Against the backdrop of rising incidents of collapsed buildings in Nigeria, stakeholders in the built environment have called for the enforcement of building regulations and the engagement of inspectors to certify buildings under construction.  The stakeholders also posited that the menace of building collapse can only be curbed by the collaboration of professionals.

The site of the collapsed building at the Synagogue Church, Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos.

The experts who brainstormed on “curbing the menace of building collapse by collaborative effort” at the 1st stakeholders’ forum and exhibition organized by the  Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Amuwo-Odofin Cell  in Lagos, maintained that contravention laws must be duly enforced to stem the rising scourge.

Speaking on “Promoting building control compliance through appropriate enforcement by control agents’’, the President of First World Communities Ltd, Brigadier-General Tunde Reis (retd) stated that where there is no rule of law, anything can happen, which is the problem of the under development.

Reis who is a former boss of Federal Housing Authority, FHA, and the Post-Army Housing Scheme declared: ‘’What we are witnessing today is basically poor education and lack of rule of law. Building collapse is a function of illegality and lack of enforcement. Where there is no sanction, people can get away with any thing. There should be enough testing laboratories everywhere for testing building materials rather than having just two in Lagos”.

Problem of building collapse

Continuing, he stated that “the problem of building collapse is not with perpetrators, but with our leaders who cannot create jobs for professionals to appropriately monitor construction sites”.

“We should have certified building inspectors to certify buildings. This will address or eliminate building collapse in the country,’’ he stated.

In her own submission, the General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency LASBCA, Mrs. Abimbola Animashaun Odunayo said her two-year old agency is trying within its limited personnel to monitor the state. She explained that with 121 staff, it is not easy to do effective monitoring  of buildings across the entire state.

The LASBCA boss who decried the lack of cooperation from members of the public, added that cooperation becomes more difficult when it has to do particularly with public buildings such as Police and Army Barracks.

Mrs Odunayo said her agency noticed several distressed buildings at the Police Barracks in Ikeja, but all efforts to carry out necessary rehabilitation on the buildings have been resisted by the men and officers of the Force.

Pointing out that the agency now has its own task force, she said LABSCA has  concluded plans to engage the services of approved building inspectors to monitor buildings at sites. These inspectors must be certified building professionals with registered office addresses. They are expected to carry out stage certification at construction sites to ensure that every stage of the construction is duly certified before the next stage.

”Every month, we look at our target and the number of collapsed buildings. So far, it is only the Synagogue case for now. We partner Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON to ensure use of standard materials in buildings. Our big challenge is non-approval of the land regulation by the government,’’ she said.

The LASBCA boss who lamented harassment and physical attacks on officials of the agency by ‘Omo niles’ and property owners while carrying out their duty, further decried the delay in prosecuting cases her agency has instituted against some offenders.  ’’We wish there could be a magistrate court dedicated to LASBCA alone to hasten the long list of pending cases in court,” she said.

Blaming the cause of building collapse on the activities of quacks, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) regretted that in Nigeria, impunity is the order of the day. “We must all fight impunity together if we want to put a stop to building collapse in the country,” he said..

The legal luminary regretted that ‘’builders compromise the ethics of the profession by using sub-standard building materials”. He called for the enforcement of the relevant laws of the building professions in order to forestall building collapse.

Substandard building materials

”Building Collapse Prevention Guild should sit with the state government to decide how to fight impunity in the building industry. This is certainly going to be a herculean task for you because of massive corruption in government offices. It is not going to be easy for you, but you must find a way round it’’, Falana advised.

Mr Onipede Adeoye an engineer, who stood in for the Director-General of SON said the agency will continue to ensure that standard materials are specified for manufacturers of building materials to prevent building collapse. SON, according to him, is partnering with various bodies across the country to ensure standard buildings.

In his own contribution, the  Regional Sales Manager, Dangote Cement PLC,  Mr. Johnson Olaniyi stated  that the right usage of cement will check the rising incidents of building collapse in the country

Mr. Olaniyi who said inadequate mix of cement ratio is the cause of weak blocks being used at construction sites. According to him, most of the people who call themselves block moulders are actually sand mixers. He maintained  that the right usage of cement will result in standard blocks .