Press Releases

Building Collapse: Fashola Advocates Attitudinal Change

Jun 26, 2008 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has called for attitudinal change among Lagos residents as a solution to the problem of building collapse in the State.

Governor Fashola who spoke at the opening ceremony of a Technical Workshop on “Policy Reform on Physical Planning and Building Control 2008” at the weekend, said without a change in attitude of Lagosians, efforts by government to solve societal problems like building collapse and traffic congestion would remain futile.

Addressing participants at the workshop which included academics, professionals and other stakeholders in the building and construction industry, Fashola declared: “I believe that if we address only the attitudinal issues, we will be more than 50 percent out of the challenges that we have to deal with today”.

According to the Governor, the various laws made over the years to check some of these anomalies have not worked because the people have not only refused to comply but have continued as if there were no laws in existence.

“I think, if we are to capture the problem of building collapse it is simply the way we have chosen to live. We have refused to obey laws made by us for us. We have compromised the system and we have paid in human life needlessly”, the Governor lamented.

Drawing from the issues of traffic congestion, Fashola cited the Agege Motor Road as an example saying though the road was originally built to connect the Airport to Mushin and Surulere, no one would today dare to drive to Mushin from the Airport through Oshodi because of the market that has taken over the road.

He declared, “If we build all the roads but don’t make them serve the purpose for which they are designed, the problem of traffic congestion won’t go away. We complain of traffic in Lagos, but we also do street shopping and choke up traffic. We have that choice to make - to change”, he said.

Governor Fashola commended the last administration for responding very strongly to the incidence of building collapse, especially at the time when it involved buildings under construction, pointing out that the measures put in place then has significantly reduced the incident.

“The challenges we now have to deal with are from buildings that have been built before the last administration started, in the period that we call ‘the construction boom’, the period of the developer/financier in the early eighties”, the Governor said adding that such buildings were now reaching 20 years.

What the government found out, Fashola said, was that in the construction of significant number of those buildings, professionals were not involved and in many instances, they were built at night while some had no approval or did not comply with approval plans.

He lamented that even with two stage approval process introduced by his administration, the problem still continued largely because the issues involved were deeper than non-compliance with approvals.

“We found out that the problem was deeper than the non-compliance with approvals. Blocks for construction were being made from unsuitable materials (clay and sand). Buildings are being finished with substandard materials resulting in fire which affects the structural integrity of the buildings”, the Governor lamented adding that even where development and remodeling took place, professionals refused to act professionally.

The Governor who said the workshop was one of the options to address the issue declared, “We say let the professionals come and look at it. Let those who will be affected come and look at it. Let them bring the private sector expertise into what we want to do so that we can together look at the way forward. It will be a great disservice if we don’t communicate with you and share your thoughts”.

Setting the agenda for the workshop, the Governor queried, “why are buildings built by Nigerians 20 years ago collapsing while the Lagos High Court built several decades ago is still structurally intact. Is it because they were built by Europeans? Are they better than us?”

The Governor thanked the participants especially from the organized private sector for accepting to take part in the workshop even at their own cost and hoped that they would come out with a concrete solution that would give Lagosians the life they deserve.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Town Planner Francisco Abosede attributed the incidences of building collapse to misapplication of the law.

Abosede, who traced the history of Town Planning in Lagos from 1863, said it was only in 2004 that a full fledged Ministry was created for Physical Planning saying it was also at that stage that the laws were reviewed for the first time.

He said the Ministry had since put several measures in place to make Physical Planning effective in the State. Such measures include restructuring of the Ministry whereby senior officers were deployed to the field, collaboration with structural engineers, creation of regional offices, establishment of professional building code (by the House of Assembly) and encouraging public participation.