Over the last two decades, structural failures of buildings in Nigeria have been a major issue. This report examines the collapse of a hotel under construction and attributes the causes to substandard building materials, overloading of structural members, involvement of unqualified builders in design and construction, and negligence by the government and professional bodies in ensuring buildings meet specifications. While efforts have been made to prevent future collapses through measures and recommendations like continuous training to reduce unqualified builders, lessons have also been learned by professionals and builders to correct lapses and avoid future problems.

1. Over the last two decades, the story of structural failures in Nigeria has become the issue of the day
all over the country and does not show any abating. The ugly scenario poses a great challenge to
those responsible for the regulation of construction of building in the country. This report examines
the incidence of a hotel building collapse in Nigeria which was under construction and also discusses
generally the incessant collapsed of buildings in the country at large. The report attributes the major
causes of the hotel collapse to substandard building materials used for the construction as well as
over loading of structural members, involvement of quacks in the design and construction process
and negligence on the part of government and professional bodies to meet up their responsibilities
to ensure every building is built to specification.
Though in effort to halt this menace to re-occur in future, several preventive measures were applied
as well as recommendations such as continuous professional training in order to minimise the rate
of quacks in the building industry etc. in the cause of this, lessons were also learned by both
professionals and those involve in the building process to correct their lapses from allowing same
problem to occur in future.