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Job Osazuwa
Residents of Lagos and other parts of the country were, on March 13, thrown into a fresh round of mourning when a three-storey building collapsed at 14, Massey Street, Ita-Faji, Lagos Island, killing 20 people. Most of the victims were schoolchildren. Some of the victims are still lying critically ill in hospital.
Barely four days after, another three-storey building under construction collapsed, this time in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State. Although no casualties were recorded in the incident, some of the workers trapped under the rubble of the building suffered injuries. The incident happened in the Sogoye area of Molete, Ibadan.
It was not the first time such a tragedy was happening in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and other major cities.
Perennial building collapse has resulted in the loss of many lives, permanent disabilities, destruction of property worth billions of naira and waste of other resources.
According to experts, many factors are responsible for building disasters, ranging from substandard building materials, unprofessional and inexperienced builders to dilapidated and over-stretched structures and facilities.
Nigerians, at different times, have called on the various regulatory bodies to be more proactive in the discharge of their duties. Such bodies include the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria and associate professional builders; Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and all state agencies that are mandated to regulate construction processes, like the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).
Many concerned Nigerians are also perturbed over government’s seeming refusal or inability to punish culprits who endanger the lives of residents in their quest to make more money as landlords or developers. Such Nigerians are of the opinion that meting out appropriate punishment to culprits would serve as a deterrent to others. There are other people who wonder why routine integrity tests are not conducted on buildings under construction as well as on evidently old and decrepit buildings.
“Only a few people have been prosecuted and punished in this area. I want to see many people going to jail for non-compliance with the rules. You cannot kill people out of your own selfishness and still be walking free on the streets,” a Lagos-based pastor, Michael Akpeji, told Daily Sun.
In Lagos, residents have been urged to quickly report any unlawful activities at construction sites as well as any apparent dilapidated building, to curb the excesses of unscrupulous developers and property owners in the state. Anyone may raise such an alarm by putting a distress toll-free call to 767 or 112.
A site quality control engineer, Adebiyi Adelowo, said the structural elements in any building were very important in averting collapse.
He said the refusal or ignorance of property owners to hire qualified structural engineers has led to the loss of many lives and other forms of irreparable damage.
His advice to developers and building owners is that they should not endanger the lives of occupants of the house in a bid to cut costs. He averred that it would be far more profitable for all parties to use quality materials and employ experts in building houses.
The general manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, has repeatedly advised property owners and developers in the state to strictly adhere to building codes and physical planning laws to avert loss of lives.
Moreover, the first female rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, Dr. Francisca Unoma Nwafulugo, an engineer, who is also the chairperson, Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), a division of the NSE, Kaduna chapter, said building collapse in Nigeria was a result of corruption.
On the latest incidents in Lagos and Ibadan, and what to do to prevent a recurrence, she said: “There are so many factors that could lead to that. I know that the design is done by engineers, but, at times, some collapsed structures are borne out of corruption. When contractors are given work to do, they want to cut corners and bring substandard materials.
“In fact, we are trying to come up with something to curtail building collapse because everything boils down to the engineers that are really behind the whole thing. We want to ensure we prevent a future occurrence.”
In the same vein, Mr. Morakinyo Bayode, a London-based architect, building surveyor and head of reinvestment at Optivo, one of the United Kingdom’s largest housing providers, said government and residents have a lot to do to prevent buildings from collapsing in Nigeria.
Hear him: “Building collapse can be caused by a lot of reasons, including natural disasters and major incidents like fire. However, majority of the instances of building collapse in Nigeria can be attributed to the usual suspects, corruption, greed or a combination of both.
“In the developed world, construction is rightly subjected to robust building regulations and quality control frameworks. Interestingly, Nigeria also has building codes for this same purpose but greed and corruption have been obstacles to implementation.
“The causes include developers, out of greed and in a bid to spend as little as possible to make the most possible, using quacks/unqualified professionals to design, build and supervise. They use substandard products, sometimes in inadequate quantities (note that the substandard materials are imported by greedy businessmen and cleared by corrupt officials meant to enforce quality standards).
“Some developers cut corners by starting works without approved building plans and structural designs, or deviate from approved designs, motivated by greed, and add additional floors without thought that the designed foundations and structural elements can only carry so much weight.
“Very few developers carry out soil investigations or employ qualified site managers to manage the quality of works.
“Corruption has enabled these greedy and selfish developers to largely get away with their atrocities. In saner environments, a building control officer must attend and sign off key stages before you can proceed to the next. These include the foundations, walls, roof structure, fire safety, electrical installations, and so on. Without building control sign-off, your property is worthless and illegal for occupation. In Nigeria, buildings are signed off, most retrospectively and including hefty underhand premiums, without ‘building control’ checking any of these during works to confirm that building standards are met.
“Regulatory agencies are poor, weak and corrupt, thereby making what should be a thoroughly policed and regulated industry an all-comers affair. Everyone is a builder/developer/project manager. Even government is slack in enforcing sanctions. Buildings without building control sign-off during actual works must be demolished.
“As long as all these continue, innocent lives will continue to be lost due to greed and corruption that pervade every area of our national life.
“An additional remedy is diligent criminal prosecution by government in every instance. When there are heavy penalties enforced and owners/senior management of such developers are jailed for corporate manslaughter and the companies bankrupted, there will definitely be a reduction of these unfortunate but avoidable disasters.”
In a paper he delivered in November 2017, Dauda Dahiru Danwata, an associate professor at the Department of Building, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, said building collapse happens across the world, but he condemned the frequency and magnitude of damage in Nigeria when compared with developed nations where there is strict enforcement of standards.
“To really appreciate the severity of the problem, one needs to examine the record of the number of lives and property that have been lost as a result of building collapse. Experts have observed that not less than 200 people die every year as a result of building collapse.
“The roles of government, professionals and the general public in constructing a building are complementary, and each of these three groups has a vital role to play in solving the problem of structural failure of buildings.
“Any unbiased mind that is closely following events in the Nigerian construction industry will agree with me that government has, over the years, made concerted effort to put in place important proactive measures that will promote professionalism in the construction industry and hence guard against building collapse. For instance, the Federal Government has enacted laws establishing agencies charged with regulating various professions in the construction industry. In addition, government at various levels has put in place urban and regional planning laws. For example, Decree 88 of 1992, establishing the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law.
“The town planning laws require that qualified professionals must prepare designs and drawings within the scope of their specialist fields, and that those designs and drawings must be approved by government agencies. However, the problem is such effort is not extended to the construction sites, as building control regulations are yet to be given the desired attention.
“Building Code is not enforced and this makes the management of building production an all-comers’ affair. It should be noted that two very important conditions for structural stability is that the building must be proficiently designed as well as religiously and precisely constructed on site. Buildings fail not only due to design faults but also because of construction flaws.
“There is the need for government to also re-examine the way and manner planning authorities at the federal and state levels perform their duties. It should be noted that construction work is teamwork, likewise most of the activities related to it. If government wants to achieve best results, the urban and regional planning agency at both federal and state levels should adopt a multi-disciplinary approach in discharging their duties.
“Enforcement of building code and enacting laws that will assist in the proper implementation of the code are reliable ways that government can drastically reduce the problem of persistent building collapse. Government should put in place measures for the strict regulation, control and monitoring of construction materials through its agencies such as the SON, in the way that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control performs similar functions on food and drugs. In addition, the same support should be given to building survey so that experts can meticulously examine existing buildings to establish structural integrity, current condition of the building, problems or defects, which may not be conspicuous to a layman, and so on,” the professor said.
Also lending his voice, a UK-based building construction specialist, Otunba Dapo Akinwumi, identified two major factors causing building collapse: natural and human. He noted though that the one largely affecting Nigeria was human error, which ranges from faulty design of the building and faulty construction in using substandard materials to negligence in many areas as the construction progresses.
His words: “Even ignorance on the part of the people constructing the building, the engineers, architects, clients and everybody involved in the construction of buildings in Nigeria, one way or the other, are usually culpable.
“Corruption is also involved. Most people bypass the normal procedure. They use the structural design of a particular building for more than two or three others. The regulatory authorities are not monitoring the process enough.
“In the course of using one design for another building, it should be noted that the soil component of every area differs. If you use the same building plan in an area that is not waterlogged for a waterlogged area, definitely you will have building failure. So, most of our people, due to what is known as the ‘Nigerian factor,’ which includes corruption and carelessness, would not do the right thing. You would even see some clients that would tell the contractors to manage certain materials. Some clients just want to cut cost.”
On what ought to be done to avert more disasters in future, Akinwumi charged the regulatory authorities to be alive to their responsibilities. He said house owners, especially owners of high-rise buildings, should give the construction to only professionals who would not compromise on using quality specialists and quality materials.
On his part, an estate developer in Ota, Ogun State, Mr. Wande Hassan, said most incidents of building collapse could be traced to owners of the structures who want to use little resources to maximise profit not minding the consequence.
Like others, he also accused government agencies of negligence of duties when it comes to regulation of building construction processes across Nigeria.
“The issue has been treated with levity over the years. Except there are drastic measures put in place by the government, the collapse will continue,” Hassan said.
