The Banana Island building collapse

ON one level, the real tragedy about the collapse of a seven-storey apartment building under construction on First Avenue, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, is the sheer banality of it all. No one who pays the scantiest attention to happenings around the country can be surprised at the news of yet another building collapse. According to the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), 115 separate building collapses have been recorded in Lagos State alone over the past decade, 20 of such incidents in 2022.

While no two incidents are the same, the most recent one on Banana Island would seem to be encapsulative. According to the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, no approval was given for the construction of the collapsed structure. This immediately raises the question: if no approval was given, why was work allowed to proceed on the structure? Clearly, a seven-storey building cannot spring up overnight. Why did the officials of the ministry not step in and halt the ill-fated construction? Mr Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, owes the general public an urgent explanation. Since his predecessor, Dr Idris Salako, tendered his letter of resignation last September, following a spate of building collapses, does Mr Bamgbose-Martins intend to follow suit?

But it is not just the honorable commissioner who is on trial here. Since there are several hoops that developers have to jump through before they can commence work on a building, it is clear that due diligence has not been done on several levels of the official bureaucracy and whether Mr Bamgbose-Martins tenders his letter of resignation or not, there is no doubt that the system has broken down at several key nodes. It goes without saying that the system for approval, supervision and certification of building projects demands an urgent overhaul, something that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Commissioner Bamgbose-Martins have promised.

In reaction to the Banana Island building collapse, Governor Sanwo-Olu issued a blanket stop-work order on all building projects on the island. While we applaud the government’s quick reaction, the specific order is counterproductive and should be reversed forthwith. Effectively, it punishes all development and building workers for the sins of a single developer. Surely, the governor would not countenance shutting down all vehicular movement in the state on account of a single road accident.

It is encouraging that Governor Sanwo-Olu is desperate to find a solution to incessant building collapses in the state, but the solution is to ensure that due diligence is done prior to construction work. The current situation does not look good for a state that is desirous of putting itself on the global business map.

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