Dr. Ezenwa F. Chizea, a civil engineer, structural engineer, architect, professional project manager, researcher and academic by vocation is also a writer, essayist, humanist, advocate, environmentalist by avocation. The Asaba-born technocrat, whose voyage into the world of building and construction dates back to his high school days when he first came across the word, ‘Master-Builder’ had his dream almost truncated when the Nigerian civil war broke out. But as providence would have it he was able to pursue his life-long ambition after the war ended as he proceeded to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where he spent barely a year studying Architecture and later proceeded to the United States in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece. Fast forward to few years later, he earned a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, from the University of Massachusetts, two Master’s degrees obtained in Civil Engineering and Architecture both from the University of New Mexico, USA, and a very promising career abroad. He was enjoying his time in the United States when he was headhunted from Nigeria to take up an offer in a private construction company almost about the same time he was to join the company that designed the Olympic stadium in Montreal, Canada, but he opted for the former and headed to Nigeria. His desire to expand his knowledge base took him to the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), where he capped his academic qualifications with a Ph.D in Project Management and broke a record as the first person to obtain the highest academic award in the varsity. In the course of his almost 30 years meritorious career he worked across different verticals of business-private practice, public service, including short stints at the University of Lagos, where he lectured in the Department of Building and Construction and FUTO, respectively. An academic par excellence, he has authored several books written not for any mercantile purposes but purely altruistic motives. He says he is just comfortable sharing his knowledge freely. One of such books is Why Buildings Collapse, written in 2011 but whose thematic preoccupation is as pungent and cogent till date. Though retired, the bubbly septuagenarian, who is literally having a ball in retirement, says he will continue to be involved in the dialectics of nation-building as this is a bounden duty he is forever committed to. In this chanced encounter with the former university don, he shares his candid thoughts with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF. Excerpts:
Meeting the Master-Builder: Dr. Ezenwa Chizea
Few minutes to our meeting time at noon on this fateful sunny day, my phone beeped, and I saw a missed call from Dr. Ezenwa Chizea. Pronto, I returned the call not knowing what to expect from the other end; perhaps a postponement or something. I was flustered. But thankfully, all he wanted to know was where I was and I assured him that I was just about rounding off the kerb to negotiate his neighbourhood within the highbrow Omole Estate, in Lagos. Getting to his neck of the woods, I called again, and he said to locate the only house with a mango tree. And wait for this: the place looked every inch like a theme park of some sort with luxurious vegetation and sounds of birds singing and chirruping about. Not quite long I hit on the gate, he came along with his gateman to personally usher yours truly to his abode. The first impression one had was that here was a man cool, calm and calculated judging by his simple demeanour. He soon led me into a serene part of his garden, making me all comfy. A man who was a good looker in his heyday, even at old age, he still moved with some swag. Spotting a polo t-shirt on a khaki shorts; he trained his eyes on me as those SWAT do in the movies. But seeing that his guest felt a bit of unease, he began with small talk to ease the tension around us. ‘When we spoke on the phone earlier, I noticed that you stammer just like me. It’s not a problem, ok? It used to be hard but that eased with time,’ he as sured, smiling through it all just to make me feel at home. With exchange of banters over, he launched into what could pass as a preliminary introduction before the interview began. An interviewer’s delight anytime, any day, vintage Dr. Ezenwa Chizea was at his best!
Who is Dr. Ezenwa Chizea?
Technically, I’m an engineer. I read Civil Engineering. I’m an Architect. I have masters in both fields. I have a Masters in Engineering Construction and Management and a Ph.D in Project Management. So, everything I do is on construction and all my experiences have been on construction, including teaching experience, is all on construction. Construction is an area I understand, I have taught, I have researched and I think I know. I have written some books but I have not gone public with my books for now. But as of now, I believe this issue of building collapse has gone all too frequently and writing a book which people won’t even read makes it compelling for me to openly state some few facts, hence I decided to have this interface and discussion session just to widen the knowledge distribution on the subject matter as a whole. All my life I have been in construction, I have been a consultant, I have been on the field, I have taught. Even now that I’m retired, I’m still offering services in the industry.
What influenced your passion for building and construction?
Let me start this way: when I was in secondary school, far back in the 60s, I had no idea about building. All we knew about architecture was when you write a letter to your girlfriend and say, ‘you’re the architect of my love!’ That’s all we knew about architecture. (Laughs). But fortunately, when I was about to finish my HSC, in Loyola College, Ibadan, the then Bendel State government decided to offer scholarships and they listed certain areas they wanted to award those scholarships. They had engineering, medicine, architecture and so on. I had always wanted to be a builder or an engineer because my elder brother was an engineer. So when I took up a dictionary then I looked up Architecture and it said, ‘Master-builder.’ And I said, o tan ni yen (it’s finalised). That’s what I want to be, a Master-builder! That’s how the idea of architecture came into my head. I got the scholarship to study architecture at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). But unfortunately, this was in 1966, the same year the civil war broke out. I had to leave Ibadan for Asaba, in the then Bendel State. Alas, about that time the Biafran soldiers crossed the Midwest and my family and I were caught off. That’s how we ended up in the East; a place I have not been to until then because I lived all my life in Ibadan. After three years the war ended, I found out my classmates in Ibadan, some had already graduated, some were abroad and here I was, as one of the guys that shook the school just starting all over again. Luckily, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) was reactivated and I went on to study architecture. But the atmosphere was nothing to write home about. As students we slept on mats and all that. For someone already used to the University of Ibadan community, what I found in UNN left nothing to cheer about because at Loyola College, I had done Maths-Maths, Physics-Chemistry for my HSC, and with the idea of becoming a Master-builder in my head, what I got wasn’t inspiring, plus the environment itself. Fortunately for me, I proceeded to the USA, with the help of my sister who was reading Medicine in the US then. When I got to the US, architecture was no longer in my programme. I went to study Civil Engineering. Because of the time I had wasted and the self-pride that I had that my mates were all graduates and here I’m an upstart, I was extra serious. I faced my academics squarely. As luck would have it, within two years, I got my degree in Civil Engineering with the highest distinction. see, overpopulation and technology has now brought in some new concepts. If you look at the old European house they are solid and they have stood the test of time. But now, you want a parlour to play disco, so things are changing. When you go out and see what is happening in London, you want to replicate it here. Another thing is that due to land constraints people are not building upward instead of going flat, horizontal or just having bungalows. Everybody is now restricted. A man goes overseas he sees that a swimming pool has been built and he has no more land for swimming pool and decides to build it over his roof’ which is an afterthought and not part of the design initially by adding more floors. Definitely, you know what is going to happen. So that’s where ignorance and pride comes in. So, pride will make man disobey rules. Mind you, nobody ever sets out to build for the building to collapse; even the so-called quacks are not getting involved in the system for the system to collapse. No. They believe they know while they don’t know as I said earlier in my opening remarks. So, nobody ever starts off a building project with the intention of ruining it except such a person is a mad man! The root cause of building collapse is pride, ignorance, avarice and all. These days, you find people adding all manner of aesthetics like putting into their structures. You now want to have a swimming pool upstairs or in the parlor due to lack of space, thereby adding more weight to your building. Talking about weight, why our buildings also collapse is because our buildings are too heavy and too massive. Now, you see a white guy he built what they call cotton-walling. But here we do nine inches block, you have columns, you have beams and its framed but instead of now drowning the place with cotton-wall, you now used nine-inches wall all over again. So, we end up having heavy buildings being carried by weak foundations. The building will collapse. So there certain things we really have to change in our psyche to prevent building collapse.
Now if you ask a layman the probable cause of building collapse, he would tell you it is the issue of quacks, poor building materials and all that. That’s what everybody focuses on. You know playing the blame game. But that’s not all true. Those are the elements of it but they are not why. But it’s the system, the way we think, and the way we build. That’s what is responsible for building collapse because as I said, nobody sets out to build for the building to collapse.
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If you look at the recent incident of the Ikoyi building collapse, for example, some schools of thoughts have argued that it was a matter of sabotage that inferior materials were used and all that while others believe the builder overreached himself by boosting that he could put up such a state-of-the art edifice without requiring expats and all that because he wanted to disabuse the minds of people that even a black man can do something spectacular after all. Do you share such sentiments?
I have already summarised that in ignorance and pride. The fact that he said what a white man can do a black man can do even better is based on ignorance. Knowledge is knowledge, it has no boundary. Due process is due process, it has no colour. But I have alluded to the point about going out and wanting to ape designs and structures abroad at home without paying attention to certain finesse. For instance, in my design, I didn’t set out to put a swimming pool abinitio but just fancy doing that because of what I have seen elsewhere and I decided to add more floors. I was approved to do 15 floors and then decided at the middle of it all to take more floors up to 21 floors. You can imagine how those additional weights would impact the building itself. That is still ignorance because you know the foundation itself cannot stand the test of time. That’s pride to do what others have not done. So, I have answered that question in the nutshell. Now, I also heard that the builder did away with his consultant. I have told you earlier that management is an aspect that is lacking in our professional training. Perhaps, the builder as a businessman concerned only about profit maximisation and getting more value found out that his Engineer though bright is not smart when it comes to understanding the financial dimension of his business and appreciate what his aim is, and so decided to do away with him. Why, I’m paying you when you can’t see what’s in it for me. It’s all part of ignorance and pride.
So those are the basic causes. Of course, lack of good building materials, quacks are part of the problem; they exist. But they are not the main problem.
If you know for example, there is something I noted at the end of the book, ‘Alert may 2011: ‘…Observations have indicated that the quality of fine aggregates aka sharp sand, currently used in most construction sites within Lagos metropolis has become suspect. Observations have equally indicated that usage of quarry dust or clay laden, and either individually, or in combination in place of scare sharp sand have gained alarming currency.’ There was time sharp sand was short in supply so people will go and get quarry dust in place of sharp sand and mix with whatever is available and say, oh, it’s smooth, so it’s fine. I now warned that these two materials namely: quarry dust, and clay sand are neither recommended nor suitable for structural concrete works and are not under any circumstance substitutes for sharp sand. If and when in doubt of the quality of available fine aggregates or sand, the ratio of adequately graded coarse aggregate should be increased in a mix…’
For instance, if a concrete mix of say 124mix i.e. cement, sand and stone was recommended, the builder based on the circumstances currently on ground, can make the mix 126 by increasing the quantity of coarse aggregate. The resultant mix may be coarse aggregate, it may be coarser not smooth but definitely stronger than a 124mix using the available quality sand. I don’t know whether any of these are still being done now but it might be causing building collapse. We blame materials, but materials don’t speak; it’s man. Earlier on, I thought about man. But it’s man that uses materials.”
To further drive home some of the points, let me read a philosophical thought from the book on page 169, Epitaph to a Collapse Colleague: …That’s a building talking about a collapse building. Building collapse is a normal and expected occurrence. So is death equally a normal and expected occurrence. Here is an epitaph from a building to a fallen gallant colleague is considered in order. Buildings don’t just willingly collapse. They often resist collapse. A collapse is therefore a loss to a community of buildings. When a column is carrying so much load the other columns assist. A building is in a state of equilibrium when it is standing. And when you’re at equilibrium you don’t want to fall. So when one is sick, the others adopt until they are overwhelmed, then it will collapse and have a normal equilibrium where they will fall down no more. No more fear of falling. They resist to fall but when they can’t help it and they fall to fall no more. So they are now in final equilibrium, they are now resting in peace.
‘I hereby present an epitaph to what looks to you humans as rubbles. But to us, a departed colleague! Please let all humans here present bow their heads in shame and observe a minute silence for my colleague Edifice. Here lies a once functional structure Edifice now a functionless heap of rubbles. Edifice was conceived in haste, developed through ignorance and without recourse to due process. Consequent to that, it suffered severed deformation at birth, even at that it was routinely subjected to and made to bear and support loads and burdens that were way over and above what able-bodied and gifted comparable colleagues were equipped to carry and support. No one cared nor bothered to lessen its burden and torments. Not even government officials offered any assistance or urge that its inert information and sensibilities and those acquired while on duty courtesy of prolonged neglect and overloading be treated. Edifice though on unstable posture bore its cross with dignity. It suffered occasional groans in the hope that concerned human beings would notice and take appropriate action. Consistently, it exhibited outward physical signs of dilapidation, telltale signs of excessive stress, still no relief came its way. Resiliently, Edifice soldered on as more extraneous loads were brought to bear so long as Edifice was still on its feet they kept adding loads, be on its toes or unsteady foundation it mattered little. Fatigue and a ghost of what it was and ought to be, Edifice did its best to sustain and maintain some semblance of equilibrium. Call it strained and compromise equilibrium. It mattered little to its tormentors and abusers. Edifice in its good disposition and sense of duty prolonged the stress all in desperate attempt to convey to its occupant the need to evacuate and run for their lives. It was destined to happen. The time came when the proverbial straw that broke the camels’ back came calling and did Edifice in. the deed was done. Edifice accepting its fate reacted with a loud and thunderous sound giving up its spirit and collapsed. Here lies our colleague Edifice prostrate, at last in a state of stressless and painless equilibrium and at rest. Edifice lived a life struggles but thanks goodness, Edifice once it’s down needs fear no fall. Edifice has fallen and will never fear or struggle against that anymore. It is ironic that the same human who engineered Edifice into existence ignored its persistent pleas for help when it needed that most. But now that its troubles and problems were over endless streams of humans have rushed to view Edifice at its most compromised, embarrassing though restful moments. Cry not for Edifice for it will not fail. It is you humans that failed, not Edifice. No structure ever desired to suddenly call it quit. Edifice was no exception. Edifice did put up a gallant effort to maintain, sustain and continue its over labored and functional services but the odds against continued compromise became insurmountable. We, its still functional colleagues regret any collateral damage that accompanied Edifice demise. It’s not in our character and nature to suddenly give up the ghost without repeated warnings and calling of attention to our plights. Edifice dutifully did that much. But no human paid adequate attention. In conclusion, we would like to caution that the blame of what happened to Edifice should not be hasty as have been the fashion heaped solely on building materials or any other inert elements that constitute our makeup but on our sole creator, our benefactor, humans! Thanks for all the concern but most importantly, it is hoped that the demise of Edifice will teach all of you humans one or two lessons on how not to treat your creations. Remember, your ultimate reaction collapse to series of ill-human treatment could be painful, stressful, and sometime s mournful to you humans. Signed: on behalf of Edifice Surviving Colleagues…’
