Engr. Faleye
In an exclusive interview with GATMASH BLOG, the Dean of Faculty, foremost construction trades academy, Universal Learn Direct Academia (ULDA), Engr. Babatunde Oluwaseun Faleye, talks about why building collapse is on the increase, challenges facing the construction sector, the way forward, ULDA as a solution center and more. Excerpts…
Can we meet you?
I’m Engr. Babatunde Oluwaseun Faleye, Dean of Faculty, Universal Learn Direct Academia (ULDA). ULDA is a foremost construction trade’s academy in Lagos Nigeria. Am a chartered professional civil engineer, has a National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in civil engineering from the Lagos state Polytechnic and Yaba college of Technology respectively. Earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in project management at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), and Lagos satellite institute and thereafter studied at the University of South Wales (Formally University of Glamorgan), United Kingdom where I had bachelors in civil engineering (hons.).
How’s the economy affecting this industry?
A lot. We are a construction trade training institute, we train individuals to become construction trained professionals like the carpenter, still POP fixers, benders, plumbers, electricians and masons. We also train site managers who in turn supervise building of constructions. Why I think the economy affects us is one, the down turn of the economy generally will of course reduce the number of constructions projects, there’s no money in circulation, there’s a down ward trend in activities of projects today. We have a lot of projects that started before now but have to be placed on hold and some prospective projects that never kick off because of funding. We keep saying in Nigeria that there’s a drastic decline and non-existence of housing facilities for individuals, deficits are about 22 million.
If you have such then there should be some slag from the government onto financial institutions to help see that deficient erased or reduced if not totally eradicated. But still the lending rate is about 30%. That won’t help investors that want to build, then you have people saving for a long time before having their own homes which is why we have a lot of people spending or wanting to spend so little on some structures and at the end of the day we have disaster. Funding is key to any business that you want to go. If your lending rate are so high now at 30% if am not mistaken about one of the highest in the world. We have some countries giving single digits funding for construction projects. In Nigeria its 30% there about, people can’t afford it. If you have some projects that take some time to complete like 3 years, you take a loan towards that project; it means you’re paying 90%. You took N200, 000,000 for a project, and at the end of the day pay 150,000,000 back and you end up paying about 380,000,000 on a project you have just completed.
Remember, the date of completion is not the day you start making money back. There’s a transgression period you have to market, advertise, people come for viewing before they start buying. There’s a timeline, you might not even sell everything as a whole. So, give or take you have 5 years, imagine 30% every year for 5 years and you have 150% but if you add the compound interest it will be more. So it doesn’t help, we need better policies. Policy from the government through CBN like you are building mass housing so they don’t end up building shoddy jobs. We are addressing it from the angle that the professionals are not doing well, we have defective materials in the market that’s been used. How about let’s starts from the basic, the lending, and our financing. Let’s see to that because we have a deficiency. We have people staying under the bridges, we have a family of 5 members or more in one room and it’s not by our own standard room, they don’t have convenient, they have pit latrines, imagine these days and time. You will be surprised; environs like Oshodi you think are middle class still use pit latrines. Look at the health hazards. You are looking at the collapse but there are lots of hazards already in lots of building. All these boils down to financing, if we have better financing people will want to use gold plated WC but it’s the financing that will make you buy twyford ceramic instead of gold plated. A construction project will always be a dream without financing.
Aside finance, what are other causes of building collapse in Nigeria?
There are a lot. The government will tell you is it a must that you build. When we were young they were telling us about the major need of man – shelter is there. So it is a must to have favourable shelter. Next are statistics, data. Do we have enough data, do we engage the professionals, and if we engage the professionals does the professional have enough data. Because siting a structure is easy but getting data for that location, structural place you want to build is key. We are so fortunate in Nigeria that we don’t have natural disasters such as earthquake, cyclones, hurricanes etc at this part of the world but even at that we need some data to note. What is the wind speed; we have wind load acting on structures, the taller they get. What is the wind speed of this area? What is the average bearing capacity of the soil? What load can be put on the soil? If I want to add more loads what kind of foundation can I use? I’m focusing on the government on what they should provide for us. They have bodies but are theses bodies enough? Are they functional? They are trying but not enough, I know a lot of professionals get job and they don’t go all out to ask of those data. They might not get it but do they ask, even God said ask and you shall be given. If you don’t ask you don’t get. They might be available, ask but then are they available? That’s another question. We need some data. I need to do a soil analysis, a soil investigative analysis of every location I want to build yes; I know I need to do that. We should have had records already to serve as a guild.
Enforcement is another issue. Lagos state government has done tremendously well. The Lagos state Building Control Agency (LASBCA) that was set up is doing so well but do they retrain those individuals, do they take on seminars with developers, engineers with builders. Do they do all these? They should call for seminars; they should have us talk together, reason together so that this sort of mistakes doesn’t come up. There’s neglect in the sector. I was listening to the news on that collapse and I was hearing developer. There are ways of individuals coming up into the construction business as developers but not professionals. Many of them because they have built two or more buildings, have track knowledge of how building should be built, they do it themselves. They don’t engage professionals. What are they doing to tackle that? Do they know that these developers have association, can they meet with them, and talk to them let them see dangers?
I teach regularly and if you don’t let people understand the eventual hazards/accidents that might come from an activity they fail to do, they don’t do the right thing. Just like mechanics, when you buy your first car fresh, branded and you used it for a year or two, and you take it to mechanic, he tells you it’s the water pump and you have to change it. They eventually get the water pump and they want to fasten the water pump. The water pump has seven bolts, by the time they mechanic is done, he will fix six bolts. You ask him about the seventh bolt, he tells you that bolt is tight, how do you mean it’s tight, he tells you it doesn’t matter its one bolt. That’s how they end up doing six bolts but the people that design that vehicle understand that you need seven bolts for it to work. In no time you have a leakage. The leakage is very small and minute and it keeps dropping and you think it might be the AC water; before you know it your gasket is burnt, your engine is damaged and you end up spending more money. If only from inception you let him know that with one of this bolt out the engine can get bad and you will be sued if the car is damaged. Everything being in line, if they sue you, you will have to pay N50, 000,000 million naira damage and provide another vehicle for that person. The inconvenience for that person during the time the car broke down you will be charged for it. At the end of the day you will pay 200 million naira. Do you know you have scared that man off his boot and never in his life will he see seven bolts and neglect one. But what if that man doesn’t know the disaster of his action, you need to talk to them, encourage them. You don’t just bully people into action, it won’t work. Treat them as humans as they are not to be aggressive, they will do the same thing.
What are the rules, regulations, specification and ethics concerning the design, construction and maintenance of building in Nigeria?
Yes we have them. As a matter of fact we borrow lots of our design from British, our colonial masters. We have the Nigerian code but it was never put into law. So we still use the British code. Other than that we have policies, rules and regulations. Internally, we need to adhere to building approvals which is why the Lagos state building control agency (LASBCA) has been set up to enforce. We have the town planners, the planning authorities are to scrutinize the drawing, plan your area, and ensure that those drawings conform to design and regulations codes. Once that’s done, it passed to construction. LASBCA are meant to come check what you are building from time to time that you are not going outside your design. What happens is they take kick back which is what corruption has brought us to, it’s driven us right to our knees in Nigeria today and they turn a blind eye to structures not well built. Clients have a lot of role to play. Most times they deviate and want to do things the right way but the fear of losing the job comes into play. Am speaking from a track record of building constructions and clients over time am about to dump a lot of work because of client. They will tell you my friends built his house with 2 million naira why my own this expensive. The reinforcement is so much, I need so so amount of this for the structure and he tells you, engineer can’t you reduce it. That’s what you hear them say. With that there will be problems.
I was involved in a construction work before and I keep telling everybody that it was a failure. It didn’t collapse, it was beautifully built, lovely finished but we fail to test water and it failed because of water. Yes, the place was built not with the water that we dug from there; we imported water because there was no bore hole there. After we completed the building and sunk the borehole, we didn’t test that water and the project fail because of that singular thing. Why, the water was corrosive, it damaged all the taps, and it was a hotel. The water damaged all the taps, pipe in the wall meaning we have to break the walls open, get the bricklayer, tiller, deforming that beautiful building. So if water can cause a project to fail, how much more cement, sand or granite. I’ve been involved on a project that the supplier supplied salty sand. The sand has salt, we didn’t know. We did test, concrete test, crouch test and it was failing until just one individual, one of the junior engineer on site put the sand in his mouth and spit it out saying the sand is salty. Imagine, it was dredged sand that they were dredging for filling that the guy was importing to us. Simply because it was closer to him and he didn’t want to spend money. The concrete was a failure because we have to break all of it. Little things like that can lead to a defective structure.
Do you think this industry is heavily regulated?
Yes it is but are the regulation enforced? No it isn’t. There is a difference between having the laws, we have the laws of the land but do you enforce it. Do people abide by this law, that’s the problem. We all know that while the car is on motion you shouldn’t use your mobile phone, its part of our policies and our law. You should strap your seat belt but do the bus drivers comply. It’s not about having the law, it’s about enforcing it. And when those LASMA officials arrest that fellow using his phone when driving, you find the passengers in the vehicle begging for him even suggesting the official collect money. Most a times we are the one encouraging them to be corrupt. You won’t find an enforcer telling you to bring money, it the owners of the property. Oga what shall we do na, what can you do like how? Remove the structure. He said oga we don spend money ooo. Let me find something for you and you turn and he turn a blind eye. That building that collapse in Itafaji, Lagos Island was marked and people still took their kids there. So who is really at fault? Is it the man that built it and didn’t consider the use of the building or the structure itself, or the materials used or the supplier that supplied adulterated materials that even the owner of the building wouldn’t know unless he did test on those, is it the client that was telling the builder that he’s spending too much of money, is it the government official that came there and said no you must enforce and the builder gives him bribe, or the parents that saw a structure that was marked and still took their kids there to study. They are all at fault. It’s just like you inviting a politician to church so he can donate huge sums of money but when he came, he gives you 10,000 naira and you insult him, are you not encouraging corruption? let’s educate ourselves, how much is the politician’s salary, all mosque will invite him same with churches, if he gives 2 million each to religious place won’t he steal, are we not at fault. You don’t have to complete the house immediate; you can do it in phases.
We need a better platform, our TV is not doing us any help, and journalists are not helping us. Am sorry, you are a good journalist. It’s only when it juicy that we see you guys come, am sure if not for the collapse you won’t be here either. It could be you or me or my grandchild or our relatives. Please let’s talk, educate ourselves. It’s about you, about your investment. The owner of the collapse building has lost his source of livelihood, if only he knew , he would have just stop at the first floor and do it better, he would still have his source of livelihood but now he’s back to zero and government is going to cease that property. He lost it all and gained burden. He might be in jail but only if someone might have educated him he might have a change of mind. But do we just bully them because over time I have come to know that Nigerians are resilient people, bully them and they will do it but if you make me see reason, I will understand.
For example this is not the first collapse. I know we all shy away from it, look at Synagogue collapse, what happened; the structure was well built; two-story building but they added more structure. Why not demolished the whole building if you wanted to add to it? The foundation was design for the two-story building but they added two extra. Haba. Madam you can only carry 5 tubers of yam and 10 tubers of yam was given to you to carry, you can’t carry it, it natural, is just nature.
What effort is ULDA putting in place to rectify these issues?
We are doing our beat in training, which is part of what we do. Sorry I kept you waiting but I was teaching an upgrade class for builders, masons, electricians, carpenters with minimum of five years’ experience on site. We retain them, we teach them modern aspect, how to do better, we teach them from the scratch, why things are done. If they don’t know the why, they will never do the right thing. If you tell me, Engr. Faleye you must walk this step 5 times a day, make sure you do it, I will say I heard you, and I will not do it. But the moment you tell me that the way you’re panting is not good, this thing happened to my brother, he just slumped and die. I will say reject death and that automatically make me want to do the step walk out more than 5 times if possible. People commit suicide because they don’t see a reason to it, if only someone give them a reason.
In terms of housing, what is ULDA doing to help the masses with affordable housing?
We just launched a corporative, it’s easy when you have shared burdens and the corporative is housing corporative. We intend people collaborating, coming together, pulling funds in trickles and building houses. The houses might not go round members for starters but with time you will find out that its easy, easier than you having the money at once to build. We are not only trying to build houses in the interiors where land is cheap and easily more affordable. We have started doing designs, designs that are cost effective and structurally superb. You don’t have to build elaborately to survive. We recently launched a two bed room flat for 3 million naira, uncompleted. The problem we had has been infrastructure, the roads, and drainages etc, government need to provide that.
About housing the government is trying but the education is very, very poor. They are not letting people know what they have done. The National Housing Fund (NHF) is there, there’s housing fund with very little interest. I think its single digit now, I heard they have turned from 0 to 5 million for zero percent but people don’t know. Our TV need to do more, educate people. Funds are there, go and take since you have a job. You are expected to contribute 2.5% of your monthly salary to the Federal Mortgage bank of Nigeria. There’s a rent to own scheme where you will be paying installmentally for 20 years. We are doing our best by creating awareness by doing seminars, educating people. We are not funded, we do it by ourselves I believe if people are enlightened, things will be a lot better. Am appealing that all TV stations, all media houses put it as part of their license policy to give government 30 minutes daily for all information for the masses embarked upon by the government, we will be better for it.
What more should we expect from ULDA?
From our end here at ULDA, expect more noise, we are launching our online educational session, where they can go online and learn without coming to the school and online TV where we have DIY, what you look out for, in construction, we’ve done a lot of TV series with core TV and we have been educating people on who to engage, how much do you pay them etc. people don’t understand that is cheap engaging professionals. They have this mindset that it’s expensive. Every engineer, architect is busy, all you need do is you engage them for the design and have a site manager who is on site. Site managers are graduates, we have them here come for training as site managers, they train for a year and they are certified. We pay them between N60 – 100,000; depending on the years of experience as starters. With N100, 000 a month, they are there on your site and he will draw a timeline and a schedule for you. A site engineer for a duplex doesn’t need to come to site more than 10 times, a project of one year. How much will you pay me a day, even if you pay me N10, 000 a day what I will save you will be more than N100, 000 naira, a lot more because some buildings too are over designed. There are place you need to spend less and you are spending more, when you need to spend more you now spend less. It’s just not logical all because Engineer Faleye is too expensive. Just engage a professional, seat with the project manager or the site manager depending on the magnitude. The site manager will seat with all the consultants to come during setting out, excavation, tiring the re-enforcement, concrete, beam work etc.
What’s your advice to the Nigerians?
My advice is that it’s better to be safe, if you are safe then you have tomorrow to contend with. Ensure you get the best from whatever you do and its not a must to live in a fancy house, it’s a choice.
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