BUILDING COLLAPSES AMIDST A SYSTEM IN SHAMBLES

At least 16 people have been confirmed dead that we know of. The collapse of the three-storey building at Lagos Island is most surprising and in other news not so surprising. Our twitter commissioners are at it again. This time they’re saying what we all know:

A large number of the buildings on Lagos Island are relics of the colonial period and the First Republic. The white men built them.

Ambode in one of his final acts as Governor of Lagos State has moved to blame the owner of the building for its collapse.

Let us assume to forget the strain that the road bridges at Costain and other places in Lagos are currently under as they carry all Dangote trucks.

Behold! The innovative ultra-modern trailer park systems in Lagos. We genuinely believe on behalf of the governor that the reason the Lagos State Government allows this is that the trailers are there to reinforce the strength of the bridges and to reduce the chances of damage and collapse. Yes, that’s a logical thing to believe.

Meanwhile as Lagos roads take on the similitude of a trailer park on the one hand, we’re wondering whose job it is to have seen this particular disaster coming. Oh! Wait. The Government is building a new city. Let’s not bother them with the old one. Let’s not blame the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and other agencies which receive allocations in millions and billions annually in the town planning and building regulatory sector.

Let’s blame the owners of the buildings. They’re the professionals in charge of quality control. Sadly, they don’t receive the allocations for their “blame-imposed” government work. 

The recurring incidence of building collapse in Nigeria is sad. But in its aftermath, there is hardly ever any investigation carried out at all and where investigations are made, we only hear the news of the intending inquest. After that, the famous Nigerian carpet where under many things have been swept appears for another sweeping exercise. 

There are a good number of laws and regulations guiding construction and building of properties in the country, but those laws are largely in abeyance. The government is not so quick to enforce land laws and building regulations because the sector is a multibillion dollar sector (corruption).

Hypothetically, it is the case with government contracts where for instance a 5 billion naira contract is awarded by the government. Eventually, the contractor hardly sees up to 2 billion and is forced to use substandard materials to pad the budget. But this is a hypothesis right? Who would believe this happens in Nigeria? Okay, maybe more than half the Nigerian population but then it is safer for me to only speak of these things hypothetically.

The government agencies cannot then impose these town planning regulations to protect the quality of the work done because they’ll be shooting themselves in the leg. There is no respect for professionalism and the Standards Organization of Nigeria is largely a lame duck. Half the Nigerian population don’t even know of its existence and it’s not like the Nigerian Government has sufficiently displayed the political will to carry out its regulatory role.

Nevertheless, instead of ascribing all blame to the government (the number one problem), we cannot assume to be free from any responsibility as civilians of the Nigerian Polity. As our brothers’ keepers, we should be willing to alert the relevant government officials and agencies with respect to buildings suspected of putting the lives of people living in and within the neighbourhood at risk. We hope that the government will also be ready to tackle the complicated problem of building neglect by the populace. 

It is clear that in the aftermath of this collapse, we expect an investigation of all the professionals involved in the erecting of the building in the first instance; architect, surveyor, engineers. We record building collapses at least once every year and since we have been recording such incidents, no one has been made to face the law so as to serve as a deterrent to others. Either as I’ve said, investigations are taken lightly or the culprits have immunity. The government cannot be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

We refuse to take the lives of these children for granted.