LAGOS – Worried by the rate at which public buildings and even private properties go bad as a result of lack of maintenance and the urgent need to address this development, a facility maintenance expert has advocated an attitudinal change.
Engineer Afolabi Adedeji has stressed the importance of imbibing the culture of maintaining important buildings that spans the country.
According to the facility maintenance expert, over the years, most public buildings have, as a result of inadequate or total lack of maintenance, fallen into a state of ‘public nuisance and national embarrassment’.
The fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE)pointed out, that in developed climes, most public buildings which are over 200 hundred years old, are still looking ‘spick and span’ due to the way they have been maintained over the years.
His words: “It is very unfortunate that our government at various levels take delight in churning out magnificent edifices all over the country but the issue of maintaining such buildings has continued to bedevil those structures. Until we begin to take the issue of facility maintenance as a significant aspect of our infrastructural development and national life, we will continue to see our edifices decaying.”
Adedeji said that for more than two decades now he has been at the forefront of championing the need to imbibe the culture of facility maintenance not only about public buildings but also some notable private properties.
He appealed to owners of important buildings to have a change of heart in the new year, adding that if we imbibe this culture it will reduce drastically, abandoned properties scattered all over the country.