Daily Independent (Lagos)
Stella Odueme
1 July 2009
opinion
Lagos — Just on Sunday, June 28, Lagosians woke up with yet another incidence of building collapse that led to the death of more than 12 people with many others sustaining varying degrees of injuries.
This time it was a two-storey building that was formerly a warehouse but converted to residential building and situated in Iddo in Ebute-Meta, Lagos Mainland Local Government Area. The over 40-year old building located at Iddo terminal compound of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, was reduced to rubble after a downpour that started on Saturday night and lasted till Sunday morning.
Chairman of Lagos State chapter of The Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr. Kunle Awobodu, attributed the collapse to the presence of salt on the concrete work which had left it brittle while the iron rods had all rusted.
These, according to him, were the evidence of salinity that had remained a problem in the area due to its closeness to the lagoon, adding that salt corrodes materials.
Lagos State Government on Monday laid the blame at the doorstep of the Federal Government.
Lagos Commissioner for Physical, Urban Planning and Development, Mr. Francisco Abosede alerted that there are still more of such weak structured buildings whose bomb is waiting to explode in the near future. He predicted that unless the Federal Government allows state to carry out its duty, there may be other collapses involving Federal Government owned buildings in parts of the state.
"I want to call on the Federal Government to allow us carry out our duty on its properties in the state to avert future occurrences. It's the fault of the Federal Government. They did not allow us enforce the law to monitor the property. There are many of such properties of the Federal Government in Lagos State," he was quoted as saying.
According to him; 'If the Federal Government had allowed us to enforce the law, we would have carried out an integrity test on the building and we would have discovered its status and pulled it down before this incident'.
The question that is begging for answers is whether Lagos State Government has concluded routine tests on all other buildings in the state except FG buildings. This is because sometimes ago, Abosede announced that his Ministry had identified distressed buildings in Lagos Island Local Government Area where 617 buildings have been recommended for renovation, 346 recommended for test and 13 recommended for removal. He continued that in Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area, 320 buildings have been recommended for renovation, 233 recommended for test and 103 recommended for removal while in Somolu and Kosofe, 214 houses have been recommended for renovation and 77 recommended for removal.
The prayer of everyone is that the state government takes immediate action in ensuring that those houses for renovation really undergo the necessary renovations and most importantly that those earmarked for total removal are done away with in the interest of society.
It is also hoped that in the case of those houses marked for demolition, occupiers have been evacuated and not sitting akimbo in ignorance until the unexpected happens.
Good enough, the Lagos State Government revealed its intention to create a Building Control Authority in its bid to eradicate incidence of building collapse and regulate quality of buildings erected in the state.
According to Abosede the bill for the establishment of the authority was before the State House of Assembl even as he added that it would partner with such bodies as the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to vet the kind of building materials to be used.
The authority, a fall-out of the Technical Workshop on Planning and Building Control, according to Abosede will conduct quality verification tests on all the materials to be used, give stage certification for construction of building and pay inspection visits to construction sites.
Abosede who also hinted that capacity building programmes were being organised to both the professional and support staff of the Ministry and all its agencies on frequent basis, added that his ministry has since acquired Quality Detecting Machines from China which is being used to test current capacity of iron rods, blocks, etc.
He had noted that other measures introduced by the state government to stem the incidence of building collapse include compulsory insurance of buildings under construction, acquisition of collapsed building sites, removal of illegal structures in Lagos State and regular public enlightenment through publications, placement of advertisements in newspapers and jingles in the electronic media.
As good as all these initiatives sound, many are wondering whether this whole Building Control Authority is not just another faÁade like the Building Material Testing Laboratory because despite the latter in which many had wrongly believed that a new dawn had been set when it was established sometimes in 2006 to address similar issues, Lagoisans are still inundated over and over again with sorrowful cries emanating from building collapses.
The Laboratory came shortly after a four-storey building collapsed in Bola Street, off Ibadan Street in Ebute-Meta many people lost their lives.
During that time, state government had set up a technical committee for the state-owned Material Testing Laboratory charged with the responsibility of uniform tests on buildings and civil engineering materials in line with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) policy; issue certificate for tests carried out as well as perform analysis on samples submitted.
It was charged with the registration of all independent material-testing laboratories, monitor their performances and formulate policies of public enlightenment campaigns to producers, manufacturers among others. Thus the announcement of the establishment of a Building Control Authority is viewed by many as yet another government regular lip-service and fire-brigade approach to issues without the needed actions.
In shout countless number of building have since caved in since the existence of the laudable vision of the Material Testing Laboratory.
Many people are blaming officials of the state government for the unfortunate loss of lives and injuries sustained resulting from building collapses in the state for inefficiency and apparent bending of the rules to satisfy their personal motives.
For the NIOB, total implementation of the Building Code is the answers to the menace of collapse buildings.
"The Lagos State Government once set up a Materials Testing Laboratory and promised to direct its officials to visit building sites to ensure that professional standards and the Building Code are respected. It has also since embarked on the identification of defective buildings across the state, which would be marked for demolition, if their owners refuse to make necessary amendments. But despite all these, nothing seems to be serious and to me, they are just lip services especially when a building just collapses," said a concerned Lagosians, Mr. Femi Jide.
Perhaps, what the state government really need is the political will to carry out these beautiful initiatives which when fully implemented without bias will go a long way in addressing the issue of building collapse critically, especially when culprits no matter whose ox is gored is made to face the consequences of their actions. To achieve this however, professionals and not just state officials must carry out supervision of buildings. They must also do away with personal gains and focus on the general wellbeing of the people. Also, bureaucratic bottleneck that have been hindering the implementation of the recommendations made by the technical committee set up by the state government to look into the problems of building collapse must be removed.
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The collapse rate of building in Nigeria is directly proportional to the age of our building and this is further worsened by our material quality. You don’t have to be an engineering failure analyst or safety expert to know that we are killing ourselves with our own hands. It is ironical that the issue of building collapses in Nigeria are usually hardly ever taken seriously by the Government or even the law enforcement agents. Usually, most questions asked in the event of a collapse are: “Na who get this house?” Wey de site engineer?” “Una don call Julius Berger to com rescue?” Most of these question are sometimes immediately answered on site, while left largely unanswered are questions more professional and ethical, social and moral. The present decade has seen spates of buildings collapses. Just yesterday, a four-storey residential building collapsed in Lagos! Remember the collapse of a four storey building under construction near Ojuelegba leading to loss of lives of construction workers and those taking shelter from rains some time ago? The collapse of a multi-millionaire building in Ajah Area, the collapse of a mosque in Mushin killing some Arabic Scholars. The collapse of a storey building in Kano accommodating some Islamic students, similar in scenario to the Oworonshoki building collapse a few days after where eight people were feared dead. Is the the collapse of a storey building behind Federal Capital Territory Police Command in Abuja, reportedly killing 14 people working. The collapse of a 3-storey building awaiting finishing works at Ikeja behind Juli Pharmacy, where over 40 people were trapped in the building. The last year Abuja building collapse killing over 40 people.
It is somewhat surprising that lessons are never learnt and more embarrassing cases continue to occur. Many analysts argue that collapse happen in Nigeria because of flagrant disobedience to the outdated rules and regulations guiding the building industry? Or the lack of will to enforce the appropriate building regulations, or poverty, and the need to unnecessarily “manage” the building cost? The probability of immediate and sudden collapse of building is very low even in an earthquake. It is difficult to explain, but most building Nigeria just collapses like a pack of card, and the owner, occupants, and foreman (a.k.a engineer) will say: “it the work of the enemy”. It’s not the “enemy”, but the enemy inside us. The sudden collapse of building in Nigeria is due to ignorance of the owner, builder and gross professional negligence. It has less to do with the government; however, this does not explain why it is ever not taken seriously by the government.
Okay, too much complain, what is the forward? First, deficient design specification codes and building regulations being used for building in Nigeria are obsolete, dating back to 1970s. Even with this, these Codes are not very encouraging because they are simply adaptation and plagiarised version of some British standard. These Codes give general guidance on choice of materials and estimate of loads to ensure that the building is safe. However, even when imported one would have expected the inclusion of Nigerian-Factor, for example, design for a residential (family) building that can turn to a church overnight; an office building that can turn to a warehouse overnight; and the likelihood that bungalow will turn to a storey building. Secondly, substandard materials are one of the problems. Everybody loves a deal, but health and safety should not be compromised. In Nigeria, even sometimes the wealthy prefer to buy materials where they are cheapest. The fact is that cheap materials are substandard and if used for critical portions of a building like foundation and columns, the building is no more a house but a cemetery- failure is inevitable. Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) is responsible for materials inspection and testing in Nigeria. SON is toothless, apart from the lack of material and equipment to perform; the major problem is human resources. There is no wisdom in buying you (SON) car when you’re handicapped to drive. Hence, materials producers and importers have a field day in producing, importing, substandard materials, and even re-standardising already substandard products!
Thirdly, inexperience of the Builders. Many foremen turned engineer handling building construction may not be able to read building plans or interpret structural design. “six rod go do for dat pillar, na wetin we use for Mr. David house last week, so, e suppose work here too”. Such are common remarks from site “engineer” to owner. Misplacement without recourse to design could lead to deterioration eventually leading collapse. A lot of lives and property could be saved by employing the service of appropriate professional. Lastly, even with signs of imminent collapse and with the owners and occupants of such buildings forewarned, they ignore such warnings, and trust in God, sometimes covering the house with the “blood of Jesus”. Failure of compliance with repeated warnings have been reported in some cases of recent collapses in Lagos. Timely intervention can restore such building to their safe.
The following conclusions can be drawn that building collapse in Nigeria are manmade and are not natural disaster and therefore very avoidable. Building collapse can be put under control if all building design must be carried out by qualified professional Architects, Engineers, etc. and ensuring certified builders are fully involved in the construction of buildings. Considerably more work will need to be done to encourage (or ensure) that prospective developers are enlightened on the respective roles of Foremen, Civil Engineer, Builders, and Architects. In addition, qualified Town Planners should always inspect and approve building plan appropriately. The Federal Government through COREN, CORBON, and NSE etc. should mandate compulsory Health and Safety certification of developers and builders. Architects should restrict their activities to preparation of drawings and verification visits to sites and should not be involve in “jack-of-all-trade”, by insisting on supervision of building. There should be mutual respect among professionals. Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), that many in the industry is not aware of, should be mandated that substandard materials are not sold in the market. While their colleagues, COREN, CORBON, and NSE should come up with a Nigerian local code of practice, rather than “copy-and-paste” existing foreign based ones.
Rowland Adewumi
http://www.rowland-adewumi.com