INTERVIEW WITH ARC. MAJAROH

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Gyles Stone
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INTERVIEW WITH ARC. MAJAROH Q: What is the most challenging position you held and why? ARC. MAJOROH: The most challenging period I had was when I had to be both the Secretary General of the Institute as well as the Registrar of ACON.

1 INTERVIEW WITH ARC. MAJAROH Q: What is the most challenging position you held and why? ARC. MAJOROH: The most challenging period I had was when I had to be both the Secretary General of the Institute as well as the Registrar of ACON. The ARCON Board had been dissolved, we didn t have a Board and I was Secretary of the Institute. The Institute felt that there was a need for us to rejuvenate the Board. I was appointed registrar from amongst the Board members in I was the Secretary of the Institute in I was Registrar for about 11 years. We actually reconstituted the ARCON Association. We restructured it. At that time the man who owns the place we were working in Surulere, asked us to move out. So we needed to have place for ARCON to go to and we needed to conserve and preserve the documents which were critical, The documents very quickly with Architects who are registered. So I moved the most important aspect of the Secretariat to a corner in the Council of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. I brought bars and steel and moved ARCON to the balcony of the Council chambers. I was encroaching both as Secretary General of the Institute as well and the Registrar of ARCON. And when we were able to convince Government to give us the place where they are now, behind the old Secretariat. They now moved there. In the midst of this, after we moved, somebody came to kick us out. One Army officer came and kicked us out. Over the weekend we had to move back. Those were the most challenging periods. And then to be taken to court by one Arc Fasasi Asking ARCON to register him by force because he had judgment in a Magistrate Court in Ibadan when I wasn t even the Registrar. I think he was the guy who took an exam and failed. I was in the Examination Board when he failed. He conveniently sued ARCON when the ARCON Board was dissolved and got judgment against us in Ibadan. The moment the Board was reconstituted when I was Registrar, he took me to court that I must register and it went all the way to the

2 Supreme Court and I was supposed to register him within a day or go to jail. And I said yes I would rather go to jail than register someone who didn t pass the exams. So I know he had very poor marks and he shouldn t be qualified. Somehow I listened to the elders and they gave me advice on how not to restrict my whole career. It was one of the most exciting and harrowing experiences. That to me was challenging. I could have gone to jail. The problem was should I report personally to the High Court in Lagos? They now ruled before then. Funny enough and very interestingly as well, ARCON didn t have money. As a young man, I went to the offices of FRA Williams, the biggest Nigerian lawyer and told him. He didn t know me before. I sat in his Chambers for 3 hours until he could see me. I told him that it was a professional problem and we needed somebody in a similar profession to also help us. I told him that somebody had sued me to register him when he failed the exams and am sure in the Bar they won t accept that. They had taken a very big lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi. So we needed someone of the same status to compete with him but we didn t have the money. So I told the Council I was going to meet FRA Williams and he took it for free. The case went on for about 8 years. FRA Williams appeared in every occasion for the ARCON for free because it was an issue of principle which he believed in. And he was very excited that somebody like me, a young man he didn t know from anywhere had the boldness to go and meet him. Those to me were the most challenging and the most exciting times. More so fighting people who are not Architects, putting their sign boards up and getting the Police to go and arrest them and drive them away. I drove someone all the way who moved to Maiduguri to go and practice. And also insisting that loads of Architects who came into Nigeria, Nigerian Architects from abroad who were not fully qualified and came in with fake documents, ensuring that we set up a system to get in touch directly with the Schools especially in America to confirm if indeed they were qualified and catching many people off guard. So there is a system now, which I think will endure. You can t just come with a printed degree. There may be one or two who passed through my trap, but since then none. And also the professional exams, what one did to ensure that it was standardized and was much more regular. Another issue which I enjoyed doing was the introduction of the Year Book, one single document where you can have everything rather than looking for documents for admission, education etc. I presented the first Year Book in So you could at least know everything about the institute in the Year Book. We set up a system we call Polite Dinners Which moves NIA Exco meetings all around the states. He was the President at that time and I was the Secretary General. I served 3 Craig, Adeleye and Majekodunmi. I was Secretary General for 6 years. Then I served a long period as Registrar.

3 Q: Has Architecture made any positive impact in the Nigerian profession? ARC. MAJOROH: To the extent that any profession involved in physical development and environmental issues can. I think we have tried. We are not an island to ourselves. Architecture as a profession must interact with other professionals to make an impact. You can t just be an Architect by yourself to make an impact. You have to have complimentary services by other professionals in the industry and if any foreigner has anything to offer he must do it with a Nigerian Architects. Before my time there used to be a lot of competition, a demarcating of one another between Architects and Engineers, Architects and Town Planners and all that. When I was the Secretary with Femi Majekodunmi as the President, we held a major exercise to make sure this stopped. That is how APPN came to be. We looked at the situation and went to meet all our fellow professionals and then to stop the rubbish. What we were doing was detrimental to development and we were just shooting ourselves which was unnecessary. We met the Engineers. We met the Quantity Surveyors. We went ourselves to go and meet them. We set up appointments and went to meet them. Since then there has not been an occasion of any fresh war, which the Administrators were very happy to have. We are now able to work as a group, as a body in the Industry to help with the development of Nigeria. Since then we have had a very positive impact on Nigeria as a country. That approach also helped us to meet with the Ministry of Works at that time to standardize our status and get all into one document. Other professionals who were involved in the Ministry of Works also got involved, like Surveyors, Estate and Land. So you now have a document in the Federal Ministry of Works encapsulating all the professionals that were involved. Positive impact, yes, but 80% of positive impact made depends entirely on the Government and those in charge of governance. Hitherto there was a law, decree which says that certain activities in the economy of Nigeria should are exclusive to Nigeria and I think any foreigner that has anything expertise to offer has to offer that expertise within the ambit of some corporations in the local profession and certain activities were totally excluded from foreigners. After that we had the ARCON decree which clearly stated that you had to have been registered in Nigeria to protect the trust. The Lawyers went further and that s still in place till today, that if you are not a Nigerian legal Practitioner, you cannot appear before a Judge or a Magistrate in this countrif you are not properly registered We didn t quite get to that level of execution for the Nigerian Architect. We had

4 Government giving you something on the one hand and taking it away with the other. There were two conflicting decrees which allows them to do whatever. I don t know if Nigerians are involved but all the projects that Julius Berger does. The onus could have been much higher if Government or those in charge had been more honest if they wanted Nigeria to be developed. Actually Nigerian professionals in general in the build industry, if they wanted to, could have been much more transparent and honest in the handling of projects. There has not been that level of transparency. Unfortunately you still have clicks of people, even in Lagos here, being designing and bringing foreigners to supervise and the Government looks the other way depending on who the Client is. I think it will backfire. There is a decree and the things you cannot allow in your own country, why should you come here to Nigeria and expect it to be allowed? We are not saying other people should not come in, but there should be some sort of arrangement by which certain laws of expertise that takes place should rub off on those that come in. How can you stay hungry in the midst of plenty? Q: How did you chose Architecture as a course? ARC. MAJOROH: I didn t quite get the pronunciation of Architecture at that time and there was no internet to look it up. I went to a dictionary. So I said that when I get the form from Zaria, that was the only place we knew it was being read at that time and Nsukka, but the war had started and there was no way I was going to go to the East. So I applied for Architecture in Zaria, which I did. Before the admission came, the War had reached Warri where I was teaching. So I had to escape to Lagos in 1967, and from there I took my family to Zaria, and they said Over their dead bodies! You just managed to escape and you want to go over to the Hausa side now. I insisted I had to go. They said Unilag is here. Bensu is here. I insisted that that was where I wanted to go. I was stubborn. I said that was what I wanted to do. I could easily have been a Civil Engineer and I would have been very unhappy on hindsight. It was 5 years, whereas Engineering after A Levels was 3 years. We went there. 35 of us were in the class. The first lecture we had the lecturer said You are so many, I am sure most of you are going to end up as Engineers, Physicists, Scientists, but very few of you will become Architects. That is what the first lecturer told us. And when he finished, many people ran to other departments in fear. And of the original 35 of us that went to do Architecture, only 3 of us passed on schedule. Some had to take an extra one year, some left and all that. That was how tough it was then to do Architecture in Zaria, in Nigeria at that time. I don t think I regret it. It was pure chance. I could easily have been a Civil Engineer. Nowadays you have counselling, where Architects come and talk in the final year. Doctors come, Pilots come, to talk about their profession so

5 that they can get a feel for what they want to do. We never had that kind of opportunity. I went to Government College Ughelli in Niger Delta. I don t think anybody would have come there to talk to us. Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for up and coming Architects? ARC. MAHOROH: I have covered it up in the general comments I made about governance, laws and transparency. One is hoping that this country will become more concerned with professional development as a whole. Like I said the Lawyers have been able to put their act together and today they control completely who practices their profession and how it is practiced. But we don t have that level of control in Architecture, in Engineering and other allied professions in the built industry. We need to get together and work on it in a much more profound way. I told you how I was almost sent to jail because of my belief that things should be done properly. That has always been my mantra. Things have to be done properly. You cannot just call yourself an Architect when you are not. If you want to call yourself an Architect and rub shoulders with others like me, you must go through that burning ball of fire like me and come out pure as an Architect. If not, go and do something else. That is my belief. I didn t really do it, I practiced it. I spent the most productive years of my life working for the Institute. I am talking from my late 20s to mid- 50s. Those are the most profitable years in one s life. That s about 30 years of my life working for the Institute, either as a member of the Education Board, Secretary General or Registrar of ARCON, Vice President 3, Vice President 2, Vice President 1, then the President, and then The Secretary General of the African Union of Architects from Then I was President of the African Union of Architects from I was born in 1946 and I got involved till 1998 that in itself is how many years? Almost 30 years, and that was full engagement. Sometimes I would do the two together because I was the Secretary General of African Union of Architects from At that time, I was Vice President 3 in 1987, by 1989 I had become Vice President 2 of NIA and I held those positions with those of AUA Secretary General for 6 years from I became President in I became President in 1995, then became President of the African Union of Architects from for two years. I became a member of NIA in I became a Council member in From is about 22 years. It s difficult to compute how many man hours I spent and what effect it had on my practice, negative influence in terms of time. I had to spend time to do all these things. It took a lot of useful time form my practice here. I already had my practice. I ran my practice and was still doing all these things for the NIA. Some people refused to spend any of their time. They all spent their time on their practices. I had to do this for the District, traveling here, traveling there and going for council meetings. Everything I did was at my own expense. All the conferences we went to were at my own expense. There was no ticket from anybody. Going to

6 conferences all over the world, I did not receive money from anybody. I was spending my time and money for the development of my profession. You cannot have greater commitment than that. Right now if you tell me anything, I tell you No, I have had it. I don t want to get involved again. A lot of people were able to save a lot of money, but I don t regret it. Whether you like it or not, if you call my name today in Architecture, people will recognize the fact and say yes we know him. He worked for us. Not everybody is happy with what I did. I don t have any apologizes. I know that the effect of what I did was for the betterment of the profession and the Institute. It may not please everybody. In fact there were many of my class mates who I didn t agree with and if I was told to suspend them, I did. I was the only person who could do it. If you are my friend and you are wrong, I tell you. I put it in writing. When we had to survey the University of Lagos. We removed them from the list of accredited schools. I did it. Other people had tried to go around it. So many things I did that I don t want to go into. Fighting Fasasi to the end, to the Supreme Court, yes I did it. Many people who were not registered, you can t do that with Majaroh around. Ask anybody. If you are wrong, I tell you and I do it to the end. I am sometimes too strict for my own good. That s what I tell my kids and that is how my Father was. That is the legacy I pass unto them. They ought to know. It may be painful, but that is the only way you can get the job done. You must keep to the rules and let us do things properly. A lot of what is happening today is dependent on whether Government can hold them and keep to them. Every Architect in this country should be busy. Every professional should be busy. The truth is not everybody that is an Architect ought to be an Architect. A lot of people have the certificate as an Architect but they don t have the qualification, the requisite knowledge to be Architects because a lot of them are faulty and that derives from the kind of Universities we have and things that are happening which we know about. A lot ought not to be qualified. In my time it was extreme when only 3 qualified out of 35 who started. What is happening is another extreme. We need some element of moderation in the middle. Now we have another extreme. Almost everybody that enters, qualifies. We have Studios filled up and only one man talking to them. Half of the work is not done by them. They do it outside and bring it at the date of submission to mark. Some use computers to do everything. They surf the web to get typical drawings and then they trace over it. You couldn t do that in my time. There were no computers in my time. You were not allowed to draw outside the Studio. Anything that you drew that was not drawn on your drawing board and seen by your lecturer was thrown away. You wouldn t get a mark for it. There was no carry over in my time. You had to pass all the papers. There was a re-sit in August for the papers you didn t pass. If you didn t pass in August, you failed the whole year. If you failed more than two, you had to repeat the year. Those two you failed, you could come back and do a reference in August. I never came back for any papers. I passed all my papers once. That kind of system was difficult.

7 All our lecturers were white. There were no Nigerians at that time. And so the question of the lecturer not being available because he went for a burial in Ijebu Igbo never occurred. There was nothing like that. Their whole life was on that Campus. Their whole life was in the Studio. They even came at midnight with their wives and dogs. They strolled down to make sure you were working. They had no interest in Samaru or Zaria. They didn t have burials or marriages that take a lot of our time. They were totally concentrated on the work they were doing. They imparted this knowledge to us fully. You could not submit a job if they didn t see you developing it in the Studio. We were few enough for one lecturer to take care of. The whole Architecture Department was not up to 100. Today that is only one class. Meanwhile they have so many Universities. In Nigeria, everything is turned upside down. It s not hopeless. We can have a greater system of honesty. We need to get Government to recognize that it is in their own interest to have more interest in what is going on in the professions. It is in their own interest, having set an example, to ensure that all other people that are involved in a professional body, do it the way Government is doing it. We ourselves have to have a much more robust self-policing attitude to what happens within our offices and the professional body. If that is carried out from one profession to the other, the technological advancement and growth of Nigeria will be phenomenal. I know that for a fact that if you rely only on mineral resources and forget human resources, we are getting it upside down. Nigerians are the most intelligent anywhere. We have huge human resources which haven t been developed.

Who s better? Who s best?

Who s better? Who s best? One of 5 people stands to win a holiday. All the class has to do is to decide who among these people most deserves it. Before you start, write down the name of which contestant