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How to Prevent Fire Outbreaks in High-Risk Buildings—Eaton
By Adedapo Adesanya
A top power management company, Eaton, has provided some pointers that can help prevent fire outbreaks in high-risk buildings which have increased in the last year.
According to Kunmi Odunoku, Marketing Manager for Eaton in West Africa, demographic changes mean that “we are building larger, taller, and more complex buildings to live, work and spend our leisure time in.”
While it is true that fire safety has improved with the installation of devices such as smoke detectors and alarms, the impact of a fire is now potentially far more serious than it has ever been.
According to Odunoku, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to fire prevention, suppression or evacuation, a thorough risk assessment issued on a case-by-case basis will suggest appropriate measures to be taken.
“It is no longer good enough to hide behind regulations or standards, which should be seen as a minimum requirement. Building owners and developers should hold themselves to a higher standard of safety and do more to prevent a tragedy in high-risk buildings,” the senior company official said.
Incidents such as the recent fire outbreak under the Eko bridge reinforce how infernos can result in serious damage or worse – the loss of life. Such incidents often result in reputational damage for the organizations and individuals involved that may escalate to a clamour for those responsible to face charges of corporate liability or manslaughter in the case of loss of properties or lives.
Regardless of the reputational risk, it is surely the moral responsibility of building owners and operators to ensure that modern buildings housing hundreds or even thousands of people are safe for the occupants.
“One problem building occupants face is understanding who is responsible for their safety, and in this, there is a danger of simply avoiding the issue. So, to be clear I believe that building owners or operators must ensure that appropriate safety measures are in place.
“Simply adhering to standard building regulations is not a sufficient safety measure,” Odunoku stated.
In a recent study, FM Global found that 70 per cent of business owners feel that following building regulations will protect their property, as the organization points out “this is simply not their purpose”.
Such an approach takes no account of the different risks faced in different types of buildings or by different occupants. The only sensible approach to take is to conduct a thorough risk assessment of the building and then implement appropriate safeguards.
Changing the nature of risk
The nature of fire risks in buildings changes as our society changes. By 2050 the UN estimates that two-thirds of people will be urbanites living, working, and spending leisure time in buildings designed to hold hundreds if not thousands of people.
This means we will increasingly build upwards. There are already a staggering number of buildings in cities around the world that are over 100 meters tall. As buildings get taller the number of mixed-use buildings will also rise rapidly. Typically, in taller mixed-use buildings, the lower floors house shops and restaurants while the upper floors are reserved for residential purposes. This means that due to the nature of the use, lower floors are unoccupied and unsupervised in the middle of the night, while those people on higher floors could well be asleep should the worst happen.
Risk assessment
There is no single answer to mitigating the risks of a fire in a building and for high-risk buildings, the regulations are simply not enough. We advocate a three-step process to help ensure ongoing safety:
- Identify the specific risks in your building. You may decide to employ or engage experts to do the risk assessment.
- Select and design systems and solutions addressing the specific risks identified.
- Test and review these solutions regularly especially if there are changes to building use.
Having conducted a thorough risk assessment, you can then make an informed choice on what action to take. Breaking this down further you need to think about prevention, controlling a fire, detection, and how you will alert occupants and evacuate or guide people away from danger.
While education and technology can help prevent the worst from happening as The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat observes: “The only true way to stop a fire from happening is to remove the humans and the combustible materials from buildings. You can apply good fire safety education and management, but, fires start, what happens next is what matters.”
Preventing a fire is about building design, such as compartmentation to help prevent or slow down the spread and also installing technology such as sprinkler systems. Sadly, too many developers and building owners dismiss sprinklers as not cost-effective and prefer to spend their money on air-conditioning or intelligent lighting systems.
Alerting and evacuating
If the fire does spread, there is generally a short window to alert and evacuate building occupants. This is made even more complicated if people are asleep or are disabled and are not aware of an alert or need assistance.
There is a lot of technology available to alert building occupants and instruct them or guide them to safety. The important thing is to be aware of such technology or employ someone who can advise you appropriately and above all not cut corners to save cost. While we hope that it never happens to us, a fire in a complex building could be catastrophic if you do not plan properly. It is time to take fire safety seriously so that people do not lose their homes, places of work or worse their lives. If you are a building owner, it is your moral duty to do all that you can.
Eaton has teamed up with several fire safety organizations from around the world to produce a whitepaper called “Fire Safety in High-Risk Buildings – preventing the next tragedy.” You can download it from Eaton’s website.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has said the implementation of the Defined Benefit Scheme Pension Harmonisation is a reform meant to advance and enhance pension payment equity in the country.
The chief executive of PTAD, Mrs Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya, said this initiative was a landmark reform designed to restore fairness, improve retirees’ welfare and strengthen confidence in the administration of the country’s legacy pension system.
The harmonisation exercise marks one of the most significant policy interventions in the Defined Benefit Scheme since PTAD was established in 2013 to take over the management of pensions under the old federal pension arrangement.
Unlike periodic pension increases that merely raise existing benefits by a percentage, she stressed that pension harmonisation was further than that by recomputing pensions using the latest approved salary structures that existed before the closure of the Defined Benefit Scheme.
She noted that the objective is to ensure that retirees who held similar positions and rendered comparable years of service receive equitable pension benefits regardless of their retirement dates.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of years of agitation by pensioners over historical disparities in pension computation.
She added that the PTAD’s harmonisation programme seeks to resolve that challenge by restoring parity within the system. According to her, pension harmonisation is the formal recomputation of pensions using approved salary structures applicable before the DBS cut-off date.
In practical terms, it ensures that pension outcomes are determined by rank, grade level and years of service rather than the year of retirement.
The Directorate believes the exercise will significantly improve social justice by correcting historical inequities that disadvantaged thousands of retirees.
The harmonisation applies primarily to pure Federal Government pensioners as well as eligible retirees under the Parastatals Pension Department (PaPD), Defunct and Transferred Agencies Pension Department (DTAPD), and the Education and Health Pension Department (TEHPD), particularly those who initially served under the Federal Government before their agencies were transferred to state governments.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Police Force will today, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, arraign the controversial director-general of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi.
The arraignment will take place before Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The police had charged Mr Adeyemi alongside two others with eight counts, including forgery and impersonation, in the case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025.
The case was initially filed on November 27, 2025, by Mr Wisdom Madaki, a police prosecutor.
Court proceedings had stalled on June 16, scheduled for Mr Adeyemi’s arraignment, due to his absence from court on grounds of ill health.
According to the court documents, proposed prosecution witnesses to testify against the defendants include the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila; Paul Emmanuel, Jeremiah Imoukhede and Ituah Sylvester.
Others are civil servants working in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Akimbo Shola and Mr Adamu Balongu, a deputy superintendent of police, were on the list.
Also listed as witnesses are Mr Ojo Victor, Mr Omeh Amarachukwu, and Mr Wakili Saidu, all of whom were allegedly posted to work with Mr Adeyemi at the non-existent agency.
Others are Mrs Joy Ngwoke, the owner of Kachi Hotel in Abuja, and Mr Ven Okoriko, the pastor of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, Maitama.
The documentary exhibits planned to be tendered by the prosecution to prove the case include the police investigation report, Mr Gbajabiamila’s petition dated October 17, 2025, and Mr Adeyemi’s fake presidential appointment letter dated March 8, 2024.
They also include the request for a note verbale by Mr Adeyemi sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the approvals he got to open accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the request for approval of self-accounting status Mr Adeyemi sent to the Accountant-General of the Federation’s office and the conveyance of approval for take-off of the PFIPC.
Other documents listed by the prosecution are a letter of request for collaboration with the ministry in the area of land acquisition and offices across the 36 states of the federation; statements of all the witnesses and that of the defendants, and pictures.
The police, in the court document, said, “The prosecution shall at the trial call any other related witness or witnesses to prove its case.”
The prosecution accused Mr Adeyemi of operating the fictitious agency from the 2nd Floor of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, Phase III, before his arrest.
Last week, President Bola Tinubu directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the fictitious agency.
The president gave the ICPC 30 days to complete the investigation, so it is currently unclear how the outcome of the ICPC investigation would impact the police prosecution.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A coordinated push to position gender inclusion as a driver of business competitiveness, investment and long-term economic growth has led to the introduction of the Nigeria Gender Country Programme (NGCP) by the private sector.
This initiative, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in partnership with Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), aligns advisory expertise, funding and partnerships to strengthen women’s representation in leadership, improve access to quality employment, and expand access to finance, technology and markets for women and women-led businesses.
It builds on the CEO Roundtable held in June and the progress achieved through Nigeria2Equal, IFC’s earlier initiative, as it now moves into implementation, with participating organisations expected to adopt practical, measurable gender-smart business practices.
The economic case is significant, with the program underpinned by research showing that closing gaps in women’s leadership, employment and entrepreneurship could generate an estimated $22.9 billion in additional economic output annually, reinforcing the economic case for stronger private sector action on gender inclusion.
“Advancing women’s economic participation is no longer simply a social aspiration; it is a business imperative, an investment in productivity, a catalyst for innovation and a driver of sustainable economic growth.
“Through the Nigeria Gender Country Program, we are creating a practical framework that will help businesses strengthen leadership, expand opportunity and unlock the inclusion dividend for Nigeria’s economy,” the chairman of NGX Group, Mr Umaru Kwairanga, stated.
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, reaffirmed the state’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for women-led enterprises and strengthening inclusive economic development, while the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, represented by Ms Aishatu Digili, called for stronger collaboration between government, development institutions and the private sector to accelerate women’s economic empowerment and expand opportunities for women across key sectors of the economy.
The Division Director for West and Central Africa at IFC, Mr Olivier Buyoya, said, “Creating more and better jobs is central to IFC’s mission across Africa. Economies grow faster, and businesses perform better when women have equal opportunities to participate, lead, innovate and succeed.
“Through the Nigeria Gender Country Program, we are bringing together the private sector, capital markets and development partners to help companies turn this opportunity into stronger business performance, greater competitiveness and more inclusive growth. We look forward to working with Nigerian businesses to unlock the full economic potential of women as a driver of Nigeria’s future prosperity.”
Speaking on behalf of the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Emomotimi Agama, the Commission’s Executive Commissioner, Legal and Enforcement, Ms Frana Chukwuogor, said, “The Commission welcomes the Nigeria Gender Country Program as an important platform for deepening collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing in support of inclusive market development. We commend the IFC for its leadership in promoting inclusive private sector development globally, and for its partnership with Nigeria in strengthening our financial markets.”
