Ultimately, the effect of collapse of building structures is colossal. A building, once properly constructed is expected to be in use for a very long time. Buildings, like all structures, are designed to support certain loads without deforming excessively. The loads are the weights of people and objects, the weight of rain and the pressure of wind and most recently the joke called infrasonic radiation as claimed by ‘SCOAN’

With buildings of a few floors, strength generally accompanies sufficient rigidity, and the design is mainly that of a roof that will keep the weather out while spanning large open spaces. With tall buildings of many floors, the roof is a minor matter, and the support of the weight of the building itself is the main consideration. Like long bridges, tall buildings are subject to catastrophic collapse. The factors responsible for the collapse of hitherto pompous buildings are; bad design, faulty construction, foundation failure, extraordinary loads, unexpected failure modes and combination of causes. We will be taking a quick look at all the factors aforementioned;

• Bad design does not mean only errors of computation, but a failure to take into account the loads the structure will be called upon to carry, erroneous theories, reliance on inaccurate data, ignorance of the effects of repeated or impulsive stresses, and improper choice of materials or misunderstanding of their properties. The engineer is responsible for these failures, which are created at the drawing board. The final object of structural analysis is to enable the Engineering design and construct a building structure, which is satisfactory in service, and that such design must be approved by the approving body. This means that it must not collapse when loads area applied and the deformation must not be excessive. However, in Nigeria, in order to try and save cost, a lot of people patronize quacks to do designs for them and such designs are grossly inadequate and usually result in building failure.

• Faulty construction has been the most important cause of structural failure. The engineer is also at fault here, if inspection has been lax. This includes the use of salty sand to make concrete, the substitution of inferior steel for that specified, bad riveting or even improper tightening torque of nuts, excessive use of the drift pin to make holes line up, bad welds, and other practices well known to the construction worker. Even an excellently designed and constructed structure will not stand on a bad foundation. Although the structure will carry its loads, the earth beneath it may not. The funny looking storey buildings in Onitsha are typical examples of bad foundations, but there are many others. In August, 1977, a residential building in Bamawa housing Estate, Kaduna collapsed killing 27 people. On May 1986, a mosque in Oshogbo also collapsed killing two people, both catastrophe due to faulty designs. Lagos has also had its fair share of disasters due to faulty design as was evident in the 6 –storey hotel collapse that occurred at Mende village in October 1989.

• Extraordinary loads are often natural, such as repeated heavy rainfall or thunderstorm, or the shaking of an earthquake, or the winds of a hurricane. A building that is intended to stand for some years should be able to meet these challenges. A flimsy flexible structure may avoid destruction in an earthquake, while a solid masonry building would be destroyed. Earthquakes may cause foundation problems when moist filled land liquefies.

• Unexpected failure modes are the most complex of the reasons for collapse, and we have recently had a good example. Any new type of structure is subject to unexpected failure, until its properties are well understood. Suspension bridges seemed the answer to bridging large gaps. Everything was supported by a strong cable in tension, a reliable and understood member. However, sad experience showed that the bridge deck was capable of galloping and twisting without restraint from the supporting cables, the historic collapse of the U.S State of Washington, Tacoma Narrows Bridge caught on tape in the 1940 is a typical example of collapse due to unexpected failure

Tall buildings have generally been made with a rigid steel skeleton, sheathed in the lightest materials to keep out the weather. Alternatively, reinforced concrete, where the compression-resisting and protecting concrete surrounds the tough, tension-resisting steel, integrated into a single body, has been used. Such structures have never failed (when properly built on good foundations), and stoutly resist demolition. When the lower supports of a steel skeleton are destroyed, the weight of the building seems to crush the lower parts and the upper parts descend slowly into the pile of debris. Monolithic reinforced-concrete buildings are difficult to demolish in any fashion

Albeit, to effectively curb the incidences of building collapse in Nigeria;

1. All clients or building developers should be compelled to comply with approved building regulations before the construction and demolition of their buildings and that all building construction works should be well designed and supervised by a registered member of Architects’ Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON). Only competent registered contractors should be employed to execute construction works or projects.

2. The professional bodies should hold regular workshops and Continuous Professional Development Programmes (CPDP) in order to improve the professional competence of members.

3. There should be a law in every state in Nigeria, providing heavy penalties for contractors who fail to have registered professionals in supervisory capacity in major building projects. Systematic inspection of building works should be enforced at the Local Government level and penalties for failure to comply with the building standard regulation should be provided for.

4. All building construction materials like sand, cement, aggregates, reinforcement bars and particularly foundation soil should be tested before commencement of any construction. The mineralogy and alkalinity tests of coarse aggregates should be done to know whether the material contains some percentage of impurities, which deleterious and injurious to cement and reinforcement rods.

5. Government should quickly promulgate a National Building Regulation for the elimination or considerable reduction of the incessant collapse of buildings in Nigeria and quick response committee for investigating incidents of building collapse should be formed.

6. The law governing all approved structural details of buildings, materials and effective supervision by the local Town Planning Authorities should be enforced and not compromised. Section 30(1) of the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Decree 88 of 1992, which demands that no building or structure or any part thereof should be erected , converted, altered or enlarged unless a development permit has been obtained by the owner or his agent from the ministry should be enforced. The Government should fund this board established through the decree so as to ensure adequate monitoring of the building approval and construction in our society.

7. Government should exercise leadership in protecting and enhancing the quality of all the buildings by encouraging and enforcing regular maintenance so as to protect human life and properties.

8. All Government functionaries and building developers should be properly trained and encouraged to always give construction of large scale buildings to competent and registered contractors who will also be supervised by a registered Structural Engineering consultant and Architect who preferably have designed such projects

It is only when the rules and regulations of development control are implemented that building collapse, resulting from structural failure can be averted.

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Catherine Palace, Outside St. Petersburg, Russia

Christian Dior Store, Omotesando, Tokyo

Great Mosque, Djenne, Mali

Gresham Palace, Budapest, Hungary

Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, The Netherlands

Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France

Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Bloch Building, Kansas City, MO

New Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Oslo, Norway

Sagrada Família, Barcelona

The Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany

The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India

The Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain

Tiger’s Nest Monastery, Bhutan

Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai, Thailand

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This call was made by the Chairman, Ogun State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr. Biodun Awolesi, on the sideline of a national workshop organised by the institute in Abeokuta.

According to Awolesi, professionals like architects, engineers, quantity surveyors as well as consultants play key roles in building construction hence, they need to be given a free hand to handle projects without undue interference from the non-professionals.

He said, “Collapse of building has to do with a lot of things; it has to do with the design and company. When we talk about the design, we talk in terms of aesthetics design handled by the architect, in terms of structure handled by the engineer, and cost handled by the quantity surveyor.

“If all these professionals are given adequate role to play and the society does not patronise quacks, and again, the regulatory bodies stand up to their duties, the collapse of building will be brought to a minimal level.”

He added, “Buildings are done with designs. You would have been told what you are supposed to put into your structure and if all the information given to the client is not followed by the builder handling the project, I think the contractor should be liable.

“At the same time, the person that is given the responsibility to interpret the design should be up and doing. So, it is a two-way thing; the consultant should be up and doing in terms of the design, and the contractor should also be seen to be doing the right thing.

“Then lastly, the government should be ready to prosecute whoever is involved in a building that collapses. This, I am sure, will serve as a deterrent to others, and at the same time, stem the tide of collapse of buildings.”

The NIQS chairman, who said the essence of the national workshop was to equip members with the right knowledge so that they could adequately advise the populace on the issue of building construction, added that about 2,000 quantity surveyors in the South-West would benefit from the training, adding that the beneficiaries would go ahead to train others in that regard.

Awolesi said, “We are training our professional members on how to do proper documentation, using some set standards to be followed while preparing their documentation.

“This is a national workshop organised by the NIQS, and the South-West chapter is being handled by Ogun State. About 2,000 members will be trained here and they are expected to transfer the knowledge to other members who are not part of this workshop.”

PUNCH.

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The acting general manager, Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory (LSMTL), Rasheed Teslim Balogun, who stated this during a visit to the site of a partially collapsed building at Alli Close, Mile 12, Ketu at the weekend stated that the agency will conduct a non-destructive test on the building.

According to him, a study of the structural elements of the building will help to examine and confirm the stability and the integrity on the remaining structures of the partially collapsed building.

He urged all builders in the state to work with the agency by conducting necessary tests before embarking on construction and ensure that standard materials are used for construction.

Balogun who implored all builders in the state to abide with standard specification for the construction of any building, maintained that the ongoing integrity test on all buildings at the Lekki Gardens as directed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode will be completed this week.

The LSMTL boss said his agency has issued ‘stop-work’ orders to some site contractors and engineers across the state until necessary certifications were done on the various materials used for their construction works.

Balogun said he gave the order while inspecting some construction sites and requested for the result of a soil test on the site from contractors handling the projects.

He appealed to all stakeholders in the built industry to do the needful by complying with all laws guiding construction processes especially the certification of building materials by the agency, reiterating the administration’s stance on accountability.

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Most, however, are Federal Government buildings which have remained empty since the government moved from Lagos to Abuja. These buildings include the 25 storey Federal Secretariat, that was later known as Defence House, the Cabinet Office at Moloney Street, the Legislature Buildings in Race Course, NET Building on the Marina, Federal Secretariat which was to be turned into flats so that our foreign domiciled professionals could come home and would have somewhere to stay. They were to be sold to returning Nigerian professionals. There are so many others that I do not wish to list all of them here.

Lagos State Government is making a reversionary claim on these and other federal properties. The Muhammadu Buhari Administration is almost unique in having a good working relationship with Lagos since both the government power in Abuja and Lagos State administration are APC. But it will be invidious if these properties went to Lagos State and ended the way many Lagos State properties have so far ended: especially in Ikoyi where the properties have ended up in private hands of members of the ruling party in Lagos. It cannot be beyond the imagination of both the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government to find a transparent way to deal with these matters. Mr. Dimeji Bankole, the former Speaker, at less than 40 years old, was able, according to him, to buy the NET building on the Marina. There are too many politicians who use office to feather bed their nests. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Bankole, a former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, about his source of funds: i.e. that it came from his father. There are well tested methods of proving such a claim.

President Buhari-led Government should be able to make simple rules about selling these buildings or forming co-operation with private estate agents or investors, first, to restore the buildings and let them out at commercial prices. This will end the constant rumours that private well placed political juggernauts have cornered this aspect of land acquisition in Lagos. Commentators point at the old Ministry of Works at the junction of Kings Way and Glover which is going up now as a five star hotel. It is suspected that this and other buildings on choice sites have been ‘sold’ to political leaders.

Nigeria is short of nurses. Yet two of the buildings which used to be used as Nursing Schools, one opposite the Island Maternity Hospital, the other opposite Creek Hospital, are no longer Nursing Schools. The buildings are empty waiting for further development by politicians who have acquired them. I cannot think of a better site for Nursing Schools than these two sites and the land surrounding them. These buildings should be returned and used for their original purposes.

Now, to the question of reversionary rights of Lagos State for Federal Government Buildings. I do not know what the legal position is but I can guess at the political implications. Nigeria is not the only country where its capital has moved from one city to another, Philadelphia was once the capital city of the United States, Sydney of Australia, Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire, Johannesburg of South Africa, etc. Justice Akinola Aguda, who recommended the move of the capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja, had suggested a joint committee on the disposal of assets. When a new state has been created from existing ones, an asset committee is usually set up (I must say that sometimes these committees cause more problems than they solve). There was such a committee set up between the Federal and Lagos State Government when Abuja was created. The Federal Government attitude was governed by a concern that Lagos, a fledgling state, should move its focus to Ikeja and other environs or so the Federal Government thought. It soon became clear that the Federal Government was wrong and that Lagos had every intention of taking up any and every property not in use by the Federal Government, including areas which by law and long practice had also been federal territory i.e. the littoral areas of Lagos, the areas adjacent to NEPA Electricity pylons, areas of either side of rivers, the Federal Government had declared to be waterways and a plethora of regulations which no doubt gave the Federal Government rights in areas that were to be contested by the Lagos State government and indeed by other littoral states.

A federation is made up of the three arms of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, each working independently of one another yet curiously dependent on one another. When issues of jurisdiction arise, the judiciary settles the matter where the law may not have been as precise as necessary: or may, by its pronouncement, reinforce an existing practice or order a new one. These cases of jurisdiction and ownership have been through the law court but we still have a problem. Has Lagos State a reversionary interest in Federal Government property left unoccupied in Lagos? How about the other 35 states comprising the federal government on whose behalf these properties were developed? A Federal Government property in Lagos belongs to the 36 federating units and when decisions are made about its disposal, it is the decision of all the states. But Lagos claims a peculiarity not common in other states. Lagos claims that the land of the government never belonged to the Federal Government, that all land belongs to the Idejo White caps Chief and their claim of reversionary interest is on behest of the chiefs. There is some merit in this argument but most of it is sophistry. Lagos was a colony seized by war. Land rights diminished after any conquest. Moreover, the claim of Lagos State for reversionary interest is in no way different from claims other states could make after the 1914 Amalgamation. There are other enclaves in Nigeria which were also colonies – Degema, Calabar – and land rights in these colonies were not dissimilar to those of Lagos.

When a problem arises, the best thing is to find a solution not to compound the problem by raising other complexities. The government should set up a task force to clear up the mess; give the tax force clear guidelines, for example, avoiding selling to politicians and their allies. A task force should rehabilitate most of the buildings and let them out at commercial rates; (and avoid the obvious temptation of buying land and property at cheap prices and making a killing from such purchases). The APC and the PDP are full of such men; for example buying places such as the schools of Nursing, dentistry, radiology, etc. These properties should be returned to their former function. They must not be subject of high rise hotel, etc. Where is the housing development for low and medium income earners? Lagos now has workers who leave home at 4a.m. and return by midnight. What kind of life is that? Those who have used their position in power to acquire more than one property should be stripped of the excess. The Federal Secretariat should be completed as flats and sold to those who are chosen by lottery at reasonable prices. People forget that Alhaji Lateef Jakande sold houses in Lagos and Abuja at N30,000 each. We may laugh at the quality of those houses (which have all been improved) but not at their location or their utility or their purchase pulling whole families out of poverty.

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In a chat with newsmen in Abuja, the Registrar of CORBON, Mr Peter Kuroshi, also identified quackery as the major causes of building collapse in the country.

Kuroshi said the council had received series of complaints from subscribers who berated the quality of houses built by developers adding that such subscribers had spent almost half of the amount used in purchasing the house to make it habitable.

He further revealed that CORBON would soon commence the registration and licencing of artisans and craftsmen in a bid to improve the building industry.

According to him, “The National Building Code clearly stipulates that the supervision and regulation of artisans and craftsmen on building site is the responsibility of CORBON, so by the time we register them, we will be able to closely monitor their activities and improve on their job.”

Kuroshi disclosed that the licensing was an identity card that would contain the artisans and craftsmen biometric data including their area of specialty adding that it was part of the measures instituted by CORBON to monitor substandard buildings.

He encouraged subscribers to inquire for the licence of CORBON when engaging the services of artisans and craftsmen in the nearest future to ensure that the person was a duly registered member.

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Industry watchers argue that such buildings ought not to have collapsed and killed people if the government had taken its responsibility to protect lives and property seriously.

Due to the tragedy associated with building collapse, Lagos State government for instance, has been very worried that more buildings have continued to collapse in its metropolis killing people.

This prompted the state government to continue to warn Lagos residents to avoid living in buildings that betray signs of weakness, particularly those that have been marked as structurally distressed by relevant agencies of government.

The crusade was more intense during the era of immediate past commissioner for physical planning and urban development, Mr Toyin Ayinde, in the state who emphasised that such warning was imperative.

According to him, having identified a defective structure, the urgent need to evacuate the occupants was necessary because they constitute a great risk to those living in them.

He further explained that the tragedies recorded could have been avoided if the occupants had obeyed government’s order sealing the buildings when it noticed signs of distress.

He averred that it was high time the residents learnt to put value on human lives instead of property by reporting promptly any illegal construction activity, structurally deficient and distressed buildings in their neighborhoods, to the appropriate government agencies.

According to Ayinde, said such information when received, would be treated with confidentiality.

Beyond the media hype , it seems that the government lacked the political will to check the system. For instance when a storey building collapsed in Ebute Metta area of Lagos killing at least eight persons, 20 new buildings in Ebutte Metta, Yaba Local Council Development Area, were identified by Lagos State government to be distressed and marked for demolition.

Apart from carrying out a sensitisation and awareness campaign by the agency in Ebutte Metta axis of the state, the former managing director of Lagos State Building Control Agency, (LASBCA), Mrs Abimbola Animashaun, said: “Since the commencement of the enlightenment exercise , we have identified about 20 buildings, apart from the one that we have identified before.

“Out of these, we have identified five that should be demolished completely because they can cave in soon. We have issued several appeals to the owners of these buildings, to conduct Integrity test on the buildings but they were not yielding.

“We were in Lagos Island and this week is Lagos Mainland, to tell the residents about the need to alert the government whenever they discover any distressed or building under construction that doesn’t have any signboard to show that the state government was aware of the construction. That means the ongoing construction was done illegally. The agency will continue with its enlightenment campaign. We will not stop the enlightenment campaigns, it will be a continuous exercise.”

Despite the much touted sensitisation and enlightenment campaigns, the city of Lagos was once again recently thrown into a state of confusion when a three- storey building collapsed at Swamp Street, Off Odunfa Street in Lagos Island.

The residents who live on the street said they had always predicted doom for the occupants due to the cracks that littered the walls.

Bola Ogundipe , a resident explained that the collapse of the building popularly known as ‘civilian barracks’ was not a surprise to them, saying the death toll would have been high if some of the occupants of the building, particularly those on the third floor had not escaped from the building.

According to Bola, “ We standing outside our house and many other people were outside too and all of a sudden we heard a sound as a big object fell and people started running here and there and we looked towards civilian barracks direction and discovered it was the building that collapsed.

“ If you look at the building the government had issued warnings on the building before the building collapsed and warned the owners and people living there to leave but they refused.

More painful was the case of an elderly woman that was exhumed from the rubble alive carried on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask placed on her mouth and nostrils before she was conveyed to a standby Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) to hospital where she later died.

As expected, the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSBCA) taken stock of distressed buildings in the area reputed to habour so many distressed buildings.

The general manager LSBCA, Shola Aderigbebe, said many buildings were marked for integrity test and 14 days ultimatum served the residents, saying lack of compliance by residents on safety directives caused the eventual collapse.

“We have been dealing with all distress buildings, but it is pathetic that residents do not yield to warnings. For this building, we have served them 14 days ultimatum.

“The ultimatum has expired before today. We asked them to conduct Structural Stability Test (SST) and they agreed. We were still waiting for them to conduct the test before the building collapsed.

“The test would have helped us ascertain if the building was distressed or not. Some buildings can be defective but when the test is conducted, we will be able to know if the building can be renovated or demolished.

“We have opened a file for the building. Marking a building does not mean we are demolishing because no building can be demolished until a test has been conducted to ascertain its stability.

“In the last four months, we have sealed 1,104 building for lack of compliance. Some are illegal structures, while some are distressed.”

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