The National Assembly has pledged to strengthen legislative frameworks to prevent infrastructure failure across Nigeria, vowing strict enforcement of building codes and oversight mechanisms.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Senator Barinada Mpigi, speaking in Abuja on Monday (through a representative, Ashley Emenike), decried the rising incidence of building and bridge collapses, calling them a national emergency.

“We’ve witnessed too many engineering failures—collapsed buildings, caved-in bridges—that claim lives, waste resources, and embarrass the engineering profession,” Mpigi said. He attributed the failures to weak compliance, poor supervision, and the activities of quacks.

He pledged that the Senate Committee on Works would work closely with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and other stakeholders to tackle these issues head-on.

Also speaking, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abass (represented by Hon. Inuwa Garba, Chair of the House Committee on Science and Engineering), reaffirmed parliament’s commitment to supporting the engineering sector.

“Nigeria stands at a critical point in its development journey, and our engineers are the architects of that future,” he said, assuring that lawmakers would provide the enabling legal environment for the sector to thrive.