On Monday the 13th of this month, a three-storey building with a penthouse collapsed in the Ita-Faji area of Lagos Island, leaving about 20 persons dead and many others injured.
Sadly, most of the dead were young school children and there were cases of siblings from the same parents. It was a very sad day for everyone, and even for people in far-flung parts of the globe.
The first response from government agencies was to try and absolve themselves of blame for the disaster, claiming that the building had been spotted as defective and had been marked for demolition since last year. But how can they avoid blame for such an occurrence? If they marked the building for demolition, what prevented action?
A lot of promises have been made by the State Government which has revealed that out of the 149 distressed buildings identified in the State, 48 are located on Lagos Island and so far, sixteen distressed buildings have been demolished on the Island alone. But these demolitions seem to have been made after the pupils at Ita-Faji had paid the supreme sacrifice for what they knew nothing about and their parents were not responsible for.
It is quite clear that the current demotion exercise is a Knee-Jerk reaction in response to public outcry over the Ita-Faji building collapse. Why do I say so? Because this is typical of governments all over the country. However, Lagos is particularly guilty of procrastination in this case, in setting the stage to respond to demolition orders issued by its own agencies.
Rewind to 12 September 2014. A guest house located within the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) premises in Ikotun-Egbe area of Lagos State collapsed in an implosion style.
The collapse of the guest house in the SCOAN premises resulted in the death of about 115 people, 84 of them South Africans and other nationalities, including Nigerians.
The Lagos State government headed by the then governor Babatunde Raji Fashola said the church did not get government approval before construction. This was corroborated by the coroner’s report which discovered that the collapse was due to structural failure, while agencies like the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and the Building Collapse Prevention Guild examined the site and found several inadequacies.
However, up till now, nothing seems to have come out of the inquiries into that tragic SCOAN collapse that took so many lives.
This is why people are taking with a pinch of salt, the current assurances by the Lagos State government that everything would be done to bring to book all those responsible for the collapse of the Ita-Faji three-storey building.
A committee has been set up, comprising relevant professionals to find out what transpired at Ita-Faji. They are expected to conduct a public hearing and receive memoranda from interested parties. We all know that it is one thing to set up committees and another to accept and implement their recommendations.
Will the Lagos State government act differently this time and surprise us?
The government has confirmed that both the owner and developer of the collapsed building have been invited to Alausa to answer questions about the incident.
Shouldn’t officials of relevant agencies be also invited to answer questions too? Are they not as culpable?
Who granted approval for the building?
Who marked it for demolition and did not follow up?
Who inspects buildings in that part of the Island and have not noticed anything wrong with this particular building and advise residents to stay away from it and others marked as distressed?
We understand that one hundred and forty nine buildings were marked for demolition across the State out of which forty were pulled down in the first phase of demolition last year, while fifty-one have been marked down for demolition in the second phase which is currently going on after the last collapse.
It is advisable that those intending to build or renovate existing houses and buildings should always seek approval from the relevant agencies before embarking on such projects. Such people should also employ qualified professionals like structural engineers, architects, builders and quantity surveyors, while ensuring that genuine building materials are used in the construction.
Image credit: constructionreviewonline.com
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Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.
