Building collapse can now be said to have become a major cause of deaths in Nigeria. In just less than three weeks, three major building collapses have been widely reported to have happened in Abuja, Lagos and here in Anambra state. On 24th August, 2023, a high-rise building in Garki, Abuja collapsed, killed two persons and injured more than 37 others. It was followed nine days later with the collapse of a storey building in Nnewi, Anambra State where an electrician and his teenage children died in the unfortunate incident. The pains of these two incidents were yet to heal when again on Saturday, September 16, 2023, an eight hundred-room apartment building in Ketu area of Lagos also collapsed. Reports have it that the building started collapsing on Saturday afternoon after heavy rainfalls in the city and fell completely the next day. Two people are said to be battling for their lives in different hospitals at the moment.

 

Building collapse did not start today in Nigeria and may not end soon if nothing is done as quickly as possible. Statistics show that Lagos remains the hub of this incidence. For instance, in the metropolis alone, 112 incidents of building collapse were recorded between December, 1978 and April, 2008. That is averagely four building collapses every year. Also, according to the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, 152 buildings collapsed in Lagos between 2005 and 2020. That is a geometrical increase to at least ten cases every year. The guild has also warned Lagos to gear up for more than 36,000 building collapses.

 

Lagos is not the only state that should sit up at the instance of this gleeful statistics. Building collapse incidents in other states of the nation have shown that no state is immune to this menace. On December 10, 2016, a church building collapsed in Uyo, Ákwá Ibom State while service was going on and killed over 200 persons.

 

Experts attribute the causes of incessant collapse to substandard materials, pilfering, non-adherence to designs, lack of comprehensive subsoil investigation before designs are done, illegal conversion or alteration to existing structures, and use of quacks or unskilled builders. Others point at factors which include negligence, extraordinary load, failure of foundation, soil liquefaction, demolition by explosives, incompetence and general corruption. It can also be as a result of violent attacks, infrastructure failures or natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms, wildfires, landslides, tornadoes or mudslides. But in Nigeria, the causes are mostly preventable, avoidable, and man-made.

 

There is, therefore, an urgent need for everyone to come together to end this menace. This is because apart from the economic impact each collapse leaves behind, their victims are also left with years of trauma and psychological hurt. Stakeholders like developers, contractors, professionals from Building Collapse Prevention Guild comprising Nigerian Institute of Architects, Nigeria Institute of Building, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Nigerian Institute of Estate of Surveyors and Valuers (NIEV), Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Nigerian Institute of Surveyors (NIS) and other regulatory bodies such as the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN must put heads together to come up with effective and efficient ways to curb malpractices among their members and totally stamp out quackery.

 

There should be increased monitoring and demolition of old buildings that have failed structures and to ensure that any public building only carries the load it was designed to carry.

 

Building and provision of safe and affordable homes are major contributors to sustainable development. Ending building collapse should be every one’s business. From the ordinary mason or labourer at a building site to the big time investor and developer. If you are not the victim of a building collapse today, you or a loved one may become one tomorrow.

 

Written by WILFRED OBIOTIKA

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