Something tragic happened in Lagos Island, mid-week, precisely Wednesday, March 13 and men and women of goodwill went into mourning. But it would appear that another dimension has been introduced to the way and manner we react to bad news, especially with the advent of social media.
To some, it sounded normal that individuals who don’t even reside in Lagos, talk less of being near the scene of that tragic incident, would be all over the social media marking themselves safe during a building collapse in Ita-Faji area of Lagos Island. The building, illegally said to be housing a school with scores of pupils, saw most of them killed during the collapse.
And so, the ‘safe-marking’ exercise by people who were nowhere near the scene was not funny to many who believe the tragic development calls for sober reflection, instead of the joke the ‘markings’ supposedly portrayed.
To some others, however, living and surviving everyday risks in Nigeria would appear good enough reason to so mark themselves because the country right now is like a time bomb, or some disaster waiting to happen.
The story of a wife sitting right beside her husband in church that would rise up to join widows called out for special blessing and anointing, would suffice to this category of people. The joke is that soon as the pastor of the so-called church called out widows in the church for special prayer and blessing, this particular wife sitting right beside her husband was the first to get up.
Shocked at her action, the husband would ask if she heard the pastor right and she answered in the affirmative. “So where then do you think you are going when I am not dead,” the husband queried in anger and the wife equally responded that there was no difference between the man she was sitting with and a dead man. To her, a man who cannot provide for his family and still subjects them to the kind of abuses he deals on them daily is as good as dead. And off to the altar she went to join ‘her fellow widows’ for the blessing and anointing.
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Against this background, some people have gone ahead to argue that those marking themselves safe during the last building collapse are on point because Nigeria as an entity, according to them, has since collapsed. And if doing so is their own way of venting out their frustrations, so be it.
Now, whatever is your take on the safe marking exercise is by the way. What is of interest here is why and how scores of primary school children that left their homes for school on Wednesday ended up in hospitals. And some of the may never return home again.
Reason? The three-storey residential building, located at No 14, Massey Street, Opposite Oja, Ita-Faaji area of Lagos Island, illegally housing their primary school on its pent house, caved in at about 10:20am that ill-fated morning, trapping many of them in the process. More painful is that the building was said to have been marked thrice for demolition the past few years, an order that was never carried out.
For this crass display of ineptitude and unpardonable carelessness on the part of authorities concerned, most of whose children are nowhere near such environment as Ita-Faji and the illegal school, beautiful young souls were claimed and as usual, it is not likely anyone will get punished for the infraction.
Death toll at the time of writing had conservatively been put at 18 or so and cause of collapse surely not isolated from corruption, which involves financial inducement and structural inefficiency.
And so we mourn and afterwards, nothing happens. Or so it would seem, since the public never get to hear anything more on the matter.
Expectedly, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, Wednesday, visited the scene, commiserated with families of victims who lost their lives and described the incident as unfortunate. He appealed to residents that all trooped to the scene to allow rescue operators space to carry out their operations without any hindrance so as to rescue more children still trapped under the rubbles.
He also informed that his deputy, Mrs. Oluranti Adebule, had visited the hospitals where some of the rescued victims had been taken to and assured that the State Government would immediately take over their treatment and entire bill.
Available information to him was that the building, old as it was (30 years), was a residential one with the school operating illegally within the premises, adding that about two floors of the building sunk to the ground.
Strangely, and while admitting that most of the buildings in the area had been marked for demolition, the Lagos state governor said some property owners in the area defy such notices. But he assured that going forward, structural defective buildings would be demolished. What a wawu!
So how about increase in illegal schools in the area? And the governor said all schools that fall within that category would be closed down. And if you recall, government has never stopped saying this as so many of these mushroom schools are scattered all over the neighborhoods in the state.
And then came the usual last word: A promised that government will investigate the unfortunate incident and also met dish out punishment for whoever are the culprits.
Similarly, the governor-elect, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, visited the survivors of the tragic incident at the hospital in company of his Deputy Governor-Elect, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat Thursday. He was also at the site of the collapsed buildings at Ita-Faaji to assess the rescue operations and sympathized with residents who lost loved ones in the tragedy.
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In commending efforts by the emergency and rescue workers, he lamented the loss of lives he said could have been prevented if the owner of the collapsed buildings had not flouted the state’s building codes.
There is no doubt that every building collapse is as a result of poor enforcement of construction code and it is no secret that developers in the area and actually most areas in the country are fond of using sub-standard building materials on the property they manage. In most cases also, they bribe government officials to look away from carrying out the necessary audits on those buildings.
In fact, residents at Ita-Faji had allegedly lodged complaints at the local government office and Ministry of Physical Planning about defective structures in the area prior to last Wednesday tragedy, which incidentally, was among a list of 100 houses that failed integrity test and was actually earmarked for demolition.
Now that this has caved in, sadly claiming the lives of innocent children, the question is: What is going to happen to the remaining 99? When are they going to be pulled down? Or are we going to wait for until they similarly collapsed, more lives leading to more wailings and gnashing of teeth?
How does a nation continually lose lives because of avoidable human errors, crass negligence and still move on as if nothing happened? Who is actually taking stock of sick buildings in Nigeria, including school and church buildings?
If half the zeal put in by politicians into their politicking is applied to making life bearable for the ordinary people they seek to rule, we will not be having most of these negative stories to tell.
If children who should be nurtured by adults as leaders of tomorrow are so shabbily treated and left to die before they live, what is the hope for the future in this country? All over the country, the condition under which these children are taught in schools leaves a lot to worry. And someone actually wondered what should be expected from a nation that neither counts the living nor the dead.
You need to go into Lagos Island to see for yourself the kind of structures still standing there. Not only are these building so rickety, they are just not fit to live in. And accessing some of the places in times of emergency could be like a camel passing through an eye of a needle. Which possibly explains the tacky rescue operation we initially saw at the Ita-Faji building collapse scene that in no way portrays the nation in good light to the world.
As a matter of fact, over 1,000 buildings have been identified as unfit for human habitation in Lagos. Kunle Awobodu, National President of Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) who disclosed this in a news report, said his guild has brought such distressed buildings to the notice of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) for demolition. And the Ita-Faji collapsed building, incidentally, was one of them.
Similarly, Mr. George Akinola, an architect and President BCPG in Lagos, also confirmed that most of the buildings in Lagos do not meet scientific test and were not built by established bodies. They are totally in bad state and should actually be brought down.
They are actually structures horridly put together by the Brazilians during the
