QUESTION: HOW CAN WE ANALYSE AFRICAN NATION’S BUILDING PROCESS

USING THE TWENTY-ONE (21) STOREY IKOYI BUILDING COLLAPSE.

By EQUERE DAVID. A

In several works of literature, the concept of “country”, “state” and “nation” have been used
interchangeably. However, while they do have some common or shared attributes, each has a
distinguishing characteristic. According to Benedict Anderson, in “Imagined Communities
Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism” (1983), he powerfully argues that nations
are “imagined communities”, artificially constructed and sustained and are not deeply rooted in
history or some ‘natural’ cultural identity. However, it can be posited that, Nation has no
universally accepted definition. It can be seen as a group of people with common ethnic roots,
language, religion, historical memory and the explicit desire to act as a political unity. For
African countries such as Nigeria, Nation Building have been a desirable objective worthy of
pursuit; have been and are being pursued. Nation building is a normative concept with different
meanings to different people. To Alesina and Reich (2015), it is “a process which leads to the
formation of countries in which the citizens feel a sufficient amount of commonality of interest,
goals and preferences so that they do not wish to separate from each other”. The concept of
nation building aims at the “unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically
stable and viable in the long run”. In the African context, nation building refers to the efforts of
leaders of newly independent nation-states to redefine the populace with a single identity, of
citizenship, regardless of ethnic, religious and other identities, so that they assume a coherent
national identity.
In Africa, before the advent of colonialism existed different nations in form of kingdoms,
empires, caliphates, etc. which had independent governments using administrative systems that
were peculiar to their respective culture, traditions, norms and religion such as the Kanem-Borno
empire, Mali empire, Ashanti Empire, Dahomey kingdom, Sokoto caliphate, Oyo empire, etc.
Then, the nations were forged through “blood and iron” (War) but after the period of
colonialization, these nations or kingdoms were integrated to form what is known today as a
Nation-state and with so much diversity, the world today seeks to build themselves through
conflict resolution, multilateral aid and free elections. Such approaches however have not yielded
many successes especially in the country, Nigeria. Some may even say that, “the future of
Nigeria and its nation building process is with cracks and may eventually collapse like the 21
storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria.
On the 1st of November 2021, one of the three Highrise residential building on Gerrad road,
Ikoyi, Lagos state Nigeria, a 21 storey building belonging to one, Femi Osibona, the managing
director of fourscore Heights limited collapsed bringing down with it a harvest of casualties
including the death of about 45 persons and 15 survivors. The, building having been under
construction, was said to have been built with substandard materials, inadequate structural
design, without material testing and by bricklayers who were no less professions in this field. In
an interview with a survivor (a laborer at the site) by Premium Times, he stated that he and his
colleague were working on the first floor in adherence to the instruction given to them by one
Engineer Kola and Engineer Ola, who told them about the cracked pillar and the need to break it
to fix another, as they were confident that with its large size, nothing would happen to the pillars
if they set another one. The laborers said that, they were breaking the pillar at the first floor of
the building when it started to shake, leaving them no option but to run for their lives while the
owner, Femi Osibona who was having a meeting inside, alongside others trapped inside.

In Africa, particularly in Nigeria, there have been several efforts by political leaders to
reconstruct the state’s nation building process such efforts are either, political, economic, social,
environmental or geo-political location, etc. Be that as it may, these efforts have been futile as
challenges seems to override these efforts in the building process of Nigeria as a nation this can
be examined in relation to the collapse of the 21 storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. This
goes thus;
POLITICAL: The political structure of every states or nations is important for its nation
building process. That is, what type of system of government is being practiced? Who makes
policies and rules? Nigeria is an African country that practices a Democratic system of
government, in which its citizens have power to elect a representative in a periodic election
called the President and although democracy is seen as a sufficient condition building a nation-
state with a strong national identity, its challenges acts as an obstacle to fully guarantee national
building process in the Nigeria. Democracy, practiced in any state is seen as an incentive for
nation building as it produces good leaders who becomes responsible and responsive to the
popular needs and aspirations of the citizens and pursue appropriate policies to strengthen
national unity. In Nigeria however, even after several decades of independence, this is not the
case. The nation practices a flawed democracy and is not properly built, government institutions
and state system are characterized as being feeble, weak or have collapsed. Similarly, the 21
storey building collapse in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria could be likened to Nigeria nation building
process as both collapsed as a result of several challenges such as political instability, corruption,
inefficiency of the system, obscure nature of the government, etc. Politics is important and the
foundation of every nation building process, as it determines how the nation is governed, ruled
and managed. In the same vein, the foundation is an important factor in determining the strength
of every building. The collapse of the 21 storey building was stated to have occurred as a result
of the foundation being weak. Sources have it that, the owner exceeded his limits of approval and
built more floors on a foundation meant for 15 storey and such was not discovered because of the
inefficiency of the government official meant to monitor and survey the area according to the
policies the ministry set up and the non-compliance of this policy and other policies in Nigeria,
in several ways have affected its nation building process. The corrupt nature of the government
officials has prevented the nation from being built up likewise, 21 storey building collapse can be
pinned on the corrupt and inefficient nature of officials from the Lagos State Building Control
Agency (LASBCA).
ECONOMIC: The structure of the national economy is another contributing factor to the
process of national building. Nigeria's economy is underdeveloped with a neocolonial structure
that relies on exports of primary goods and imports of finished products as a result of this, there
seems to be inflation in prices of goods and in the cost of labor, this leads to business owners and
employer seeking new alternative to work with. Such actions however become a challenge to the
nation building process as it does not contribute to economic growth of the nation. Just as the
nation’s economy collapses due to lack job opportunities and increase in price that leads to
fabrication of goods so did the foundation and pillars of the 21 storey building collapse, as it was
stated to have been built on substandard materials and by bricklayers assumed to be professionals
in other to reduces expenses.
ENVIRONMENTAL/ LOCATION: Environment in the concept under nation building implies
those things that surrounds us or place where nation resides. In Nigeria, the environment or
location has played an important role in the nation’s building process as it is used to define the
sovereignty of the nation therefore allowing it to make and enforce law at will without external
influences. Such was not always the case though, during the colonial era, Nigeria’s
location(maritime) made it easy for the Europeans to make their way into the nation, and in the
process influencing our nation building process with the amalgamation which was meant to bring
unity brought diversity. Similarly, the environment resources such as crude oil in Nigeria also
contributes to the economy which helps in the building up of the nation. The 21 storey building
on Gerrad road, Ikoyi, Lagos was known to be a drainage channels that had been shut down
more than once due to the implication it may have if it is built on but recently opened up
following the “order from above”, such lead to a question by an invited guest on TVC News
channel, “How can a skyscraper be built on a drainage channel?”. Thus, the environment could
be seen as a causal factor in which the nation building process of Nigeria will or have collapsed
just like the 21 storey building.
SOCIAL: Socially, a nation cannot be built without citizens therefor population is important for
every nation building. The social factor of nation building deals with the society’s public opinion
and the views of the people which are important criteria that facilitate national identity of the
people and therefore fosters national unity. In Nigeria today, the issue of public opinion is no
longer the case as political leaders would rather listen to themselves who would benefit from the
society than the views of the people which the nation is truly about and in often cases, the press
supposed to be free to express their opinion are banned from doing so. This leads the apathy of
citizen from matters concerning the society as they feel that their voices are not heard. There is
also the issues of diversity, where Christian segregate the Muslims and the Igbos against the
Hausas or other tribe against one another, how then can this nation be built up? In relation to the
21 storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos, it was stated in several interviews that several contractors and
engineers pulled out of the project because they suspected that the materials used in constructing
the building lacked integrity. Also, persons who were seen to have occupied the spaces for rent
in the building decided to dictate where they wanted some of its feature which ruined the design
structure of the building which likely affected the foundation of the building causing it in one or
the other to collapse. Also, in a news report from Nigerian Tribune, it was stated that a man by
the name of Adebowale Sikiru was denied job as a site engineer by the owner, Osibona because
of his Muslim faith as he said “Ah, I can’t work with a Muslim”. How do one build its nation if
there is no unity and the voices of its citizens are not heard? Such becomes a reason why the
nation, Nigeria nation building process fallen and eventually collapsed into pile of sand just like
the 21 storey building.
In final analysis, Nation building is not unique to Africa as it has been important in many
countries around the world at different times in history. The Africa’s nation building processes
has received several blows to each particularly in a country such as Nigeria. The collapse of the
Nigeria’s nation building process can be blamed on the advent on colonialism but that may not
necessary be true as the country faces several challenges that may serve as a catalyst for this
collapse and this could be liken to the 21 storey building on Gerrad road, Ikoyi, Lagos, which
collapsed for several reasons that could be classified as being either political, economic,
environment or social. Be that as it may, as Travis Kalanick stated, “Every problem has a
solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it”, all hope for Nigeria’s attempt to build
its nation may not be lost. Suggested way out of this collapsed process may include;
a) Entrenching and deepening democracy in Africa and more properly build nations out of
identity from African countries by addressing the legacies of colonialism.
b) Adherence to the rule of law.
 c) Nurturing values upon which to build a national identity through education,
enlightenment, even indoctrination.
d) Independence, non-partisanship and impartiality of the government institutions and its
officials. Etc.

BIBLOGRAPHY
- Professor Jega, Attahiru M. “Democracy and the Challenge of Nation Building in
Africa.” Distinguish Annual Lecture for Participants of the Executive Intelligent
Management Course, Institute for Security Studies. Lecture presented at the
Distinguished Annual Lecture for Participants of the Executive Intelligent Management
Course, Institute for Security Studies, July 19, 2018.

- BOYD, KEVIN HARRISON TONY. “Chapter 2.” Essay. In Understanding Political

Ideas and Movements. MANCHESTER: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS, 2018.

- Adelagun, Oluwakemi. “Ikoyi Building Collapse: How 21-Storey Building Collapsed –

Survivor.” Premium Times, November 11, 2021.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/494724-ikoyi-building-collapse-
how-21-storey-building-collapsed-survivor.html.

- Body of Owner of Collapsed Ikoyi 21-Storey Building, Femi Osibona Recovered from
Debris, 2021. https://youtu.be/zvgQB2qMDwk.

- THIS MORNING: What Could Have Caused The 21-Storey Building Collapse? 2021.
https://youtu.be/jdo7a4qDu2A.

- Kperogi, Farooq. “Ikoyi Tragedy and Casual Bigotry Against Yoruba Muslims
Https://Tribuneonlineng.com/Ikoyi-Tragedy-and-Casual-Bigotry-against-Yoruba-
Muslims/.” Nigerian Tribune, November 6, 2021. https://tribuneonlineng.com/ikoyi-
tragedy-and-casual-bigotry-against-yoruba-muslims/.