Incidences of building collapse and the attendant losses in terms of human and material resources have become worrisome in Nigeria in recent times. In the last few months, there seems to be a resurgence of building collapse in different parts of the country with serious repercussions. The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the regulatory body governing the practice of engineering in the country submitted that Nigeria recorded 22 building collapses between January and July 2024 in which Lagos accounted for 27.27 per cent, Abuja and Anambra 18.18 per cent each while Ekiti and Plateau states followed with 9.09 per cent each, Kano, Taraba and Niger states accounted for 4.55 per cent each.
ALSO, available records indicated that over 91 buildings have collapsed resulting in the death of over 354 persons in Lagos from 2012 to date and in Abuja the seat of the Federal Government of Nigeria, about 30 buildings have collapsed from 1993 till date resulting in the death of more than 64 persons and injuring many. Indeed, some of the recent building collapses in the country include the Saint Academy building in Plateau State’s Busa Buji community in which a two-storey building collapsed claiming the lives of at least 22 people with 134 injured, including students. Others include DMGS Onitsha, Anambra State on June 12 this year, Kubwa, Abuja and Maryland building collapse of July 25, 2024 in Lagos where five persons were confirmed dead among several others. The list is endless and suggests a new wave of building collapse which was thought to have subsided because of various past government interventions and actions.
THE import of the above is that in all these cases of building collapse, claimed many precious lives of promising Nigerians and resources have been wasted making it incumbent on the people of the country to seek to exterminate the cankerworm because the country cannot afford to continue with monumental losses in human and other material resources. Therefore, all hands must be on deck to put a stop to the resurgence of building collapse and its debilitating effects. In the past, and in response to incidences of building collapse, a number of policy actions were introduced particularly in Lagos and as some other states including Ondo state that included the establishment of building control department or agencies. Yet, the dreaded collapse of building resonates even in a more vociferous patterns and hence the need to introduce better proactive policies and actions to ensure building collapse become a thing of the past in all parts of the country.
SOME incessant spate of building collapse in Nigeria include ageing buildings, lack of building maintenance, the use of substandard construction materials and structural failure, illegal change of use of buildings, illegal addition of floors, quackery, and inadequate or lack of supervision and oversight by Town Planning Authourities and other controlling bodies. Others include faulty foundations or lack of conduct of soil/geotechnical investigation, sharp and corrupt practices, and escalating cost of building materials encouraging builders to seek to cut corners to make more profits and reduce quantity of materials among others.
TO stem the dangerous trend in increase of incidences of building collapse and also prevent worse scenarios in the future, all stakeholders in the country must cooperate and work together to come up with new regulations and laws to strictly guide building construction in the country. The proposed and existing regulations guiding and controlling the building development process must be invigorated and faithfully implemented and enforced. This is because lack of enforcement has been responsible for building development failure. A situation where culprits of building collapse are not punished will continue to permit sharp practices and building collapse in the country.
THE Town Planning Authourities and other agencies and professionals in the building industry especially Structural Engineers must be alive to their onerous responsibility on ensuring proper supervision of building construction. Building developers must be made to engage competent and registered professionals, rather than quarks, that can be held responsible for any bad job and infractions. All citizens must cooperate and obey planning and building development control agencies and eschew sharp practices and other corrupt tendencies to compromise the controlling agencies to secure approval for their buildings.