‘Why building collapse is rampant in Nigeria’

Mr. Fadil Elegbede, is a Lagos-based builder and General Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB). In this interview with TOPE SUNDAY, he speaks on how building collapse is persistent in Nigeria, among other issues in the built environment.
In the recent time, Nigeria as a country, had recorded a number of collapsed building. As a Builder, what do you think is responsible for this? When you are talking about building collapse anywhere in the world and Nigeria inclusive, findings have not found any registered or qualified builder wanting at any of the constituted panels.
The moment you are doing the job of another professional, which is not statutorily your job, you are a quack. If a Builder without getting a certificate of a Structural Engineer is now claiming to be a Structural Engineer at a site, he is a quack. Some property owners may be they don’t know the difference between a professional and a quack they will give their projects to quacks. Like I said earlier, in most of these collapsed buildings, you will not find a professional builder wanting. But you will find out that contractors, who will make use of unqualified personnel to execute their building projects are responsible for the collapse of building. So, in all the recorded cases of building collapse in the country, builders were not engaged. If we engage the services of professional builders, I don’t think we should be recording building collapse. In summary, one of the causes of building collapse in Nigeria is the use of quacks for building construction.
So, what is the way out? The professionals in the built environment have come together to provide a document and we have so many laws that will regulate the construction business in Nigeria. Because the government that enacted these laws does not have the will to enforce it. If there is a political will, it doesn’t take any serious government to enforce those laws. Also, we are calling on the government to assent to the National Building Code that is being proposed.
If this is done, the incessant collapse of building will stop because every profession in the built environment will know its roles and responsibility.
An expert recently said that the high cost of construction is responsible for the housing deficit in Nigeria. Do you agree with his assertion? There are many factors that are responsible for housing deficit in the country. Population is a key factor and it is one of the most serious factors contributing to Mr. Fadil Elegbede, is a Lagos-based builder and General Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB). In this interview with TOPE SUNDAY, he speaks on how building collapse is persistent in Nigeria, among other issues in the built environment. Elegbede housing defi cit in the country. It keeps increasing geometrically. That is, the housing stock will not be enough for them. If you go to the villages or some urban centres, you will see some abandoned buildings and we are talking about housing deficit. That explains why some people are living under the bridge and in the Bus Stop. The housing deficit comes as a result of our culture. We will build a gigantic structure for our family without knowing that we should just build a small Bungalow with a two or three bedroom flat.
Some Nigerians we will go and build a mansion that is even expected of the entire community to live in and later, we will not be able to maintain such building because the maintenance problem will set in. Later, we will leave the building to get a small one. Who will live in that abandoned building?
It will later be part of the deficit we are talking about. Those abandoned structures need to be rehabilitated to accommodate these housing deficits that we have as a nation before we will now be talking about the new construction. So, when we say we want to address the housing deficit, we should rehabilitate the old and abandoned buildings to compliment the new one we want to construct because of our increasing population.
There are houses within Abuja and Lagos metropolis that are unoccupied and yet millions of people working in these two towns live at satellite towns because of high rent. What will you suggest as the solution to this? There are a lot of factors that are responsible for housing deficit. For instance, people are being asked to pay up to #25million to N30 million for a two or three bedroom bungalow in the urban centre. But if they use the same amount of money to buy land and build their houses in the rural areas, they will still use the remaining part of #25million to invest on something that will be bringing money back to them and they will be able to survive. A two or three bedroom bungalow for #25million is not affordable. They are not considering salary earners and your salary determines affordability.
So, it is from your salary that you will know whether you can rent a flat for one million per annum or for #200,000 per annum or not. If your salary is like #100,000 per month and you want to rent a flat or duplex for #25,000 every month, it is not affordable because so many things will suffer. Civil servants will live in the rural areas or satellite towns, which are far away from the city where they are working because they can’t afford paying rent in the urban centre. So, the solution is for the government to provide an enabling economy. If all the parameters that will be used in the economy are there, they will not be complaining of living in the city because the economy and bargaining power will be there for them.
Also, a lot of developers in the built environment do not have access to fund, land, the welfare provision by the government in terms of tax reduction and they have to invest in the housing sector by borrowing both within and international. How do you want them to survive? Of course, they will produce houses for the people but its prices will be very high in order to make their profit. Government should come in and assist the developers because government alone cannot provide the housing needs of its citizens. Housing is a very big sector but capital intensive because its profit cannot be quickly realised like other businesses. It is a gradual thing.
What is the difference between the conventional Bricklayers and members of NIOB? Or are they the same? We are not the same. A bricklayer is not a builder. Can a Bricklayer build house without a component of an Iron Bender or a Carpenter? There are so many other trades in building a house; a Tiller is there. So, we have many trades that make up the component that will assist in the construction of a building. So, among these components are Bricklayers, Carpenters, Iron Benders, Plumbers, and Electricians. But when you are talking about a professional, you are talking about some who is trained to have knowledge of carpentry, bricklaying, electrical, mechanical, that will assist you to put all these components together. So, we are quite different. Registered or qualified Engineers or Builders or architects are different from bricklayers or draft men.

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