In Architecture, failure is simply the inability of a building to fulfil its design objectives. So if a building was designed specifically to attract the public’s attention in order to boost patronage and that does not happen, then that building has, to that extent, failed. This principle also applies to parts and components of a building structure. A window, for example, is designed to let in natural light and ease ventilation. If an enclosure, despite having a window, remains dark and stuffy, the window as a component and the enclosure have failed.
In Architecture, failure is simply the inability of a building to fulfil its design objectives. So if a building was designed specifically to attract the public’s attention in order to boost patronage and that does not happen, then that building has, to that extent, failed. This principle also applies to parts and components of a building structure. A window, for example, is designed to let in natural light and ease ventilation. If an enclosure, despite having a window, remains dark and stuffy, the window as a component and the enclosure have failed.
A building does not necessarily have to collapse for failure to occur even though building collapse is most certainly the ultimate form of failure. That a highway has failed does not mean that it no longer supports traffic. Heart failure is not exactly synonymous with death: it simply means it is performing way below installed capacity.
When failure is attributed to a nation, it does not also mean cessation of existence. It only means that nation is not living up to her raison d’être. If the welfare and security of citizens is the reason a nation exists, and yet the citizens are left to their own devices, the extent to which citizens must cater for and secure themselves is the extent of the nation’s failure.
Why do buildings fail?
1. If a building is wrongly conceptualized, it can never meet the design specification; and that is failure.
2. A building may be well designed but if poorly executed, it can also exhibit tokens of failure. A design may have provided for cross-ventilation but if after erection the windows fail to open properly due to poor workmanship and supervision, such a building or any component part can be termed a failure.
3. The process of use can also precipitate failure when regular and mandatory maintenance is not carried out, or is badly done.
All cases of building failure can be traced to both human and material elements. The human element accounts for at least 75% of all failures. It is humans who make poor design decisions, badly construct such buildings and engage in abuse and neglect of the same buildings. Even in cases where materials are below-standard quality, the human element is partly complicit. Except in rare cases where quality of materials cannot ordinarily be known, most cases of building failure traceable to compromise in material quality bear the imprint of human intervention usually for pecuniary gain.
Because no nation can fulfil all her obligations to citizens, none can claim not to manifest some degree of failure. So if some people choose to characterize Nigeria as a failed state, it should not be such a big deal but an incentive for leadership to buckle up.
Just like buildings, nations fail. I appreciate why some people are vehemently opposed to tagging Nigeria as a failed state because it conveys the impression of a barely-functioning entity. While this may not be a fair description of the whole system, there are certainly sectors for which near-collapse and comatose are fitting labels.
Nations fail for about nearly the same reasons as buildings.
1. Faulty conceptualization. The British who cobbled Nigeria together were primarily motivated by selfish, economic interests
2. Those who have run Nigeria so far have done a very poor job. With very weak institutional structures, Nigeria has been run more on ad-hoc bases.
3. Even the few promising structures are criminally denied maintenance through unqualified leadership, corruption and poor funding. The result is a nation incapable of supporting the citizens’ highest aspirations.
Happily, failure can be mitigated. Since it is clear that the human element is more critical in the proper functioning of any nation, we must inaugurate a regime that ensures that only those willing and able actually assume leadership.
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,” says the Good Book. Because evildoers are not adequately and expeditiously punished, evil thrives and will soon overrun the whole landscape.
It is deception of titanic proportions to suggest that Nigeria is indivisible much like the makers of the Titanic had dubbed it unsinkable. If we persist along the precarious course of incompetence and moral incontinence, the ship of state will capsize faster than it takes to recite the National Pledge.
Some Americans had prognosticated years back that Nigeria will cease to be in 2015. Even if that was a prophecy, only we as Nigerians hold the key to whether it comes to fulfilment or not. The ancient Biblical city of Nineveh had such a sentence of annihilation hanging over it with a moratorium of only forty days!
The people of Nineveh acted appropriately by repentance and the execution of the calamitous judgment was stayed. Nigeria’s problem is more human than material; it is more moral than it is structural. No matter how often we tinker with the Constitution, as long as leaders and the led remain greedy for filthy lucre, we will keep going round in circles.
Let me conclude by repeating a solemn warning made by Someone who should know to a people who, like us, were under the delusion of exception: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Olugu Olugu Orji mnia
[email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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