In the wake of the incessant collapse of buildings within Lagos metropolis, Babtunde Fashola, the state governor, has embarked on a fresh campaign to rid the state of distressed buildings.

Taorid Alli, general manager, Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Authority, LASPPDA, said that after an inventory of such buildings, the authority found that 5,000 buildings on the Lagos Island were distressed; of these, 100 are in serious conditions while about 400 others were recommended for further investigation to determine their structural stability.  “This is as a result of legacies inherited since the 1980s when we had emergency developers who did not have adequate experience in building and used poor quality materials for the houses they built. Without being pessimistic, more of the buildings will still collapse because their time has expired as they were not built to last for more than 10 or 15 years,” Alli said.  For those that have been identified for immediate demolition, he explained that the owners had been given option of removal with government assistance, but after that, the government would recoup its money before the land is given back to the owner.

Fashola has, on several occasions expressed his preference for “homeless people to dead ones.” That was implied in his swift and emotion-laden statement following the recent collapse of a three-storey building at Idi-Araba, Lagos, where about 11 people were reported dead.  He had indicated that the state would embark on mass demolition of buildings found to be susceptible to collapse, to stem the tide of incessant collapse of buildings and loss of lives.

The

governor is, however, magnanimous enough to give owners of distressed buildings an opportunity to seek assistance from the state government in demolishing them before they wreak havoc within the community. “Buildings have a structural life, and those that were not well-built in the old era of developers, we are appealing to the owners, in the interest of safety to human lives, to evacuate the people there, apply to us, pull down the buildings and rebuild them in partnership with us in compliance with specifications on best practice,” Fashola said.