Toyin Ayinde, National President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners has identified lack of morals and ethics as major cause of building collapse in the country.

Mr Ayinde who stated this at a news conference in Bauchi on Friday, said that the menace was thriving because people were compromising standards and “neglecting to do what is right.”

According to him, “if construction is going on and an engineer is not supervising, that is on us as a people but there is a system that is supposed to check it.

“So, if those who are supposed to check it are not doing that, something is wrong but one thing is paramount and that is, if we have any wrong doing let’s punish the person who is wrong.

“That is the only way it can serve as a lesson to others in future. That’s where we are that the visit to Bauchi State was part of an advocacy aimed at sensitising stakeholders on the need for proper planning in the country,” he said.

The NITP president also attributed the farmers-pastoralists clashes in the country to lack of access to land.

“It’s pointing to the fact that we have a limited resource and the only way you can manage a limited resource is to plan it.

“To plan resources like land, people have to sit down and find out what are the needs of farmers, herders and other people and how do we balance all of these,” he said.

He urged governments at all levels to use technology in resolving the crisis; to know what land we have and how to plan on them for everybody to be satisfied.

(NAN)