Can this year be devoid of building collapse? Yes, says the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA). “It’s a tall order, ” others say. However, while some stakeholders and experts agree with the agency, they, nonetheless, insist that certain measures have to be put in place to attain this feat. MUYIWA LUCAS examines the impact of this agency in the built environment.
NO fewer than 81 buildings collapsed in the last five years across the country, with Lagos State accounting for most of the incidents, according to the Building Collapse and Prevention Guild (BCPG).
The list includes a three-storey at 24, Daddy Aladja Street, Oke Arin on Lagos Island, which collapsed on May 29, 2017 during renovation. On July 22, 2017, another building went down at 7, Saidu Okeleji Street, Meiran in Agbado Oke -Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA). On July 25, a building at No 3, Massey Street, Lagos Island, collapsed in the morning, during a rainstorm. The structure was initially planned for a three-storey before another floor was added to it. Another three-storey crashed at Saka Oloro Street, Ilufe Road, Alaba International Market, Ojoo on August 28, 2017.
Other notable incidents are the September 12, 2014, Synagogue Church guesthouse in the Ikotun-Egbe area of the state, and the March 8, 2016 collapse of a five-storey at the end of Kushenla road in Ikate Elegushi, Lekki, belonging to Lekki Gardens.
Indeed, building collapse has remained worrisome to many stakeholders and the government. This is mainly because of the lives lost during such incidents, the financial setback as well as the psychological impact on the citizenry.
This is why states, especially Lagos, have provided guidelines on land use designation to guarantee orderliness in development. It is believed in some quarters that the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development‘s (MPP&UD’s) response to requests for planning information ensures that the public is adequately informed on land use zoning, permissible use, plot size, building coverage and height, setback, airspace and parking requirements, among others, for potential developments.
Although there were some incidents in the state last year, stakeholders agreed that they were not as significant as the preceding years. BCPG immediate past President, and first Vice President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr. Kunle Awobodu, explained that the reduction could be traced to some steps taken by the government, through the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA). One of such, he said, was the recruitment of 395 construction professionals, mostly young graduates, to improve on the monitoring capacity of LABSCA.
Through this agency, the government intends to transform the building and construction industry by enhancing skills, promoting professionalism as well as improving design and construction capabilities, reducing building collapse to zero and, most importantly, achieving safe, secure and habitable buildings in the state.
Managing Director, Tavote Nigeria, a design, construction and maintenance firm, Mr. Joseph Muagba, expressed confidence that given the drive in LASBCA, building collapse would soon be reduced drastically, if not eliminated. He explained that unlike in the past where the industry battled with structural integrity issues, drawings that pass approval test were now adequately vetted by the agency to ensure that they were of standard. The agency’s officials, he said, are strict with compliance to government’s regulations.
“No doubt they (LASBCA) have added value as an institution. They have also simplified the process of getting approvals and enforcement of standards. They have recruited and trained a lot of people to carrying out enforcement and compliance. They are courteous and dedicated people. However, sometimes, there are unnecessary interference from the Ministry of Environment as their responsibilities are duplicated,” Muagba, an engineer, told The Nation.
Although he revealed that working with the agency initially was not ‘cordial,’ a development he blamed on resistance to change, for him, the birth of the agency is welcome, as it has made engineers more relevant in the built environment than they used to be.
Muagba explained that though it is not yet uhuru, LABSCA was the government’s response to the lawlessness in the private construction industry and other critical happenings which needed to be standardised. “LASBCA’s coming is gradually standardising the building industry in Lagos state. For instance, one of the rules now is that apart from having an approved drawing and project board on site, an engineer must be present on site. Additionally, the engineer’s visit to the construction site is to ensure compliance at every stage and a certificate of habitation is issued on completion before the house is certified for occupation. This has created jobs for engineers and professionals in the industry, as well as ensuring standards and integrity of a building,” he explained.
Curbing the past
While new buildings are easy to monitor and enforce compliance on during construction, worrisome is the state of old structures which were built pre-LASBCA. Awobodu warned that barring any shoring or stability mechanism, sub-standard buildings constructed in the past would eventually fail, leading to collapse.
LASBCA General Manager, Mr. Lekan Shodeinde, explained that the agency was aware of this threat. This, he said, was why the regulator embarked on a cleansing of old buildings across the state, last August. By September, after due notice to distressed property owners, the agency embarked on the demolition of buildings prone to collapse on the Lagos Island. In that exercise, 57 buildings out of the 114 identified, were removed in the first phase, following the approval of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
Explaining the process leading to demolition, Shodeinde said before his agency demolish any building, the owner is required to conduct a “Non-Defective Test”, within three weeks and the result sent to the agency. Non- compliance with this will be deemed to mean that the building is distressed. The LASBCA boss explained that the choice of starting the demolition on the Lagos Island was premised on the preponderance of more distressed structures already identified in the area. He regretted that owners of such buildings had ignored advice by the government to remove the structures themselves, necessitating the agency’s proactive steps to avoid a disaster, which may result if the buildings fall off by themselves.
Commenting on the cost implication of the demolition and the ownership of the land after such exercise, Shodeinde explained that the land still remains the property of the owner. The property owner, he said, is, however, required to pay the state government the cost of demolition, which will be communicated to the property owner in writing.
“We are rendering a service to the property owner and not to confiscate the land because the building has not collapsed. We just remove the structure and communicate the cost to you, if you refund the cost to the government within 90 days the land is still yours; but if after 90 days of demanding the refund of money and there is none, or we do not get a correspondence from the land owner, the land then stands forfeited to the government,” Shodeinde explained.
Solution vs Prevention
Awobodu, though supports the exercise, says the solutions to building collapse should be a two-pronged approach. firstly, he said such should be derived from its causes. “If competent professionals are backed by the law to handle construction, from design through to post-construction stages, there would be less crisis in the building construction sphere of the country. The responsibility of appropriate designs should rest on qualified architects and engineers while that of the building production management should be borne by the professional resident builders,” Awobodu said.
Importantly, he explained that the agency needs to focus more on what people are building, especially at the foundation stage because that is where most developers get their buildings wrong. Besides, he is convinced that the focus should be on prevention rather than finding solution after collapse because being proactive is better.
Shodeinde agrees. He said his agency works with other sister agencies/ministry, including the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Lagos State Ambulance Services, and Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) to make the buildings in the state secure, liveable and habitable. LASPPPA is the agency that issues building permit.
Equally, he said as a form of its best practices regime, it expects owners and developers to conform to basic rules and regulations of the agency before the commencement of any new development/special project, amendment to existing buildings, renovation of buildings; before commencement of any forms of demolition, installation of renewable source of energy, maintenance that involves erection of scaffolding, renovation, rehabilitation, re-engineering improvement of any building , converting the use of any building, commencement of building construction, obtaining certificate of completion and fitness for habitation and verification and certification of General Contractors’ All Risk Insurance policy for buildings under construction as well as existing ones.
Furthermore, the LASBCA boss explained that the agency has also put in place a whistle-blowing avenue, which he reckons will go a long way in checking unscrupulous acts in the industry. Whistle-blowing mechanism, he said, is a partnership to save lives and also an avenue where the agency advises people to expose what is not being done right in the industry. “Whistle-blowing is an avenue to give us whatever information on any structure, be it construction or reconstruction, that is structurally defective,” Shodeinde said. He urged the public to call the agency’s toll free lines to give information of deviation from approved permits and approvals and other atrocities on sites capable of jeopardising safety.
Public reaction
For Mrs. Adijat Adekunle, a 72-year-old fish seller on Lagos Island, the demolition of a three-storey at 152, Adeniji Adele Street, Lagos Island, belonging to the Aroba family is a welcome development, given the danger it posed to people in the area. Also, a student of Kwara State Polytechnic, Mr. Babatunde Afolabi, of 3, Ajanaku Street, Lagos Island, commended the state government’s effort on the demolition. He told The Nation that the demolished building was “too weak and could pose a danger to the lives of the people on the street”.
A retiree, who pleaded for anonymity because he resides on the same street housing the demolished building, said the structure, built in the 1990s, belonged to the Adeseye family. According to him, it was clear from the time of construction that the building had structural integrity issues. Hence, according to him, it was a welcome development that the building was pulled down by the government.
At 54 Aroloya Street, Lagos Island, a 40-year-old barber and father of one, Mr. Bolaji Abdulahi, who has lived in the area for 15 years, explained that the house, belonging to the Olokodana family, had long been vacated by the tenants because of its state. He revealed that entreaties by the community to the children of the owner to either renovate the house or pull it down fell on deaf ears. So, the LASBCA initiative of pulling down the house was okay.
But it has not been all praises for the agency. Some residents and perceived owners of demolished buildings on the Lagos Island were bitter with LASBCA for asking them to pay for the demolition. Although they refused to be identified with their buildings for what they termed “security reason”, they said the cost charged for the demolition was too high.
A man in his late 50s, who identified himself as ‘Sesan’, however described it as ridiculous when the government expected him to pay to reclaim his family land after losing a property. To him, it amounted to double loss. “How can they expect us to pay N250, 000 to get the land back?” he asked rhetorically. Findings by The Nation revealed that the payment for the demolition starts from N100, 000, depending on the type of building.
According to Sesan, the charge was ridiculous, given that all LASBCA did was to use hammer to break the buildings in pieces and not pulling them down. “As you can see, the buildings they claim to have demolished are still standing; they only used hammer to break them in bits. So, is this what they expect us to pay such huge amount for? They are simply after revenue generating. If they had brought tractors to level the buildings and asked us to pay such amount, then it would have been a different ball game,” he lamented.
Zero tolerance for collapse
Shodeinde revealed that his team was working hard at ensuring that not a single building would collapse this year. This, he said, was why no stone was being left unturned to achieve this feat. The LASBCA boss told The Nation that the agency has begun combing every nook and cranny of the state to identify and arrest structures that are either defective or may fail. The new strategy will include identifying intransigent and contraventions of building laws. The government, he said, would not hesitate to remove any illegal or unsafe structure to prevent loss of lives.
Last week, the agency demolished 21 buildings erected illegally on the government’s land around Ogudu area of Lagos. The buildings, located on a swampy land, are not habitable and residents never got the government’s approval for such illegal development.
“We will ensure that buildings in Lagos State are designed, constructed and maintained to high standards of safety to avoid loss of lives and properties through our building regulatory system. We aim to achieve zero percent building collapse, strict adherence to international best practices; we also intend to comb the entire state to remove distressed buildings after giving enough notices to owners and developers,” he assured.
Re-invigoration
Shodeinde is unfazed by the public reaction to his agency, especially after a structure has been removed. To him, such reaction is a confirmation that the agency is discharging its duties as prescribed by the law establishing it. Besides, he shares Muagba’s views that people are averse to change, not liking to leave their comfort zone even in the face of hazard to their existence.
Rather, he said, he and his men were coming out stronger to enforce compliance with building laws. LASBCA, he further revealed, “is coming out heavily than before” on defaulters. For instance, he revealed that henceforth, defaulters, after prosecution, would have their names published in national newspapers, irrespective of their standing in the society. Also, where deaths of human beings are recorded in a collapsed building, the owner of such property will forfeit the land to government and also face prosecution.
Shodeinde warned that the agency’s monitoring team and officers are combing the state for any on-going construction without appropriate permit; distressed/abandoned or soon-to-collapse building.
More than ever, he said the game is up for defaulters who had taken delight in breaking the government’s seal on their premises as they will face the law.
Contraventions
Contraventions, according to LASBCA include development of property without an evidence of planning permit; development and use of structure without obtaining certificate of completion and fitness for habitation as prescribed by the law; use of non-professionals (quacks), and building without approval.
Shodeinde advised that public to contact LASBCA at least seven days prior to commencement of construction at the site, adding that after two years of not commencing construction, any approval given will need to be resent for assessment and approval.
Moving forward
The agency, determined to achieve its dream of “no building collapse this year” says it has now become mandatory for owner/developer must apply to her for final inspection and issuance of a certificate of completion and fitness for habitation. This can be done via a simple written note to the technical team in charge of issuance of certificate and final stage inspection will be arranged between the engineers/architects (construction team) and the building control officers. Equally, developers must fully comply with development permit granted, Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law 2010, Building Codes and Building Regulations. The services of relevant professionals must also be engaged, including the usage of standard materials, and observance of health and safety prevention on site.
Awobodu agreed with the position of the agency He added that nations with effective building codes hardly have cases of building collapse. The NIOB chief is convinced that if the National Building Code could be passed into law and abided by, the frequency of substandard construction would be very low.
He wants more monitoring of sites by government officials, as this will ensure the conformity of building construction with the approved building plan.
Stakeholders, like Awobodu and Muagba, are convinced that while the agency has done quite well in the delivery of its mandate, more can still be achieved with more public sensitisation.
