institute has its origin in a similar body called the Builders which was formed in 1834
by a number of prominent builders in London. The Builders Society later became the
Institute of Building in the United Kingdom which later became the Chartered Institute of
Building in 1980 and now Institute for the Management of Construction.
Nigeria became the first overseas centre of the Institute of Building in 1967, the Nigeria
Centre of the Institute of Building became Autonomous in November 5, 1970 and from then
acquired the name The Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) noteworthy that this singular
achievement of the Nigeria centre acted as catalyst for the establishment of other autonomous
overseas centre of the Institute of Building (U.K) in Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ghana
and Kenya etc.
In 1974 the NIOB began the struggle for official recognitions in form of Statutory
Registration Council for Professional Builders. Through the relentless effort of NIOB, the
Federal Military Government signed into law the Builders Registration Act Decree No 45 of
1989 (Then Act CAP 40) to establish the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria
(CORBON) on December 15th, 1989 and the Council was officially inaugurated on 24th
April, 1990. Presently under constitutional review it in now Builders Registration Act Cap
B13 LFN 2004.
Building (shelter) is critical to human existence and the need to master and overcome its
complexity and complication demands that its production, management and maintenance
requires the involvement of a particular discipline in group not only to continue to develop
but to be dynamic in its technology, and management. We identify the Builders in this
group.
But its quite unfortunate that due to the existence of the sister profession whose arrival was
influential against buildings profession in Nigeria, many individual including those who find
themselves in Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, government parastatals/ Ministries,
Media, Security Agencies, Civil / Public Servant, Businessmen, and Institutions from the
public are inert of building profession hence demand the research on how best they can be

reached to comb quarks and possibly minimize the incessant collapse of buildings and lose
of life and properties giving professional touch to the technological development in building
production management and maintenance need within the building industry.
1.1 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to discover the effects of poor public awareness of building as
profession in the practices of Professional Builders in the building industry and to open the
eyes and attention of the expected building owners and users the important of engaging
professional builders to reduce the use of quarks and the incessant collapse of buildings.
To actualize the above aim, the following objectives were treated
1. To identify the effect of poor public awareness of building as a profession for professional
builders.
2. To identify the individuals that are ignorant of the profession.
3. To determine the factors that cause poor public awareness of building as a profession
4. To discover and establish the synergy between the practice of professional builders and
the members of the public
5. To discover how this public awareness could reduce the use of quarks and promote the
use for professional builders
6. To establish the relevance of public awareness of building as a professional practice in
reducing incessant building collapse in the country.
1.3 METHODOLOGY
This chapter will deal with research design, area of the study, the population of the study,
sample and sampling techniques, instrument for data collection, validation of the instrument,
reliability of the instruments, methods of data collections, and data analysis.
1.4 EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The poor public awareness of building as a profession for the practice of professional
Builders has made most clients and sponsors of building production to award their jobs
to quarks and non building professional members in good faith that they are awarding

them to the right hand.

Majority of the members of the public are ignorant of this profession. Also very few of
those who are close and regular to the professional development training and policy
making of the building regulation among the professionals within the built environment

that know the various responsibilities of individual professional bodies.

It also help to open the mind of many members of the public to know that they have
been making mistakes in their choice and recommendation of who execute building
jobs

Poor public awareness are caused by lack of fund, undedicated approach to the advert
and publication of the practice of this profession by the members, and levels of
managemental negligence to publication of the Nigerian institute of building all over
the states of

Nigeria. Lack of selfless service to the service delivery in terms of

professional touch to the project execution on the side of practicing builders which

would have created awareness of the profession naturally for them.

It will help to discover the medium for public awareness like, radio/TV, print and
electronic media, Paper presentation to conferences and

workshops

of other

organization, bill boards /flexes, Fliers, and catch them young programmes among the
secondary school students, and many more
REFERENCE
Bamisile, A. (2004). Building Production Managements Lagos, Foresight Press Ltd
Chitkara, K.K. (2009). Construction Project Management New Delhi.
Publishing
Company Ltd

Mc Grawhill

National Building Code,. (2006) lexis Nexis Butterworths

Omeife, D.A and Izam Y.D (2013) Minimizing Building Collapse Through quality
Management of Design and Construction. Journal of the Nigerian institute of
building,
4 (1) ; 1-7
Ogunbiyi, M.A. (2008). The National Building Code and the Professional Builder.
Proceedings
of the 38th Annual / Conference of the Nigeria Institute of Building, Theme: The
National Building Code and Nation Building Osogbo, Osun State, Wednesday 15 th
Sunday 19th October, Pg 76 88
Uzoagulu, A.E (1998). Practical Guide to writing Research project. Report in Tertiary
Institutions. Enugu John Jacobs