By Theophilus Ilevbare
It was a tragedy of
building collapse one too many on that balmy Friday, September 12, in the
premises of the Synagogue Church, Ikotun, Lagos when the foundations of the
Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) Guest House could no longer hold as it
came down crashing like a pack of cards.
Eighty people lost
their lives, 131 people survived albeit with varying degree of injuries, and
miraculously, a 45-year-old woman walked out of the rubble alive after 4 days
of the building failure. Some persons thought to be South African nationals are
still declared missing.
The total number of
people present at the building before the structural failure was about 200,
including foreign believers, local church members and canteen workers. It is a
tragedy of monumental proportion when worshippers who had come to seek the face
of God end up seeing the face of death. For Founder and General Overseer,
Prophet T.B Joshua and his teeming church members of SCOAN across the globe,
this was one tragedy that they didn’t foresee or foretell.
The Synagogue guest
house we learnt was originally designed from the foundation to hold a three
storey building, but it ended up a sprawling 6 storey edifice! This is almost
twice the load the foundation, steel rods and concrete structure was designed
to carry. It is appalling that the Synagogue building had no approved plan in a
state like Lagos.
There is no evidence
whatsoever that SCOAN secured regulatory approval for professional advice to
increase the number of floors neither did they ask the appropriate questions,
nor did the contractors adhere to strict standards, according to Lagos state
Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development. Safety of the members
who thronged the Synagogue for spiritual solace was relegated to the
background.
This failure gives an
ample opportunity for government at all levels, particularly in Lagos state, to
put an end to structural failures leading to collapse of buildings. The church
authority must therefore be sued by the government for criminal negligence and
flouting government’s building regulations to serve as deterrent to others and
the contractor charged to court.
Prophet T.B Joshua,
labeled the collapse as a Boko Haram attack, claiming he was the target. That’s
the way to go in Nigeria after an avoidable tragedy. Cases have been recorded
where Lagos state residents were forewarned by relevant authorities to evacuate
buildings with tell-tale signs of structural failures and danger of imminent
collapse but chose instead to cover such building with the ‘blood of Jesus.’
Lagos in particular,
has recorded several building collapses more than any other city in Nigeria. In
2006 alone, up to 3 major building collapses were recorded. On March 22, the
top nine stories of a 21-storey Nigerian Industrial Development Bank building
collapsed. July 18, a four-storey block of apartments composed of 36 flats,
collapsed. In November, an uncompleted three-storey building under construction
collapsed. In these three structural failures, at least 28 persons were killed
while over 86 others were pulled out of the rubble alive but sustained varying
degree of injuries.
It is also on record
that a four-storey residential building under construction near Ojuelegba in
Lagos collapsed leading to loss of lives of construction workers and those
taking shelter from the rain. Remember the collapse of a multi-million naira
building in Ajah Area.
The collapse of a
mosque in Mushin killing some Arabic Scholars. The collapse of a storey
building in Kano accommodating some Islamic students, similar in scenario to
the Oworonshoki building collapse a few days after which eight people were
feared dead. There was the collapse of a storey building behind Federal Capital
Territory Police Command in Abuja, reportedly killing 14 people working.
The collapse of a
3-storey building awaiting finishing works at Ikeja behind Juli Pharmacy, where
over 40 people were trapped in the building. The Abuja building collapse
killing over 40 people. There was also the collapse of a Hotel in Akure, Ondo
state. All these collapses happened in the last decade.
The Synagogue
building collapse has underscored the failure of relevant government agencies on
one hand and greed on the part of contractors and building owners who use
substandard materials for building or change building plans midway through
construction - design for a residential (family) building can turn to a church
overnight or the likelihood that bungalow, midway into construction, will turn
to a storey building which often lead to structural deficiency like the case of
Synagogue guest house. Unfortunately, there are still a number of buildings of
similar circumstances dotting the skyline of many Nigerian cities.
The time has come for
us to desist from passing the buck or putting the blame squarely on
poor-quality cement, fake iron rods, greed of foremen to maximize profit and
utter disregard for building and construction laws with intentional neglect for
the safety of the occupants of such building to putting in place punitive
measures to ensure engineers or architects who supervise the erection of such
substandard buildings are made to face the full wrath of the law.
It is time government does more than revocation
of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of the land – which is a rarity nowadays –
where such substandard buildings are erected.
Some remote factors
of building collapse include; absence of soil test report, inability to carry
out proper land survey, failure by foremen to understand and interpret building
codes, lack of coordination between professional bodies like SON, COREN,
CORBON, NIA, NSE etc and government and local town planning authority.
Miserliness on the
part of the owners (they shun professionals and use substandard materials to
cut building costs), poor structural design, non-compliance with approved
building design are some of the major reasons for building collapse in Nigeria.
We can stop looking for supernatural causes of structural failures and look
within.
They are human
factors. If not for the lack of will to enforce the appropriate building
regulations and the need to unnecessarily "manage" building cost, the
probability of sudden collapse of building is relatively low even in the event
of an earthquake or hurricane, according to geographers.
Every building
contractor should be duly registered for easy tracking and punishment should
there be a reoccurrence. It is as tragic as the structural failure in itself
that the issues of building collapses in Nigeria are hardly ever taken
seriously by the government or the relevant law enforcement agents.
Contrary to what many
think, building collapses are not natural disasters except in cases of earthquake,
hurricane or tornadoes. The incidents in Nigeria are man-made and therefore
avoidable.
You
can follow the writer on twitter, @tilevbare.
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