LASBCA Urges Building Professionals to Respect Their Roles for Safer Construction

The Lagos State Building Control Agency has warned professionals in the built environment against taking on responsibilities outside their areas of expertise, stressing that clearly defined roles and stronger collaboration are essential to improving construction safety.

The General Manager of LASBCA, Gbaye Florence, gave the warning on Thursday at a conference organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Amuwo-Odofin Cell, in Satellite Town, Lagos.

The conference, themed “Building Resilient Lagos through Synergy,” was held against the backdrop of the collapse of a four-storey building on Ladipo Street, Satellite Town, in June, which claimed several lives.

Gbaye said the construction industry could not achieve safer and more resilient buildings when professionals abandoned their defined responsibilities and attempted to perform functions that required different areas of expertise.

She compared the construction process to a surgical procedure, explaining that different specialists have specific responsibilities but must work together to achieve a successful outcome.

According to her, an architect should not take over the responsibilities of a geotechnical or structural engineer, surveyor or regulator simply because their roles are connected within the same project.

She stressed that every professional involved in the built environment must understand the limits of their expertise and work with other specialists where necessary.

Gbaye said government could not address building safety challenges alone and called for greater cooperation among architects, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical consultants, town planners and other professionals.

She said the different professionals needed to work collectively rather than attempting to handle every aspect of a construction project themselves.

“Let the town planners do what they are supposed to do; let an architect consider the functionality by having the brief from the developer and advising them rightly on what to do,” she said.

She added that structural engineers had a specific responsibility to ensure that buildings could safely carry their loads and that professionals should not compromise structural safety by relying on assumptions that a defective or inadequate structure could simply be managed.

Gbaye urged professionals to organise themselves around their respective responsibilities and engage the appropriate specialists throughout the construction process.

LASBCA calls for community involvement

The LASBCA general manager also called on institutional bodies, community leaders and other stakeholders to report distressed buildings within their communities.

She said early identification and reporting of buildings showing signs of distress could enable the relevant authorities to intervene before the situation became dangerous.

The call followed renewed concerns about building safety in Lagos, where rapid urban development has increased the importance of effective monitoring and enforcement of construction standards.

Gbaye’s position was that building safety should not be treated solely as a responsibility of government agencies, with professionals and communities also having roles to play in identifying and addressing potential risks.

Building Collapse Prevention Guild seeks stronger community action

The coordinator of the conference, Chibuike Okafor, said the June building collapse in Satellite Town had highlighted the need for communities to become more actively involved in building safety.

Okafor said the incident demonstrated that government agencies could not independently monitor every building and construction activity across Lagos.

He said communities therefore had a responsibility to raise concerns and alert the appropriate authorities when they noticed potentially dangerous structures or construction practices.

“In the face of this tragedy, we realised that the government alone cannot do it all. As a community, we have a role to play,” Okafor said.

He said collective action was necessary to protect lives and improve safety within communities.

According to him, community participation could complement the work of regulators and professionals by ensuring that potential hazards were identified and reported early.

Stakeholders call for collective responsibility

The chairman of the occasion, Austin Otuoke, also described the frequency of building collapses in Lagos as a reason for greater collective responsibility among construction professionals and other stakeholders.

Otuoke said Lagos needed to continue developing, but that urban expansion had to be accompanied by attention to safety and proper construction practices.

“We have to develop a city we can bequeath to the next generation. Lagos must develop, but we must ensure it develops safely,” he said.

He argued that no government could independently make Lagos a resilient city and called for partnerships among government agencies, professionals, communities and other stakeholders.

The conference brought renewed attention to the need for clearer professional responsibilities, effective collaboration and community involvement in preventing building failures.

For LASBCA, ensuring that architects, engineers, planners and other built-environment professionals operate within their areas of expertise is part of the wider effort to improve construction standards and protect lives.

The agency’s warning also reinforces the importance of coordinated professional input at different stages of development, from planning and design to structural engineering, construction, inspection and regulation.

As Lagos continues to expand, stakeholders at the conference emphasised that the city’s housing and infrastructure growth must be matched by stronger cooperation and adherence to professional responsibilities to improve the safety and resilience of its built environment.