Abdullahi Alao Jimoh, professor of Civil Engineering,University of Ilorin has advocated stronger ties between the University, construction industry, Government agencies, and Standard Organization of Nigeria to control fake building materials circulating in Nigeria markets.
The don, who stated this while presenting the University’s 220th Inaugural lecture titled, “Exploring Local Materials For Building Development”, disclosed that use of local materials as against foreign ones save up to 26% of project cost, stressing the need for Nigerians to embrace local materials in construction.
The use of local materials according to him makes housing affordable and is capable of curbing dependency, slavery to foreign economy and reduction in devaluation of the local currency.
He says, Africa generally and Nigeria in particular, are endowed with abundant natural resources but they depend on imported materials for construction.
The inaugural lecturer explained that chosen the topic is apt considering the economic woes in the country, saying that building materials constitute an integral component in building construction, which he said accounts for 70% of construction cost.
In his part; he said a lot has been contributed towards developing the society and even the students. His students according to him are thought what local materials are, and how they are being used for building purposes.
“Further ways of impacting knowledge is through investigations carried out by the students in their final year project.
“The test of timber properties, application of waste materials, production and application of cement sheet, fibre concrete, aggregate size study and replacement of cement with lime in a project.
“All these can as well be applied by local designers and builders in their various construction activities. The products can be made by individuals because they require low technology in production. Such products are; bricks, tiles, ceiling sheets, and sandcrete blocks.
“When carefully prepared; they could be useful, cheap, and low cost materials that can be transformed into local industries which may become an employer of labour.
“Governments should promote and encourage the use of local materials for building purposes, and encourage tree planting as majority of the local materials useable for construction purposes are forest derivation”.
Bukola Imam
