November 1st 2021 was a tragic day for the real estate industry in Lagos when a 21-story building collapsed in Ikoyi, a highbrow area known for its expensive and luxurious properties. The building was one of three residential towers under construction by FourScore Homes, a property development company owned by Mr Femi Osibona. The owner is said to have developed properties in other countries like the UK, USA and South Africa successfully prior to undertaking development projects in Nigeria.
So what went wrong?
How would a man who had many years of experience in property development in more developed countries be involved in this avoidable tragedy?
There are several stories and speculations as to how this towering building came crashing down and we have put together some of the factors that we think may have helped to avoid this unfortunate incident:
Following Protocols
According to reports, the approval the developer got to construct the building from LASBCA was for 15 floors. So how did 15 floors become 21? The building was apparently sealed sometime in the year due to certain protocols not being observed but was later reopened for construction to continue. There are speculations that elbows may have been greased and if that is the case, it is not an uncommon occurrence, one that unfortunately has grave consequences and has resulted in avoidable loss of lives.
Following Expert Advice
There has been a letter circulating on social media written to the owner of the company by the former engineering contractors terminating their contract. In the letter, the engineers stated that the structural integrity of the collapsed building could not be guaranteed because protocols are not being followed and they established that the goals are no longer the same so they will be pulling out of the project. Going by this letter, the developers must have ignored the concerns of the engineers and proceeded with the project. To say that expert advice is irrelevant is detrimental especially when lives are involved. If only they had adhered strictly to what the engineers were saying, maybe we would not be writing this piece.
Compromising on Quality
No matter how expensive building materials get based on the current economic challenges the country is facing, compromising on the quality of building materials should never be an option. The inflation ravaging the economy may have contributed to the factor of the building collapsing. There may have been a need to manage the materials or make use of inferior quality products resulting to this tragedy.
The collapsing of buildings particularly in Lagos has been happening too frequently in recent times. According to a BBC news report, there have been 152-collapsed buildings in Lagos between 2005–2020. This is a major cause for concern that the state government needs to urgently address since real estate is one of its sources of IGR. We also hope that people are held accountable for this recent tragedy and it never happens again.
