 It's World Facilities Management Day, with the theme standing tall beyond the pandemic. The International Facility Management Association in Nigeria is using this opportunity to raise awareness on the gap in maintenance culture of facilities in the country. Justine Telbuku tells us more. The gathering of these professionals, experts in the field of architecture and environment is to address the loopholes in facility management, with the theme celebrating FM, standing tall beyond the pandemic, which borders on the renewed importance that should be placed on human health and safety, coupled with building sustainability and resilience. The Lagos State Safety Commission is tied to the mandate of ensuring the safety and health of Lagosians and we see facility managers as partners in progress in this drive. There is a need for us to incorporate and bring in, at the point of inception, experts in facility management that will also help when we are generating and formulating design. We cannot continue to design and our failures. When you want to design a space, you are recommending 20-story building to say, where is electricity to operate the lift? And I said, are we going to be like this forever? It's so sad that in this part of the world in Nigeria, our maintenance culture is zero and you and I are to blame. Part of the event was a panel section where the vital work of Facilities Manager, frontline workers were recognized during the heat of the pandemic. Facility managers, architects, engineers, plumbers are all frontline workers. I mean, mostly when you hear about COVID, all you heard about was the doctors, the nurses, but trust me, we had cleaners there every day, we had electricians, we had plumbers, architects, we were all at the forefront of this pandemic. The panelists also gave a way forward in tackling the issues of maintenance culture of facility management. When you're talking of maintaining the building, you don't get the materials, you don't get a replacement. When we're specifying things or when we're using any material, there's always think of local content. No one wants to do any sort of maintenance until it becomes a problem. You know, no one wants to clean the gutter until the gutter is clogged. You increase the lifespan of the building if you do continuous maintenance. Yes, maintenance culture is not too good. But again, there's a rise of hope. There's a slight element of light at the end of the tunnel because a lot is happening and a lot will continue to happen. And for us in IFMA, we're not only committed to ensure that this toga is taken away through our renewed purpose, which speaks to capacity building. The thrust here is that the notion that bad maintenance culture should be treated as myth and energies should be channelled towards building a good maintenance culture. Jacinta Ubuco reporting for PLOS TV Africa. Thanks to Jacinta Ubuco for that. And now joining us, we have Sir Shegumad Dibayo, the president of the International Facilities Management Association. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. Good morning. Let's start by talking about what exactly facility management is all about. A lot of people may not be familiar with the whole, with the world, with the terms. So what is it about and in what ways do we fall short mostly? Thank you for having me. It's World Facility Management Day and we're here to also see how much we could also enhance the advocacy around what Facility Management is all about. And that question is actually very apt. Facility Management, it's a process that integrates people, technology, and places together and ensure that you have a safe, conducive, and a healthy environment where you work, where you recreate. I mean your studio is also a facility. So it's about integrating people, places, using technology, innovation to ensure that people that work in that environment are not only safe, but it's also conducive and productive for them to work. Okay. I was asking you, you know, in what ways do we fall short mostly? Clearly, I mean, you don't have to overflog the fact that our culture around maintenance, which speaks to management of facility, needs improvement, no doubt. And then a lot has happened in the past. And clearly, it's a fact that we fall short in keeping our environment very clean, better. But the point is that getting better in the areas of maintenance culture, for me, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. So it's a continuous search. And that's why, for us in Ifman Engineering Chapter, we take it upon ourselves to ensure that everyone takes responsibility of your immediate space. I mean, if you are conscious of your environment, excuse me, and you know that some things are not in order. For example, you have cable flying around in an environment. What it means is that there's an hazard that could cause an injury to the user of the space. So as a matter of fact, everyone takes responsibility of the space and ensure that space is conducive to work. But again, as a facility manager, you are a professional and you understand what is expected of you. So you need to exhibit that care, that professionalism in you. And in getting that done, you must follow some lay down principles. That will speak to global best practice. For example, Ifman Engineering Chapter, through our connection with Ifman Houston, we have 11 core competencies in facility management, which goes beyond just taking care of. I mean, it speaks to technology, it speaks to leadership. It speaks to operations and maintenance. It speaks to communication. It speaks to health and safety of the environment. So those are the core things that guide you to ensure that you have an excellent facility management and built environment. We know that facilities refers to places like homes, offices, airports, the malls. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, we're still in the COVID-19 pandemic. We're doing that onset from around March 2020. We know that most of these facilities have to be shot down. What were the challenges that facility managers faced? And even till now, what are the challenges they're facing? And in the light of the theme of the word facility management day, which is standing tall beyond the pandemic, what really is the future of facility management in the country? Okay. You see, the COVID-19 pandemic came in like a TV in the night and clearly affected our ways of life. I think that's what took us to the fact that we're all in a new normal. So if you look at the facility and going by the effect or the impact of COVID-19, activities dropped. So you have a lot of people out of job. But beyond that, because the facility also needs to be keep running, maybe at a low space now, you have some elements of people that works in the same facility. So the mall, for example, needs to be secured to still have a security guard there. That's a part of facility management. Upon closure of those facilities, and there is need for us to also reopen, you need to do a lot of cleaning, comprehensive, hardcore intensive cleaning in this case. So you may not leave the entire facility without activity, but you need to do some periodic cleaning in those facilities. So activities is a job for facility managers, less income, not much money as it were. But again, there are some, what I call, elements of work to be done to keep the facility up and running. So no doubt, activities is dropped because no more traffic going to the mall, for example. Or you still have some elements of people staying in that facility to keep it in that state you have it due to the pandemic. And you see, I would say the deferred glory as it were for any facility manager to take a break at this point in time and also get ourselves ready to take up demand to whenever we have a full bled of activities. But most of the facility managers who are quite proactive, what we did was to activate one physical element of the core competence, which is called business continuity and emergency preparedness. As a professional, that has to be around you because emergency won't tell you when it's going to happen. But we have a proper structure to be able to activate that. And I think that's what most of the professional facility managers activated. How did they activate that specifically? It was the application of that principle. Of course, business couldn't continue. So there are steps that you need to take when business is shutting down. Such as? Okay, the first step is to activate your plan around emergency preparedness, because there's connection. Business cannot continue due to emergency. So because you are prepared for emergency, you activate level one, level two, level three. The first level of that should be communication to the top hierarchy. That in view of this emergency, we can't continue the way we do before. So you get your stakeholders and communicate to them, this is the situation and this is the way to go. So you determine who comes to work, who doesn't come to work. You determine your operating hours and so on and so forth. So that will help you to actually simulate that before you actually activate. And clearly, you will be able to now get in tire police and every stakeholder within our without to understand that this is the situation of the facility and this is the way to go about it. I'm sure this covers both big, large industries and medium and small skilling. Clearly, it does, because facility management is more of a built environment. It doesn't matter whether it's charged, whether it's stadium, whether it's cinema or whatever you. Again, you need to also apply them in line with the size and the scope of your operations. What's the message from IFMA as this day has been celebrated? The message is simply sustainability and then sustainability through resilience. I mean, we are steadily getting out of COVID-19 pandemic and that's why we are saying that we want to celebrate everyone that have been part of it. And again, too bad we are now having what I call a resurgence in view of the pronouncements of the Federal Advisory Committee. So the message is that we are out and we should just believe that this will be a thing of the past and we continue to strengthen our capacity to ensure that we survive this time. So I want us to quickly talk about facility management in line with you know, maintenance culture and how to avoid building collapse. Okay, facility management, maintenance culture, directly related. So if you manage your facility properly, you do a lot of good to that facility. For example, you enhance the value. If you don't have that culture, you are doing the service or damage to your facility. So I've been sure you need to have that sense of responsibility around maintenance culture. Now facility management is a platform to ensure that maintenance culture is not only implemented, but it's also sustained as it were. Now, if you don't maintain an asset, definitely it loses value. Now, if you look at a structure, for example, a building that is not properly maintained in line with the expected activities, then that facility will have a challenge. Okay, now because it's not properly built, doesn't mean you're not managing a facility properly. But what you need to do is that you must maintain the physical asset, which is a building properly and effectively well. Now building collapse has to do with the way it is structured, the way it's constructed. And that's why we on our path were so committed to the fact that we would like every player in that industry to bring facility managers into a project team from the beginning. It's purely sustainability. Because in the course of you building that facility, what you do is that it's cost effective for you to bring in a facility manager who tells you the type of materials from experience. Because when you build, you leave the site for your facility manager to handle. And if it's not part of you from inception, and it was a highlight of what we did discuss yesterday. And that's why I think we have an architect as our keynote speaker who spoke to the fact that it's important that we all work together in that industry to ensure sustainable environment. So facility managers are more important than we might actually be. I mean, clearly, you need to have us as you are, even from this inception, so that we'll be able to manage when you leave the site. So today is World Facility Managerial Day, and I did some finding on how to celebrate facility managers. And some of the things I came up with was that you need to find out who the facility manager is in your favorite spot, the place you love to go, the more you love to visit, find out who the facility manager is, appreciate them, recognize them. Isn't that so? Do you have more to add? Yes, I mean, you're very correct in that regard. And again, maybe we should also speak to the fact that advocacy, I mean, everyone should be responsible for your immediate space. In that case, we take it beyond the professionals. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, President Ifmar, Nigeria chapter. Thank you for speaking with us and looking forward to seeing you again. Thank you for having me. All right, this is where we wrap up, of course, the breakfast for today. Thank you so much for starting our Wednesday with us. Happy Ramadan. Yes, in advance. And we wish you a very, very brilliant day ahead. If you missed out on any of the discussions we had, remember to join us on our social media platforms at simply at plus TV Africa, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our YouTube channel. I am Osao Gee, Ogmawan. And I am Annetta Felix. Bye-bye.