I’ll help quacks become professionals – NIA president
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Arc. Ibrahim Abdullahi Haruna, (mni) is President of Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA). He is the first architect to be nominated by NACCIMA to attend the Senior Executive Course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru. In this interview with ADAM ALQALI, he advocates the need for one platform for all professionals in the building sector.
Tell us more about the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA).
The Nigerian Institute of Architects was founded over 50 years ago. The founding fathers were then students of architecture in London and they were able to bring all student-architects together towards enhancing the environment. They returned to Nigeria 51 years ago to form the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA). Some of them are still alive including Arch Alex Ekweme, the second republic vice president of Nigeria. There is also Architect Frank Mbanefo. The institute started as a society bringing all architects together, coordinating the performance of the profession in terms of compliance with Nigeria’s code of conduct of the architectural profession.
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INTERVIEW WITH ARCHITECTBUILDER MAGAZINE
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Interview Questions for the newly elected Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA)
President, Arc Ibrahim Haruna, Fnia, mni
NOTE
Could you please make out time to respond to the attached questions for inclusion in
our March 2012 edition of ABD Digest? Please feel free to adjust the questions to
meet the objectives.
Question 1: Arc Haruna, congratulations on your election as the
President, Nigerian Institute of Architects. If I may ask, where did you study your
architecture and when?
Answer: Thank you, I studied Architecture at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, from 1971 to 1976.
NIA President's Interview
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NAAS: Arc. IBRAHIM ABDULLAHI HARUNA. FNIA, PNIA, mni, Saturday, 19th November, 2012.
Good morning Sir!
What is your vision for the NIA? And what is the students’ part of this vision?
My vision is to empower the Nigerian Architect to provide better service to the public. This is fundamental when one realizes the threat of foreign incursions into virtually every profession in Nigeria. We must first of all match if not beat the international standards to be able to protect our shores of another form of ‘colonization’. We can only achieve that through educating, training and re-training from the bottom right to the top of all members of the architectural family. From the students, to ensure the right curriculum and full delivery of course contents in school, up to practitioners through Continuous Professional Development Programs. To successfully achieve this, we need to overhaul our information delivery machinery as the transmission media for knowledge. That is why soon after inauguration, we embarked on restructuring of our Secretariat, both the staffing and the physical environment; set up strategic units like the Rapid Response Team; open up gates for contributions by all members in the spirit of inclusivity; gathering information on all members contacts so that everyone can be reached; promoting friendship and understanding through inclusiveness amongst architects and other professionals in the built-environment. This strategy will not only smoothen the process of educating our members, but also reduce menace of suspicions and internal wrangling mostly caused by lack of information. We believe if NIA can save its energy spent on inter and intra professional grumblings, such energy can best be invested in educating our members for greater performance.
I am sure your question on the students’ part of the vision has been overtaken by what I have said above. However, we are not saying we know all what problems students encounter even though some of us are in the academics. That is why we are collecting contact data of all student leaders in all the Departments of Architecture in Nigeria as a data base for interactions.
