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It has become alarming how often buildings collapse in Lagos State. EDIDIONG IKPOTO examines how the state’s unending spate of building collapses is caused by a lack of political will on the part of the government
On Wednesday, April 12, 2023, various media was abuzz once again with a familiar story that has caused much furore in Lagos in recent times. A seven-story building along First Avenue in Banana Island had caved to the ground, producing a form of reverberation the state has become accustomed to.
All over the world, whether in Lagos, New York, Budapest or Ottawa, one of the first questions that would usually follow an event of this nature would be “Who let this happen?” In Lagos State, this is a question that has been asked too many times.
Policymakers have been blamed for the frequent building collapse. It is their job to design a viable template capable of ridding Lagos State of this plague that has claimed many lives in the past few decades. While the government may put up a defence, citing the many initiatives it has put in place to reverse the ugly trend, the critical question now seems to be what it failed to do.
From shoddy developers to weak regulations, the blame for the menace of building collapse is certainly enough to go around; but ultimately, all the blame would seem to revolve around one key shortcoming: weak regulations and implementation.
While speaking with journalists last week, the Chairman of the Lagos State Branch of the Nigeria Institute of Architects, David Majekodunmi, noted that recent research embarked upon by professionals in the built industry revealed that Lagos State currently has about 48,000 construction sites.
That number, when crossed against an understaffed building control agency, means that the state’s monitoring mechanism is nothing short of a recipe for disaster.
Majekodunmi, during his chat with newsmen, re-echoed a sentiment that has been echoed many times by experts in the industry. His call was that the government outsources regulatory activities to professionals in the built environment because the agencies designated to monitor activities in the industry are inundated, overwhelmed and unable to efficiently perform their oversight functions.
Majekodunmi said, “One of the things we have been advocating is to outsource monitoring of construction projects. We have 48,000 construction sites in Lagos. Does the government have up to 200 architects? No. Does the government have up to 200 engineers? No. So, it is high time they outsourced the monitoring and supervision of developments in Lagos State.”
Another salient point made by the Lagos NIA chairman was the level of engagement the government has with stakeholders in the industry. In Lagos State, it has almost become the norm for the government to call for stakeholders’ engagement whenever a building collapses. This begs the question, why not engage with stakeholders on a regular basis as a preemptive measure? Why is it only necessary to engage with stakeholders after the fact?
For many professionals in the built environment, there is a strong conviction that much of the tragedy suffered in the state vis-a-vis building collapse may have been avoided if the state government had demonstrated commitment towards liaising with stakeholders in the industry. Unfortunately, the relationship between the government and the private sector has always been somewhat of a mere proposal. Professionals claimed that the lack of political will from the government has not made it see the light of day.
While speaking in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, a former President of the Nigerian Institute of Builders, Kunle Awobodu, pointed out that the group had in the past made recommendations to the state government on issues that need to be addressed to put a bandage on the scars caused by frequent structural failures in the state.
According to him, due to a lack of political will, the government has yet to implement many of these recommendations even as the menace of building collapse has continued to ravage the state. He further described this failure as an obvious dichotomy between policy formulation and implementation.
For example, Lagos State building laws stipulate that every construction site must have a registered builder overseeing the technical aspects of the building production process. However, this law, as fundamental and critical as it is, has often been flouted with impunity, despite several calls by professional builders for stricter enforcement.
Awobodu said, “That is under Lagos State building regulations. It is part of the challenge. Unfortunately, people do not pay attention to the license of those who are working for them. They do not try to investigate if these people are licensed by their professional and regulatory bodies to practice the role they are playing on the site. If you engage a builder, without looking at his qualifications, and without investigating their certificates, it is a common error.
“Most of these developers, who are not professionals in the construction world, keep on constructing with direct labour instead of engaging well-established construction companies to handle high-rise construction. These people, through direct labour, will engage in the construction of high-rise buildings.
“We have said that the government should not allow this to take place. High-rise building requires profound expertise. There are special techniques required. But when you embark on the construction of high-rise buildings through direct labour, it is not acceptable. Developers who are more or less like businessmen will be recruiting workers to carry out construction. The risk involved is high. This is now common in Lagos and other towns in Nigeria, even Abuja.”
The inharmonious relationship between the government and stakeholders in the built environment has not helped issues. In a move geared towards addressing this gap, the state government had in 2022 proposed a partnership to involve the private sector in certain regulatory capacities. The plan was to enlist registered private companies who would be involved in checking construction projects to ensure that they meet with industry’s benchmark standards.
However, this proposition never took off. According to Awobodu, the proposition, right from the outset, was one that lacked sincerity of purpose. Another factor that played a major role in killing the initiative was vested interest from industry players who viewed the proposition as a money-making mill rather than a chance to right the wrongs that had plagued the industry. Many of these industry players, he said, had leveraged political connections in order to gain an unfair advantage over other potential beneficiaries.
Awobodu said, “They planned to engage people from the private sector to help them check drawings and also monitor sites. They were supposed to go and register as companies.”
According to Awobodu, some of these business entities went as far as registering multiple companies, hence hijacking a scheme that could have solved the industry’s greatest challenge.
He added, “So, it is just for monetary gains. The problem is not being solved and everything is being turned into a business.
“In the aspect of monitoring, what we have noticed is that some of these our guys, who are after personal benefits but not ready to take part in the voluntary exercise of the building collapse prevention, are now trying to key into this new development, which is more or less like an opportunity.”
Also echoing the sentiments expressed by experts in the built environment, the Building Collapse Prevention Guild has similarly condemned the weak regulations that have opened the industry to quacks and charlatans.
The guild, in a report filed in the wake of the Banana Island building collapse, said the latest incident brought to the fore a plea to the Federal, State Governments and agencies in charge of building development control in the states, especially in Lagos State, to take a critical look at the building development process with the view to overhauling the system and bringing sanity back into the built environment.
According to the guild, which is comprised of professionals in the building and construction sector, it is utmost embarrassing that Nigeria had become about the only country where the practice of building engineering services is thrown to all and sundry and the consequences of the absence of effective control mechanism is the menace of incessant building collapse in the country.
Within the last 50 years, Nigeria has recorded a staggering 552 cases of building collapse. Out of that number, 59 per cent (326) of these tragedies have been recorded in Lagos State.
In the last 10 years alone, Lagos State has recorded 115 incidents of building collapse within the last 10 years. In 2020 and 2022, it recorded the highest number of building collapse incidents in the last decade. Each year witnessed 20 different cases.
While the April 12 incident may not have come with a human casualty, as has been the case with many structural failures in the state, widespread concerns have been expressed in the wake of the incident, particularly given the peculiar location of the disaster.
On Sunday, another five-storey building came down at Ladipo Oluwole Street, GRA, Apapa area of the state. Thankfully, no casualty was recorded.
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