The recent revelation by the Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Farouk Salim, that Nigeria has the highest number of building collapses in Africa calls for a radical response from the federal and state governments. Building collapses have recently escalated and Lagos is the epicentre. Among the 221 cases recorded in the country in over four decades, Salim said Lagos, the country’s largest cosmopolitan centre accounts for 60 percent. This calls for urgent and effective remedial measures.
In Lagos, that task is even more pressing, and the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, beyond the knee-jerk response of sealing disaster sites and threats, should enforce and strengthen building codes and regulations. Most importantly, the developers, builders and regulators that flout the rules must be apprehended and severely punished.
Salim linked building collapse to poor structural designs and other factors, urging construction experts to ensure that buildings in their construction and post-construction stages meet all the relevant regulations. They should also furnish their clients with results of compliance “inspections and recommendations for future maintenance or repairs,” he added.
Alarmingly, incessant building collapses in Nigeria have led to loss of lives, and jobs, and eroded confidence in the real estate industry. Clearly, government regulatory agencies in the sector have failed to ensure quality control and compliance, backsliding in their duty to deliver consistent inspection, transparent approvals, and in enforcing standards.
The Building Collapse Prevention Guild recorded at least 62 catastrophes in 2022, causing 84 deaths and injuring 113 persons. Lagos had 20 cases, while Kano and Anambra recorded five building accidents each, and Delta and Jigawa four each. Also, 135 cases were reported between 2007 and 2013.
Lately, buildings have been collapsing in highbrow areas of Lagos and in densely populated areas leading to multiple injuries and deaths. A seven-storey building on First Avenue, Banana Island, Ikoyi, collapsed in April, with no deaths reported. Sanwo-Olu blamed the Lagos State Building Control Agency for duty dereliction.
In the same month, a three-floor building in Apapa GRA collapsed. Again, it was revealed that the Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory had sealed the building, but the recalcitrant developer continued working on the site. This is a pattern in Lagos, suggesting that the state government simply cannot enforce work stoppage orders. The developer of the Ikoyi Foreshore 21-storey ongoing structure that eventually collapsed and killed him and 41 other persons in 2021 had similarly reportedly defied regulatory ‘stop work’ orders.
Unfortunately, prolonged rainfall, indiscriminate erection of boreholes, and drainages also sabotage the integrity of buildings in a fragile topography. Therefore, environmental checks must be intensified; especially as national and international agencies have forewarned increased flooding nationwide this year.
The PUNCH tallied 115 incidents in Nigeria between 2012 and 2022, including one in May 2022, when a three-storey building collapsed in Ebute-Meta, claiming at least eight lives. In March 2016, 35 persons died when another structure in Lekki Gardens collapsed. In September 2014, the multi-storey guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of all Nations collapsed, killing 116 people, including foreigners.
Similarly, the Managing Director of the Lekki Gardens Estate negotiated a controversial plea and sentence agreement with the state government. However, presiding judge, Sybil Nwaka, discarded the arrangement for lack of due diligence and for discountenancing the families of the deceased in March 2020. This shows the state government’s ambivalence and compromise.
Punitive actions should be meted against builders who flout quality control and safety standards and regulations. Measures should include blacklisting errant builders, developers, and owners from building new or existing structures. Professional debarment and creating a publicly-accessible database that shames and displaces them from acquiring local and international jobs in the future have also been suggested by experts.
Although the LASBCA, LSMTL have arraigned some suspects in court, including 53 accused in 2018, many more have eluded justice. Sanwo-Olu should investigate persistent reports of official malfeasance, bribery, and extortion by personnel of the regulatory agencies. The state government should increase the number of testing laboratories; the five existing labs are grossly inadequate to effectively serve the 22 million population and 57 local government development areas.
The activities and performance of officials in the regulatory agencies and the LGs saddled with building integrity must be reviewed regularly. Experts say the Lagos land and building laws are robust, and meet international standards; however, they suffer from poor implementation and enforcement and corruption.
State governments should create a whistle blower policy to help in surveillance and interdiction. Deliberate hurdles emplaced by officials to frustrate builders and building owners to compel the acquisition of approvals through corrupt means, should be dismantled. Officials remiss in their duty or complicit in violations should face service disciplinary measures and prosecution.
When a commercial building collapsed in Changsha, trapping 18 people in May 2022, Chinese police promptly arrested and prosecuted nine persons, including the building owner, its construction engineers, and culpable safety officials who had issued false approvals, reported the BBC.
South Korea, according to Aljazeera, passed the Serious Disaster Punishment Act, which provides owners and management of business where building collapses, major work accidents and deaths occur with the option of one year imprisonment or an option of $756,552 fine.
In the United Kingdom, the partial collapse of the Ronan Point structure in 1968 prompted major changes in building regulations. This included strengthening of existing high-rise houses, pulling down of weak ones, and ample research on safety. Under the Building Regulations Law 2010, property owners would be denied completion certificates to frustrate any attempt to sell the property. Lagos should borrow from these measures.
Japan set up strict enforceable building codes and deployed technology to ensure a stable landscape and reduce building collapses drastically despite being prone to earthquakes. The World Bank, while recommending the Tokyo model, described Japan’s Urban Building Law as a reaction to seismic risks that engendered innovations. The Lagos State Government must reinvigorate the regulatory and enforcement agencies in the building sector, impose tough sanctions and monitor implementation of the same without favouritism or corruption.
Safety of lives and property in all its ramifications should be accorded utmost priority.
