By Chris Emetoh,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) and a former President of the society Engineer Emeka Eze has said that the outcome of investigation by the probe panel set up by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the 21-storey building which collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos State, on Monday will help Nigeria to strengthen and improve on its system of delivering a project of this magnitude.
Eze in an Exclusive Interview with Africa housing news on Thursday, said it should be a platform for knowledge sharing and improvement on the system rather than apportioning blames
The BoT Chairman of NSE commended the governor for taking a fast step to set up the panel, but expressed reservation on the composition of its membership. According to him, the committee of such nature owning to the issue at stake ought to be headed by a structural engineer rather than a town planner.
He described the building collapse as underscoring the level of negligence that Nigerians have come to experience in their responsibilities nation-wide both in public and private sector.
Eze however cautioned that “When a thing like this happens it should be a platform for knowledge sharing and improvement on the system rather than apportioning blames, it will be premature at this level to begin to look for who to blame until all the facts are obtained.”
“The Lagos state govt has done the right thing by setting up a committee but the only snag is setting up a committee that may not understand the core issues. Rather than using a town planner to head the committee on issue of this magnitude, I would have preferred a structural engineer to head that panel because at this level of project the integrity of the project is paramount and engineers play very active roles in the stability of a project of this magnitude, we are talking about 21 storey building that start from soil investigation and foundation it requires a technical engineer doing that and then to the level of structural engineer doing the design and supervision, quality control both on the part of the contractor and the consulting supervisor and then the part of the development control. So engineering plays very active role in this, but by and large beyond looking for whom to blame I hope they do a good job because the outcome will help us strengthen and improve our system of delivering a project of this magnitude.”
In another interview, president of NSE Engineer Babagana Mohammed, regretted the incident, stating that it is a slap on Nigeria and on engineering profession , noting that such shouldn’t have happened and is unacceptable by any standard.. “it sadden and quite unfortunate and this cannot be condoned.”
He said NSE will participate in digging out culprits and ensure that appropriate sanctions were applied.
He also cautioned against apportioning blames at this time, but advised that proper investigation should be conducted to ascertain what went wrong who was involved.
We have been making efforts since the incident occurred including getting the emergency workers involved. He said though the tragedy is a challenge but also an opportunity to expose so many things which will put everyone on the edge of getting it right.
