National President of the Town Planners' Registration Council of Nigeria (TPRCN), Mr Kabir Yari, on Monday called for enforcement of the building code to curb building collapse in the country.

Yari who made the call in Abuja, said the building code was supposed to ensure that structures were constructed according to safety standards.

He said that the existing building code was not being enforced and that there was no adequate sensitisation on the code.

"A building code should not be left to government officials alone, it must be a code for everybody in the city, particularly potential home owners, who should know it will protect their safety," Yari said.

He said that promoting the law without educating the ordinary man, who builds, would not make much impact, noting that the code contained minimum standards which the common man needed to observe.

"The idea here is similar to that of the Federal Road Safety Commission, when the Federal Government discovered that there were many accidents on the roads they set up an institution (FRSC) to curb it.

"We also expect that an institution should be set up for the building code.

"This institution should sensitise the public so that in each state people will understand that there is this minimum standard that needed to be adhere to," he said.

He also identified improper town planning as another major challenge in the nation's building industry as 66 per cent of the country's population lived in unplanned places.

The TPRCN's boss decried the absence of a master plan in major cities, urging government to hasten and revive such policies.

"The plans you see around are expired plans, which are supposed to be revised every five or 10 years.

The institute is a professional body established in 1988 to promote the welfare of those who practise urban and regional planning