"So Vizuum, the difference between us, engineers, and medical doctors is that we we ensure standards of structures in order to prevent loss of lives while the doctors sometimes rely on postmortems in order to prevent further deaths". That was Sani, a friend of mine during our NYSC days. The recent collapse of the 21-storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos, prompted me to recall my conversation with Sani, whose claim could be valid in many places in the world but definitely not Nigeria. How long will buildings continue to collapse before we get it right? There are magnificent buildings in many parts of the world that have outlived four centuries and yet were built by people who had not gone to school. Nigeria's case is a lot different because we prefer to cut corners. In the last 16 years over 150 buildings collapsed in Lagos State alone. I believe that of SCOAN which claimed nearly 200 lives is still fresh in our memory. The recent Ikoyi building collapse killed 45 p