The newly elected Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Lagos State Chapter (NIALSC), Mr Abiodun Fatuyi has pledged to deepen the relevance of members, bridge the divides within the housing industry and uphold professional standards.
Fatuyi, who gave the pledge at the chapter’s Biennial General Meeting entitled:” Repositioning Architectural Education and Development for Global Reference,” noted that architecture is not only a profession but a commitment to creating spaces that empower, inspire and sustain communities.
While restating his commitment to guiding the association towards a future where architecture thrives, evolves and embraces the challenges of the era, Fatuyi assured that the new leaders will create a vibrant platform that supports, uplifts and connects members to broader opportunities and growth.
“We will work to bring everyone together, collaborate on policies that strengthen architects, advance innovative design solutions and champion sustainability and community engagement, improve architectural education, advocacy and welfare of architects,” he assured.
The keynote speaker, Prof Oluwole Alagbe, lamented the shortfall in the number of architects in Nigeria, saying that Nigeria has only one architect for every 40,000 people.
According to him, since the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) was established in 1969, only about 5,000 architects have been registered out of a population of 200 million. Alagbe, a fellow of the NIA, noted that by 2021, only 4,926 architects were registered, with a modest increase bringing the number to around 5,531 by 2024.
“This number is not the number of architects that are living alone but inclusive of the dead, when you remove the number of the dead from it, perhaps it’s less than 5,000. That is the challenge that we have now for our population.
“Our major challenge has to do with the infighting in the profession between the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and NIA and this is not helping to increase the number of architects we can register.
Generally, architects are supposed to be a ratio of one to ten persons, but we have one to 40,000 which is not good enough,” he said.
On his part, outgoing NIALSC chairman, Mr David Majekodunmi, observed that internal issues within the regulatory body and the institute discouraged architects from registering. “It should be one architect for at least 20 people, and ideally, every one of the 774 local councils should have architects,’’ he said. Majekodunmi lauded members for their support and appealed to them to extend the same to the new leadership.
