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Niran Adedokun
Penultimate Monday’s collapse of the high-rise building in Ikoyi is a tragedy in every ramification. For Nigeria and Lagos State, it’s a sad pointer to the awkward state of affairs, wherein birds no longer chirp like birds and rats no longer squeal like rats.
Nigeria is of course, not the only country where buildings fall and snuff life out of people in the process. Disasters are, in fact, a part of life. While some disasters are self-inflicted, quite a lot are outside the control of men. It is the reason legal minds talk about force majeure, which no man has power over but with as much, if not more, debilitating effects. Life, itself is a herd of uncertainties, regardless of what part of the world you live in.
Even the story of Mr Femi Osibona, the promoter of the ill-fated building, is a perfect fit for a tragic hero. Arthur Miller, the American playwright and propounder of the idea of the “tragedy of the common man,” suggests that tragedy occurs when an ordinarily “common man” (that is without the royal pedigree contemplated by the Greek) gets cut short in the pursuit of significance. Miller says this in his essay: “Tragedy and the Common Man” published in The New York about two weeks after the release of his book, “Death of a Salesman” in 1949. Hear what he says among other things: “For, if it is true to say that in essence, the tragic hero is intent upon claiming his whole due as a personality, and if this struggle must be total and without reservation, then it automatically demonstrates the indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity.” Mr Osibona was said to have struggled so much to defeat the pangs of poverty. There are stories about how he lost his job in the United Kingdom, became a merchant of men’s clothes and accessories, and fell on the real estate business by some chance in the same United Kingdom.
His premature death, which some Nigerians see as karma, does him and the country a whole lot of evil. There are stories about how he may have cut corners or circumvented the rules. Still, even that does not justify the painful end that befell him and numerous others, whose bodies remain in that rubble and whose identities may never be known. A man should be alive to atone for infractions he may have committed against humanity (if that is the case), clear his name of allegations, just as a society should benefit from the knowledge (one way or the other) that may be revealed from inquiries into such allegations.
Of character flaws, which is an essential characteristic of the tragic hero, Miller says: “The flaw, or crack in the characters, is nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.” Does that say anything about the promoter of Fourscore Limited?
Millers says something that every Nigerian who wants to pass judgment in the case at hand should consider, though. Here it goes: “Only the passive, only those who accept their lot without active retaliation, are “flawless…” So, which human being does not have a flaw? That is more so in a country like Nigeria where compromises have taken a life of their own. Nigeria makes it difficult for anyone to be flawless. If you are not prone to seeking undue favours, rent-seekers will waylay you at junctures where saying no may put you in jeopardy. Whether we talk about medicine, building materials or household items, this country has become a dump for inferior materials. The standards have gone to the dogs and you, sometimes, pay for the original but get the fake without knowing. This is a place where you may be people unwittingly using their monies to buy their death.
However, the greatest of the Nigerian tragic flaws is the waste to which we put the lessons that tragic events dangle at us. Whether you speak of the Aristotelian postulations in his Poetics or the Millean idea that we are currently discussing, tragedy evokes fear, pity, and purgation of emotions in all men. It then makes sense that men should learn lessons from tragic events and do everything to forestall such catastrophic occurrences in the future. But does Nigeria ever learn?
Take the issue of insurance of buildings of the nature of this Ikoyi high rise for instance. Section 64(1) of the Insurance Act (2003) states that “no person shall construct any building of more than two floors without insuring with a registered insurer his liability in respect of construction risks caused by his negligence or the negligence of his servants, agents or consultants which may result in bodily injury or loss of life to or damage to property of any workman on the site or of any member of the public.” Recent reports indicate that this building was not insured! If that is true, what would be the justification for approving authorities in Lagos State even if it is true that the property was only meant to be of 15 floors? In the same breath, did any of the subscribers, some of whom are said to have paid millions of dollars to own property in this building undertake due diligence on the state of insurance? How does anyone spend so much money on anything without ascertaining the prospect of risk management?
Now, someone may wonder what the fuss about insurance is. While insurance by itself would not prevent the collapse of a building, it would at least ensure that standard and quality materials are used, which would increase the integrity of the building. However, if an insured building falls, the owner and subscribers are assured of a measure of compensation. Did this building have that? How many other high-rise buildings in Lagos do the authorities scrutinise for fulfilling this obligation before approval?
There is also the question of who can embark on gigantic projects like this and the kind of organisations they must run. Nigerians understand that that company is known as Fourscore Homes Limited. But this organisation has not acted as a company since the unfortunate incident of that Monday. If not anything, the Company and Allied Matters Act requires that a company have at least two directors and a company secretary. Suppose that is the case in the situation under consideration, why hasn’t the company secretary come up to speak about the correct position of things or even tried to defend the company? The idea of a company different from an enterprise is to separate the directors from the company and give the latter a legal personality; is this the situation in this case? If it is not, what does that say about the Corporate Affairs Commission?
Finally, there is the question of the steps taken by Governor Babajide Sanwolou. The first was the suspension of the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Mr. Gbolahan Oki. One hopes that events in days to come will justify the suspension of this man who only took that office nine months back. The truth is that moments like this require contemplative rather than knee-jerk reactions that ultimately add no value.
In the same breath, one wonders why this event does not deserve a coroner’s inquest or at least a judicial panel of inquiry with quasi-judicial powers instead of an administrative committee. It gets even more curious with reports that the media would not be allowed at the sitting of this panel.
Sanwo-Olu must realise that the state cannot waste the opportunity this sad event presents to make the built environment in Lagos much safer. The attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 changed many things about the way we live and travel to date. That is what serious people make of tragedies like that of Monday, November 1, 2021. If the governor wants to help the state, he must do everything to transparently and diligently investigate how this happened, expose individuals or agencies who may have contributed to it out of negligence, compromise, or corruption, ensure that people get punished and then set a purposeful reform process in motion. Anything less than this would be unfair and do great injustice to the dead, the living and the future of property business in Lagos State.
