Professionals in Nigeria’s built environment have identified poor compliance with construction standards and weak enforcement of existing laws as major drivers of the recurring cases of building collapse across the country, particularly in Lagos State.

The experts submitted during the monthly webinar organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), Amuwo-Odofin Cell, themed “Construction Policy, Governance and Regulatory Reform in Preventing Building Collapse.”

Pioneer President of the BCPG and past President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, lamented the recent collapses in Lagos and Rivers states, which resulted in loss of lives and property, and called for stricter enforcement of laws to curb the menace.

He, however, urged built professionals to double their guards to ensure compliance with existing building regulations.

Lead Speaker and Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Construction Contracts Administrator, Bolarinwa Dejonwo, stressed that technical defects observed before a building fails are merely symptoms of deeper governance failures.

According to him, structural cracks, uneven settlement, tilting buildings and unusual noises from construction sites often signal underlying problems caused by poor regulatory oversight, non-compliance and ineffective enforcement.
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Most building collapses are not sudden incidents. They are known risks. The failure is not in detecting the problems but in enforcing the laws that should prevent them,” he said.

Dejonwo noted that unauthorised developments remain one of the biggest threats to safe construction.

He said that estates are sometimes developed without proper planning approval or built on drainage channels and other unsuitable locations, creating significant safety risks.

He also identified the widespread practice of bypassing statutory approvals for building designs, construction methods, materials and approved building heights as contributors to structural failures.

The surveyor decried the increasing trend of property owners adding extra floors to completed buildings years after construction without verifying whether the foundations were designed to carry the additional load.

Dejonwo, who also blamed poor inspection regimes for allowing developers to violate approved plans with little or no consequences, said that while regulatory agencies often grant building approvals, routine inspections during construction and after completion remain inadequate, enabling illegal alterations and unsafe modifications to go undetected.

He described corruption as the “biggest cancer” affecting the construction industry, saying that it cuts across developers, contractors, artisans, regulators and even members of the public who ignore obvious violations.

According to him, bribery, compromise and political interference frequently undermine the enforcement process, allowing offenders to escape sanctions.

Dejonwo advocated a smarter and technology-driven regulatory system that focuses on risk-based enforcement rather than treating every project the same way.