One year after the collapse of a three-storey building in the Ita-Faaji area of Lagos, builders in the country have called for collaboration among relevant stakeholders to end quackery in building construction.
The builders said the high rate of building collapse in the country, especially Lagos State, was as a result of non-compliance with appropriate building construction process.
The President, Nigerian Institute of Building, Mr Kunle Awobodu, said all those involved in buildings that collapsed should be prosecuted and jailed.
He said poor workmanship had long been identified as a major cause of substandard construction or building collapse in the country.
He explained that during construction, the relevant professionals should always be on site to oversee activities.
According to him, there is no mechanism for monitoring activities on construction sites, saying that the wrong people have for long been allowed to supervise construction sites, leading to the crisis of building collapse.
“I think this is a pathetic situation created by poor implementation of the building law. The day those that have been constructing buildings that collapse are prosecuted and jailed would mark the end of impunity that encourages quackery in building production management in Nigeria,” he said.
He stated that for any law to be effective in any society, the citizens must be made to understand the importance of its consequences.
“Once any individual breaks the law, no matter how highly placed that person is, they must face the consequences. Once there are scapegoats, deterrent has obviously been put in place. Every stakeholder in building projects will become cautious,” he said.
Figures obtained from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, an advocacy group of built environment professionals, early this year, had shown that the country recorded 43 cases of building collapse in 2019.
Worried by the development, the National Assembly in January, wrote to the NIOB, expressing its concern over the spate of building collapse in the country.
The lawmakers stated that the causes of frequent building collapse were largely due to negligence, use of substandard materials and lack of professionalism in the supervision of construction projects and called for collaborative effort from stakeholders to end the menace.
The Lagos Chapter Chairman of the BCPG, Mr Adeyinka Ogunseye, recently stated that the Lagos State Government, being the state with the highest rate, needed to be proactive and develop a zero tolerance approach towards building collapse which he noted had become almost a regular occurrence in the state.
He said the government should come out fully and let the public know its blueprints on how to curb the menace of building collapse.
Ogunseye explained that in the past few years, the BCPG had registered and recorded building collapse events with the Synagogue Church of All Nations at Idimu-Lagos where over 100 lives were lost and the Lekki Gardens building collapse at Ikate, Lagos as well as the Ita-Faaji incident being the most popular due to the number of lives lost.
“We need to know the government’s plan on these ugly incidents,” he said.
Awobodu stated that to raise awareness on the problem of building collapse and honour victims of Ita-Faaji, the NIOB would be joined by other stakeholders in the built environment in the maiden edition of Builders’ Day.
The Ita Faaji building collapse occurred on Wednesday March 13, 2019, on Massey Street, Ita-Faaji, Lagos Island where a three-storey building with a penthouse and a primary school collapsed and killed over 20 people.
The NIOB president said March 13 had been designated as a day to not only remember the victims but also create awareness on the dangers of building collapse.
He said the incident was caused by quackery as well as the use of substandard building materials for construction, which had become a common practice in the country.
According to him, Builders’ Day should serve as a reminder to stakeholders in the built environment of the implications of non-compliance with appropriate building construction process.
“It will be an annual event and will feature a nationwide sensitisation campaign against substandard building construction,” he said.
The NIOB president said governments at all levels should support the initiative as a collective effort towards ending the menace of building collapse in the country. Punch
