Abuja building collapse, not again

Recent report on the death of two people on Friday, August 17, 2018 while more than 18 people including women and children were trapped under a four-storey building which collapsed in Jabi, Abuja is not only worrisome but also deplorable.
The latest Abuja incident raises a lot of questions on the incessant building collapse in the country and the need to nip them in the bud vis-à-vis the nation’s rescue mechanism.
The four-storey building, which had been abandoned for about 15 years, reportedly collapsed after an additional floor was added to it.
About five persons were rescued shortly after the collapsed, but two of them identified as the project engineer and foreman died shortly after.
The building which was under construction when it collapsed had over 25 people inside.
Rescue officials were said to have rescued about six persons while a corpse was evacuated.
Heavy rain at the time the incident occurred hampered rescue operations.
Various rescue equipment were deployed at the scene by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Agency.
The then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo visited the site briefly and encouraged the rescue workers to double their efforts in rescuing the trapped victims.
Osinbajo, who described the incident as very unfortunate, assured Nigerians that all relevant public agencies are on ground to ensure rescue operations were effectively carried out.
Osinbajo commiserated with relatives of those who may have died and those injured.
He also expressed the hope that those who might still be trapped under the building would be rescued.
Following the Jabi building collapse, the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has set up a projects registration number system to mitigate such incidents.
The ARCON Projects Registration Number system is a mandatory registration number to be issued to all architects practising in Nigeria, for each of their projects, to certify that the projects are designed, handled and executed by Nigerian citizens fully registered to practise in Nigeria.
The President, ARCON, Dipo Ajayi, explained that while the APRN was intended to combat the scourge of building failure and collapse through the elimination of quackery, it would also ensure that only fully registered and financially current architects and architectural firms would prepare, produce and submit designs for planning and implementation approval and receive such approvals when given.
He said, “Architects and architectural firms who are registered with the council are to submit architectural building plans for approval/ implementation and are responsible for the supervision of their designs.
“This measure is to complement the old practice of submitting building with a copy of the architect’s current practice licence, the affixing of ARCON stamps, signed by the architect and sealed with the architect’s ARCON seal on each sheet of the drawings submitted for approval; a letter from the client stating that the architect shall be responsible for the supervision of their architectural design during the construction period; the placement of the ARCON Project Registration Number on each sheet of the drawings submitted for approval and the placement of the APRN number, together with the architect’s or architectural firm’s name/registration number, on the project sign board upon commencement of construction.” Blueprint observes that disasters like building collapse or even erosion are a global phenomenon and are usually inevitable.
Therefore, it is not so much about the occurrence of disasters but the effectiveness and efficacy of rescue mechanism.
For instance, on November 22, 1999 rescuers reached seven men who had been trapped in the Vitarelles cave system in southwest France for 10 days.
Experts drilled multiple shafts into the rock in a bid to find the experienced cavers.
They eventually reached them after squeezing into one of the shafts and following an underground river.
The men had carefully rationed their food and still had enough water and lighting gas for two days when they were rescued.
All were in good health.
In Nigeria, rescue mechanism is not only scanty but highly defective, epileptic and slow.
The several cases of building collapse and other disasters in the country particularly the recent Abuja incident, are replete with poor rescue efforts.
It was obvious that more victims would have been rescued if NEMA had not called off the search and rescue operations at the site of the collapsed building in Jabi, Abuja.
Having confirmed that there was no remaining body buried under the rubbles of the collapsed building, NEMA called off the rescue.
But a day after, scavengers discovered more bodies trapped in the rubbles of the collapse building.
We, therefore, advise that in addition to strengthening extant legislation like the National Building Code and increased vigilance and supervision in the building industry, government should also formulate a rescue mechanism that is pro-active, efficient and pragmatic in accordance with best global practice.
It is high time government lives up to constitutional obligation of protecting lives of Nigerians.