Incessant building collapse in the country has become another source of needless deaths, besides acts of terrorism and banditry. The frequency is alarming, while the culprit is not lack of relevant professionals in the building industry, but mostly human negligence occasioned by the bid to maximize profit.
The sheer number of such incidents calls for a declaration of a state of emergency. Recently, President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Sadiq Abubakar, disclosed that Nigeria recorded 22 building collapses and 33 deaths between January and July 2024. The tragic death of 22 persons with 154 people injured at Saints Academy, Jos on July 12, 2024, shows that the country has not done enough to stop this tragedy.
The problems range from faulty design, negligence, incompetence, faulty construction, foundation failures, extraordinary loads and corruption. Other factors include, the use of substandard materials, structural failure, illegal conversion of buildings, quackery, and inadequate supervision during construction, as well as forces of nature.
Unfortunately, the effects of building collapse are fatal; they include the loss of lives, the incapacity of those who were injured in the collapse, the destruction of property, financial losses, the wastage of time and valuable resources, including an increase in the number of homeless persons. The menace of building collapse is already becoming a serious threat to national development considering the challenge posed by housing deficit in the country.
One major challenge facing the building industry in Nigeria is weak regulations. This has emboldened quacks because they know that regulatory bodies and relevant apparatuses of government are unwilling or unable to prosecute and convict persons culpable of professional ineptitude with regards to incidents of building collapse and sometimes, these regulators are compromised.
The country seems to lack the capacity to investigate and prosecute those responsible. According to the President of COREN at a recent press briefing, Nigeria has no expertise, the equipment, and the resources to carry out such investigation.
Though he enumerated some steps which the council had taken to monitor and prevent building collapses to include, training and licensing of engineering regulation and monitoring inspectors and the establishment of an Engineering Regulation and Monitoring (ERM) taskforce. COREN’s efforts are well-intended but it cannot do it alone. Besides, government should spearhead such efforts, not COREN which has limited capacity to tackle a national emergency.
To nip it in the bud, we call on the government to ensure the immediate enforcement of provisions of Section 2.44 and 2.62 of the National Building Code (2019), which require the submission and usage on site of Builders Construction Methodology, Builders Project Quality Management Plan, and Building Construction Programme prepared by a registered builder, in the construction of building projects. Strict adherence to building codes will immensely help to address the menace of building collapse plaguing the country.
Most importantly, all tiers of government should domesticate the National Building Code to bring sanity and professionalism in the building sector. Governments at all levels should in the interest of the people, put measures in place to fast track the domestication of the National Building Codes to curtail further incidents.
Beyond this, there is need to set an example with those behind the recent incidents by prosecuting them over the injuries and deaths. If the collapse was caused by flawed design, the architect or engineer should be held liable. If it was caused by unethical construction practices or violation of the building code, the contractor or sub-contractor should be held liable and if caused by a defect in the structure that should have been detected, the building manager is to blame. In any case, things must work differently and it should no longer be business as usual.
