Lagos Govt Engages Stakeholders To Avert Building Failures

Lagos State government, through its Safety Commission, has convened a stakeholders’ forum aimed at averting frequent building collapses and fostering a culture of safety amongst the facility managers and safety professionals in the state.

The move, according to the agency, is to entrench collaboration and sustain standards amongst safety stakeholders to prevent avoidable fatalities in the built environment, particularly in high-rise buildings.

At the forum with the theme ‘Safe Building, Protected Workforce’, the director-general, Lagos Safety Commission, Mr Lanre Mojola, said that it had become expedient to consider facility management and safety in building designs.

“This theme,’ Safe Building, Protected Workforce, is very personal to me, having spent over a decade on the front lines of facility management in Nigeria, before having the privilege of leading the safety commission. I have seen firsthand how buildings live, age, operate, and are managed and maintained. I have seen the whole life cycle costing of buildings that are brand new, and how, within a very short period of time, they start to fall apart, particularly in this country,” he said

Mojola stressed that the building is a dynamic living ecosystem that must be tested daily through operational discipline, routine maintenance, electrical and mechanical checks, vertical transportation checks, fire system checks, and readiness.

According to him, “Every failure, fire outbreak, or avoidable workplace incident we witness across our megacities is a stark reminder that safety cannot be treated as an afterthought or a quick tick box exercise.

It is the core operational framework that protects lives, preserves asset value, and maintains public trust.

He emphasised global best practices, requiring every facility manager to complete basic safety training and certification, thereby establishing a direct connection between safety, security, and facility management.

“So when we speak of a protected workforce, we are looking at how to ensure that the crews on the roof, the painters on the scaffold, the cleaners, and the third-party contractors executing high-risk tasks are safe. We are also ensuring that we’re protecting them and keeping them safe from injuries, accidents, and even fatalities. he stressed

In his keynote address, the Technical Adviser of the Lagos Safety Commission, Mr Seun Awojobi, said that the engagement provides a veritable opportunity to collaborate and develop practical, implementable solutions to strengthen construction safety, facility management, and occupational health across the state.

He said “The theme of this year’s engagement speaks directly to our direct collective responsibility we reflect our shared duty to ensure that every structure is built to the highest safety standard and that every worker who reports for duty each morning returns home unharmed and to their family at the close of work every day, for the safety commission this is not a slogan it’s a convenience that we have with the good people of Lagos and we take this with the utmost seriousness.”

Awojobi maintained that as Lagos continues to expand as Africa’s leading economic and commercial hub, with rising skylines, high-rise buildings, and a growing workforce, it is important to leverage the economic opportunities that come with it while upholding the highest standards of safety, quality, and regulatory compliance.

He reiterated the Commission’s resolve to promote a proactive safety culture through inspection, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, public enlightenment, and the consistent enforcement of safety regulations.

In his presentation, one of the guest speakers, Mr Lekan Akinwumi, emphasised the power of collaboration between facility managers and safety professionals.

He said the workplace was meant to be a place of comfort, with a chain of collaboration that promotes safety while accounting for facility management and occupational safety