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Builder, MODUPE OGUNBANJO
Mrs. Modupe Ogunbanjo is one of the leading practitioners in the built industry. She is a registered builder and real estate expert. But you may not know this until you get close to her. On the surface, she looks like a lady engaged in the clothing or beauty sector. This is because she is a very stylish looking lady with a very sophisticated outlook. It is so very difficult to picture her on site, wearing the appropriate gears that builders wear when at work. But that’s exactly who she is – a builder, a construction expert.
Modupe Ogunbanjo was recently honoured at the City People Real Estate Awards held a few weeks back. Moments after she picked up her award, City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) had a very engaging conversation with the extremely brilliant Modupe Ogunbanjo and she spoke passionately about her concerns for the menace of building collapse in Lagos State and why it’s been challenging to find a lasting solution to it.
Its always interesting to find women who are doing extremely well in a male dominated sector like the built industry, please tell us, did you study anything related to the profession you’re presently practicing?
Okay, my name is Modupe Ogunbanjo. I am a registered builder, a member of the council of registered builders of Nigeria and a real estate expert. I also have a project management degree as well as my Bsc. in building. So, my journey in real estate started in 2018. I realised I was constructing for people and they were making money and then I understood the model and I realised that’s where you have the build and sell and then I felt I could equally do the same because I’m the brain behind the success of this product. The only difference is that they sell and they make all the profit, so what are my constraints? I am the professional here, I understand it, I’m in the built environment so I have a clearer picture and advantage, and so I decided to go into real estate and start a model which we call the build and sell model. So, I was building and selling. And then at some point again, I said to myself, you could do site and services. It’s not all the time peop-le want you to build for them and sell, so I started the site and services. Then, I realised again that sometimes you don’t have the land but you have the skills, you have the equity and you’re ready to build with the other person, why not joint ventures, so I started joint venture. So, in a space of how many years, I realised I was making progress. Then, I became managing director of one of the biggest real estate companies in Lagos today, BWC Real Estate. I became MD in 2020 and was MD for two years and then,mpre BWC, I had a company called Multicontractor limited, which was my construction company. So, I decided fter leaving BWC, to go back and have another sister company which gave birth to Multicon Homes. So, Multicon Homes is a subsidiary in the multicontractor Groups.
So, basicaly, its been a passion for me and I’ve been at the forefront battling building collapses because, as a professional, we must ensure that, in any process concerning building production management, we must ensure that we follow the processes. We must ensure that we are particular about our procedures, methodologies are applied, and we musdt ensure that the materials are the right ones. We must also ensure that the right professionals are brought together for any building production manegement process to avert this menace called building collapse. Because like I often tell my clients, when they want to be funny, I buy their conscience, I say to them, listen, if a medical doctor makes an error today, just one person’s life would be involved. But ofen times when there is a building collapsde, several lives are involved. For how long are we going to continue this way, its fast becoming a problem in our society now. We have had issues where one of our beloved ones had to go with the building. It was pathetic, it was painful. Look at the resources that they had put into that project and look at how everything was wasted. So, for how long are we going to continue to go this route when wqe know the right thing to do? And these have been my concerns for so long now.
So the problem here is a big one, it goes beyond just celebrating houses that we build that people live in. A lot of these houses I call them beautiful nonesense, and why do I call them beautiful nonesense?
Aesthetically they may pass, but integrity wise they fail so as a registered builder, as a member of Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, as a member of the Building Collapse Prevention Guide, as an astute professional who has been on the forefront of this battle, I still stand to be corrected that we have a lot of work to do in the building environment. And that is why if you noticed, I appeal to them when I was called on stage. I said, you know regardless of what we are doing today, let us ensure that the right professionals are employed on any building production process. It is important because it is becoming a mess and then now we have another challenging problem. When you want to rent a house, you don’t even know what forms that house that you are renting. You never know if you are going to wake up one day and it is collapsing on your head. So now, we are encouraging people to insist on integrity test before you rent a house. Go to Lagos State material testing. It will cost you almost nothing. Government has been supportive of this process, but people just don’t understand it. Ensure that there is integrity test done on that building because it existed pre your tenancy, so you never know what happened.
So I would also use this opportunity again to appeal to fellow Nigerians because my own battle against building collapse doesn’t just end in Lagos state, it is a national thing. It is something that we are even fighting even in Africa. We must abolish it completely because enough is enough. Let’s learn to do the right thing, get your approvals done at the right time. Government is supportive, approvals are done faster now. Get the approvals done. People need to be educated.. the essence of approval is to make sure that there is monitoring and compliance at every stage of your building construction, so that helps you to ensure that there are no issues.
So if the stage by stage inspections are done, approvals are given stage by stage, then all these copy and paste we will stop them. What may suite A may not suite B. Your own plot might be next to mine but I might need piling and yours might just end with raft foundation. But that mentality of Oh we are going to build in Lekki together, it has to be Raft”, but sometimes you need piling on the depth and your design. So we must ensure that we use the right people to get the right designs and we must comply with the rules. Wherever we have issues, the doors are open, government is running an open door policy concerning monitoring and ensuring that things are done the right way. So I am sure that if we all do this and work with our conscience we are going to cut this menace by at least 80-90%, so let’s leave this 10% to human factor. So that’s my candid appeal because if you talk about support, the government has supported us enough, the rest is left for us. So I believe that if we continue, our effort will be on the threshold of history and that has been my battle.
It’s so heartwarming to hear you speak so passionately about building collapse. I recall that this isn’t the first time I will be speaking with you. Three years ago I spoke with you about this same subject and you spoke as passionately as you’re speaking now. But what I will like to know is, what are you guys doing to monitor and punish your colleagues who try to compromise quality for money?
You mean the professionals in the built environment, or the entrepreneurs which one?
There are two things and I always try to educate people on this.
Now a professional In the built environment is completely different from an entrepreneur in the built environment.
So that is why I need to be precise on your question. Is it about the professionals in the built environment, are you talking Entrepreneurs in the built environment.
I meant professionals in the built environment. But I will also like you to expantiate further on this. What I wanted to ask you was the professionals in the built environment, how are they being monitored, what are measures taken to caution colleagues who are trying to cut corners, those who are trying to make profit by compromising on quality and all that. Now that you also drew my attention to the fact that there are other aspects….
So I will break it into three parts. Let’s start with the professionals, then we will go to the Entrepreneurs then we will talk about those who are not doing the right thing.
Now I will tell you, a Professional is someone who not only has gone through the fore walls of a training institution and has the degrees, he has also has been registered by the council. When you say council, you have for COREN, you have for COBON, you have for the estate surveyors, you have for the architects and all of that. Those are the professionals.
Often times people make mistakes to say Engineer, I am not an Engineer, I tell you no I am a builder. The engineer has his part, the builder has her part. So we might work together to achieve one common goal, but we have different areas of specialization. There are certain things the architect would do, it’s not my call. I might have an understanding, I might be able to translate what the architect is talking about, but it doesn’t make me an architect, so also that the architect understands the job of a builder doesn’t make the architect a builder. So all of us must work together towards a common goal and mind our business, so that is the aspect of professionals. Now the Entreprenur who are in real estate, yes, they are there to make money, so at the same time some of them are passionate about getting the right thing done, they understand that the common goal is that the procedures should be done the right way, adhered to strictly. Monitoring and compliance and all should be done. They understand that as well, and some of them are carried away by the desire to make money. There are some projects that you will go to and you will say, my God, what is this?. The idea is just let everything come together and look nice. But will it stand the test of time? No
So, again, another aspect I want to correct today, Never and I say it again with all authority, never has there been a building collapse in Lagos State with a registered builder fingered. So that brings me to let you understand what the problem is again. Many people parade themselves as professionals whereas they are not professionals. They may have a knowledge of building, they may understand how to put the blocks, the reinforcement stuff together but the principles that leads you to design- they don’t have that understanding. If I see an error in a design, I can identify it but one who is not in that line will go ahead like that. So oftentimes the project is dead on arrival. It created a mess, the design has failed from the paper work even before we move to site. So most times those are the kinds of people who come and you will be calling them engineer, builder, architect meanwhile they are not.
So once the building collapses, you can’t trace their name, because if they are registered we have a list of them, but you can’t trace their names, they don’t exist.
I have met many of them on site, and I say how are you? They are calling you Engineer, they are calling you builder, so are you a member of which professional association? They say not yet but soon. And I’m like, oh really and you’ve been practicing for about 10-15 years, and you say not yet?
So when will that be, we need to start fishing them out and correcting them. You are asking what are we doing about it.
That is the best we can do for now. We have our monitoring tools but who are you punishing when the person is not registered? For somebody like me now, if I am on any project and anything happens I am in trouble, because not only am I known by my institute, I am known by my council, and I will be deregistered with immediate effect and I will face penalty measures, ASAP with no mercy. So would I put my head on the line, No. So, people need to start understanding that it is your responsibility as a project owner or client, to do some research on your part. Many at times people have projects, they go and stamp the drawing somewhere else. They just go and meet a friend, Nobody can bring me a drawing and I will stamp, Never, I will not joke with my seal and my stamp because it carries my identity. So if there is any error I should be able to back it up. So I would never, anything I would not supervise I will never put my stamp. So we need to educate people, we need to enlighten them, the government is doing their bid, we too have to collaborate with the government so that we can move forward. Everything can not be done by government, what are we doing ourselves? If you bring me a drawing today, I will look at the drawing, I will ask you where is your approval, but many go ahead and build, then when fiscal planning comes, when LASPA comes they say they are wicked, they are disturbing us, they are not letting us to move. They are not letting you to move because you have not done the right thing. Your first step is not to start building, your first step is your approval, after you get your drawings. So I don’t work for Lagos State, I am only passionate about the building industry, I am only passionate about us moving forward. I am passionate about us reducing collapses, about us doing the right thing and I do not want people to die again. I have been on several committes where we’ve investigated building collapses and it’s always been human error. Avoidable human errors, so it is time we understand there are regulation. Let us abide by them for peace to reign. Look at the Itafaji, we lost a lot of young, bright childrens, future of tomorrow for no reason..
One building is housing a clinic for no reason, the same building is housing a school, housing residential, What is wrong with us?
We must think beyond all this, what of environmental pollution, we must reason, you know, doing things the way it should not be. You go and locate a gas station in the middle of a residential area, when the fiscal planning comes you will say that they are disturbing you. Are you doing the right thing? Part of the issues we are having environmentally now, which is killing us, cancer and all of it is related to the built environment anyhow you want to look at it.
You say your drainages are blocked, You are in Lekki you are not enjoying your environment, whose fault?
Our fault? You have built your house on a drainage, when a new government comes and they bulldoze the front, you start cursing them, whereas you had the chance to do the right thing. If you had gone through the normal process and you have gone through the ministry to get your approval it will not happen, so I have been able to differentiate to you, the different classes of people who we have playing in the real estate sector so if you are able to differentiate them, you will have a clearer understanding. Many of them don’t even know, they are clueless. It’s just all about money, but will they stand the test of time? History will tell.
