Nigeria has been lucky to be immuned against natural disasters that sweep across some countries, leaving tears, wailings, deaths and destructions in their trail. Rampart cases of building collapse across the country have continued unabated. From the rural areas to urban centres, news filter in from time to time of either a completely built public or private structure or one under construction caving in to one form of defect or the other.
Recently, a report cited by the leadership of Nigeria’s insurance regulatory body, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), revealed that in 2022 alone, the country recorded at least 62 building collapse catastrophes, causing 84 deaths and injuring 113 persons. According to the report compiled by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Lagos had 20 cases, while Kano and Anambra recorded five incidents each, with Delta and Jigawa recording four each. In 2021 alone, at least 49 buildings collapsed in Lagos alone with attendant human and material losses.
Cumulatively, within a space of seven years, precisely between 2007 and 2013, 135 cases were reported with several deaths. In all of these, neither are the third party victims adequately compensated, if they are compensated at all, nor the culprits prosecuted and sentenced. This is despite the laws in place to enable the government teach developers and building owners how not to cut corners in an attempt to maximise profits.
Within a space of one week, precisely October 2 and 12, 2023, two .