Blames site engineer for Synagogue building
collapse
Dr Wole Akinwunmi was the Chairman of
Igando Community Development Association,
(CDA). He served from year 2000 till 2007.
Currently, he is one of the elders in the
community called the G12 of Igando and has
been a politician /businessman since 1986
starting from Alliance for Democracy, Action
Congress and All Progressives Congress. He
specialises in estate management and bore
hole drilling.
Tell us how you got to where you are?
I started my business in the year 1986. I first
worked with construction and property
management companies. From there, I got
the field experience in building and bore hole
drilling. Even when some of the companies I
worked with folded up, I still continued. One
thing about the job is that you improve on it
by being in the field where you meet a lot of
people and being a hardworking person that
loves to work, some of the people I met in the
field employed me to work for them.
That was when Maroko was still there and
government was building around it. We were
always in the field working. From there, I was
able to meet people and know people. Some
times, my company works for individuals and
from there, it was very easy for me to quickly
start my own business. I have worked in
different parts of the country which involved
a lot of travels and meeting with people from
all parts of Nigeria.
How would you describe the business of bore
hole drilling and estate management?
It is very interesting. It is a job that keeps
you in the field all the time. Going to school
does not really matter in the job. You have to
work to get more experience. Like you see
the case of building collapse all over the
place, somebody like us can stand a 20-
storey building without the house collapsing.
To what do you attribute the high rate of
building collapse in the country?
Many of the Engineers do not know anything.
They are just carrying certificates around
with little or no field experience. Building has
little to do with the certificate you obtained
from the University. Field work is different.
Truly, we have qualified Engineers whose
services are difficult to obtain but they keep
giving excuses for their failure to deliver. In
reality, you need to have a lot of field
experience to be successful.
You talked about field experience, is lack of it
responsible for incidents of buildings
collapse like the recent case of Synagogue
Church building?
To me, I would say that what happened in
the Synagogue was the fault of the Engineer
on the site. It is not the fault of the church
owner because I believe that there must be
an engineer in the site of the building. The
problem we are having in this country is our
government. There are agencies who are
supposed to monitor these buildings as they
are building them but because Synagogue is
a big church, they probably looked away
believing that nothing will happen.
Maybe the church does not even have a plan.
But if a poor man is building a room and
parlour, you will see them there, marking
everything wrong. Go to Lagos Island,there
are lots of buildings there that are not up to
the required standard. They are very close to
each other with little or no ventilation. In the
case of Synagogue, how can somebody build
a storey building, and you are raising it to
six-storey without first of all demolishing the
existing one and laying a stronger
foundation? No matter how strong you think
the foundation of a building is, once you
want to raise it, you will need to revisit the
foundation to make it stronger.
I had an experience many years ago when
some buildings collapsed in Lagos Island. I
drilled a bore hole for Prudent bank in Lagos
Island about 10 years ago. We finished the
borehole on a Friday and on Sunday, all
buildings around the area collapsed. I was in
the church on Sunday when I heard that
buildings around the whole area had
collapsed. In the night of that same day, I
switched on my television, and lo was the
scene. The Lagos governor then and the
President were there.
People there started blaming the collapsed of
the buildings on the borehole we did,
suggesting that maybe we planted
something inside. They were blaming me for
the tragedy. They said that we planted a
bomb inside the borehole. The next day, the
police invited me and my workers to their
headquarters. We went and we did a press
conference in Victoria Island. After that, they
took me and my workers and traders that
sold on that very day to Panti police station
and detained us for 15 days. We were more
than 50 in the cell.
I love what the police did. It was later that I
realized that the police were doing there job.
After they released us from Panti, they
invited us again the following day to report
in their station at Zone 2 at Onikan where
they detained us for another 15 days. The
cell was about 12 by 12 feet and we were
more than 50 people there. I later followed
the police to the scene of the collapsed
buildings where we drilled bore hole and they
were asking me the kind of explosives we
planted there.
I told them we planted no explosives, that we
only drilled a bore hole for them to get
drinking water. I believe that till date, that
borehole will still be there. It was later,
during their investigation that the police
found out that one of the tenants had some
explosives he stored in his house. So, when
the police concluded their investigations,
they asked us to go. They didn’t ask for
money before bailing us. I spent thirty days
in detention while the investigation was
going on .
But I gained one thing from the cells. I met a
man who was also locked up in the cell. I did
not know that the man had 15 hectares of
land to sell. He asked me to help him sell all
of them and because of the way I handled his
business, I was introduced to many people
who did business with me. That was how I
entered fully into landed property. Now, I
have properties almost all over Lagos and
beyond.
What then are you saying about the
Synagogue church building collapse?
I believe that when they started building that
place, maybe they were managing funds. But,
if they have a qualified Engineer, he would
have advised them to demolish the initial
building and make the foundation stronger.
That kind of job is not what you will give to
just any contractor. It is not what you give to
church member to handle. There are some
brick layers that can stand a standard house
for you even without going to school. All
they need is supervision. Sometimes, brick
layers correct the professionals. It is not all
about holding a certificate. You need top
practice it.
Minor mistakes can cause building collapse.
I do not believe that it could be caused by
poor materials. The government has already
given the standard of materials you will use
in building a house. Before you build any
house now, you must meet the standard of
the state government. If you are working in a
swampy area, there are things you must put
in place. Sometimes, you may need to go
40feet deep. That is why I disagree with
people that put few blocks down before
building. The pillars you use in building a
house depends on the area you are staying. I
am telling you this based on experience.
Are you saying that people tend to
economise when building these things?
Yes, some people try to economise. But if I
see that a client who hired me to construct a
building is trying to manage money, it is
better for me to leave the place. Some have
the money but some Engineers will be
economising the materials for their own
interest. If the Synagogue Church building
had collapsed in the night, there would have
been more casualties.
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