by Fred Nwaozor Building collapse has become one of the most disturbing infrastructural and humanitarian challenges facing Nigeria in recent decades. What should ordinarily be a symbol of development — new houses, plazas, schools, and offices — has increasingly turned into scenes of disaster. Reports show that building collapse incidents are not isolated events but a recurring national problem cutting across several states. The persistence of these incidents has raised serious concerns about construction standards, regulatory enforcement, and governance within the built environment sector. Statistics reveal the scale of the crisis. For instance, records indicate that Nigeria has experienced hundreds of building collapse incidents over the past decades, with over 600 recorded cases between the 1970s and early 2025. These incidents have led to well over 1,500 deaths, highlighting the deadly nature of structural failures in the country. Such numbers show that buildi...