By Babatunde Ayedoju

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Friday July 12, 2024 is a day that the people of Busa Buji, Jos North local government area in the Plateau State capital will not forget in a hurry. It was indeed a black Friday as the building of The Saint Academy collapsed on students and staff, leading to the death of about 22 victims.

The incident reportedly happened in the early hours of the day, just as the pupils and their teachers were about to begin the day’s work. Some of the students who survived and were able to speak with the press recounted how they heard cracks on the walls, and before they could tun for their lives ‘, the building collapsed on them.

According to media reports, a total of 154 students were initially trapped in the rubble, but the Plateau State Police spokesperson, Alfred Alabo, later said 132 of them had been rescued and were being treated for injuries in various hospitals. He said 22 students died. An earlier report by local media had said at least 12 people were killed. Meanwhile, the state government blamed the tragedy on the school’s “weak structure and location near a riverbank,” urging schools facing similar issues to shut down.

The state Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, reacted by ordering the closure of the school and declaring three days mourning in the state. As part of measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, the governor ordered that quality tests be conducted for building structures of all private schools in the state. He also ordered immediate arrest of anyone engaged in mining activities within the city centre, stressing that illegal mining activities had badly affected the foundations of many building structures in the state.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government ordered an investigation into the cause of the incident, with the promise to bring to justice everyone found culpable. In a statement issued in Abuja by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, through his spokesman, Mark Chieshe, he said, “Unfortunately, the issue of building collapse has once again reared its ugly head in our nation. This is unacceptable because every time something like this happens, there’s a mother or father who has lost a child – a child who has lost a parent, or an individual who has lost a sibling or friend.

“The cost of building collapse cannot be quantified because lives are involved. In this case, it was a school with students whose only offence was to leave their homes in search of knowledge. This is totally unacceptable,” he added.

Surprisingly, while the nation was yet to recover from the shock and pain of the Plateau State school collapse, on Saturday, barely 24 hours after the Plateau State incident, a section of a two-storey residential building collapsed in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Four people were reportedly rescued from the rubble. Meanwhile, another building was said to have collapsed in Area II, Garki, also in the FCT, 11 days earlier.

As if that was not enough, in the early hours of Sunday, an uncompleted building also came down flat in the Sabo area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital, with five people trapped in the rubble.

Confirming the incident, the Spokesperson of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Osun Command, Kehinde Adeleke, said five persons were trapped in the collapsed building.

“Two persons have been rescued while three are still trapped within the building. The team requires the service of a crane to clear the rubble before any further action can be taken.

An architect, Mr Samuel Enesi, attributed incessant cases of building collapse to the activities of quacks who did not consider the future loads, adding that there are several factors of design put into consideration each time a professional architect or structural engineer is designing public buildings, especially schools.

He said, “Some buildings that were designed and built by professionals are either converted to another use or are being overwhelmed by load they were not designed to carry. For instance, a classroom that was designed to carry 25 students may eventually be used to accommodate 75 students because the school owner wants to make more money by admitting many students. The case of the Abuja building collapse was purely that of a hotel converted to a residential building.

While blaming the trend on poor regulation and enforcement of safety standards, Mr Enesi added that the way out is for the government to take a stand against building collapse henceforth.

He said, “This can be achieved by enforcing regulations guiding design and building construction. Again, it’s unfortunate that we don’t have properly documented guide for building code, design and construction in Nigeria.

The few ones we have are not implemented. In the USA, there is a Facility Guidelines Institute. They have a robust guide for building hospitals and other public facilities.

“Our leaders in the offices that ought to do the work are more conscious of their own pockets. Professional bodies in the building environment should focus more on things that can promote clean, safe and sustainable environment. Some of the leaders in the professional bodies are so greedy and selfish that they work against the younger ones that are coming into the profession, and this is causing massive involvement of quacks in the building industry.”

Similarly, Mr Orioye Amorioloye, an engineer, noted aside the fact that many builders fail to follow standards that are meant to guard against building collapse, a lot of clients also fail to hire competent hands, because they do not want to pay up to the amount that qualified architects and engineers will charge them.

He also noted that inadequate supervision, aided by corruption on the part of quality control officials, makes people to engage in unwholesome practices with impunity. According to him, this can be seen in the way some people increase the number of storeys beyond what has been approved.

He said, “There is a body that is responsible for checking contractors on site, to ensure that they build according to the recommended standards. Unfortunately, even when they find faults, they easily compromise ethics by taking bribes from the builders and allowing them to continue. This has further emboldened even the defaulters themselves.”

Amorioloye recommended that to stem the tide of building collapse in Nigeria, those who are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring compliance with industry standards should be firm and upright in discharging their duties. Also, competent hands should be hired in executing building projects.