Need to place people above profit as cement controversy rages

The most festering controversy in Nigeria’s building materials market today is centred on cement standard and categorisation of its use, and as the controversy rages, close industry watchers advise that people should be placed above profit, more so as the product is the major building component.

Unarguably, in any free market economy, profit motive drives enterprise, but in our environment where checks and balance are a matter of convenience, some businesses take this motive to a ridiculous level with little or no consideration for the health and safety of the people, placing profit above people and not the other way round.

Nigeria has, in the past decade, had several cases of building collapse and each time this happens, cement quality and standard are fingered as a major cause, and this has always left in its wake scores of deaths and material losses running into billions of naira.

As a way of checking this incidence, the Technical Committee of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), which comprises all stakeholders in the building and construction industry plus all cement manufacturers, met recently to review the existing standard and came up with the 32.5mpa, 42.5mpa and 52.5mpa grades of cement.

The new review restricts the use of the 32.5 grade strength to plastering of structures only, 42.5 grade for the construction of buildings, beams, load bearing pillars, block moulding and other structures, and 52.5 grade for the construction of bigger projects like bridges, flyovers, and high-rise buildings.

Dangote Cement, a leading manufacturer of this product in Nigeria, has hailed the move, describing it as a bold step towards attaining the highest level of safety in building and construction in the country. The company therefore urges SON to immediately begin the enforcement of the new classification and its uses to rid the nation of substandard cement and the attendant incidence of structure failures.

Ekanem Etim, Dangote Cement director, at a press conference in Lagos recently, noted that the review and classification were coming rather too late after the nation and its citizens had been subjected to harrowing experiences of loss of lives and property, adding that SON should spare no further time to enforce the implementation of the new standard.

The press conference was a direct response to allegations by some manufacturers who produce the 32.5 cement grade that the review was an attempt to de-market them and also a tendency to create monopoly in the market.

“It is only economic saboteurs and profiteers that would kick against the new standard for cement production as other countries of the world have moved up beyond the low grade cement being canvassed by some of the manufacturers opposed to the new standard,” Etim said.

He noted that several countries have phased out the 32.5mpa grade, adding that what Dangote Cement has done was to set a minimum standard of 42.5mpa with the intention of educating the people on the uses of the different grades of cement.

“If any manufacturer wants to continue to produce 32.5 grade or even below and canvasses same for multi-purpose use, that is their problem with the authorities. As for Dangote, we had even complied before the authorities came out to set the new standard; we are committed to this standard, because it is in line with global best practices; we hold the lives of our people so dear; we have their interest at heart and we can’t open our eyes, as an indigenous company, and watch economic saboteurs put the lives of our people at risk,” he assured.

Chuka Uroko