Now the recriminations, finger-pointing and deflection of blame have commenced.

Like in most disasters, the emergency services and the management are not able to cope with the magnitude of the cataclysm. On the other hand the families and loved ones demand immediate answers as to the fate of the victims and precise timelines for when their fate will be known.

The phone lines to Talk Shows are overloaded with requests for information. Even today the plaintive calls to 702 Talk Radio highlighted this disconnect. While appreciating the families’ concerns and anxieties in such situations, imagine the process that it takes to assembly the emergency services, retrieve survivors or more likely dead bodies and identify them. In the case of a building collapse unlike that of a plane crash, there is no documentation of the possible victims. Yet management is hounded for details which clearly they are unable to supply.

As part of the deflection of blame, the Pastor JB Joshua has labelled Boko Haram as the culprits using some mysterious plane which overflew the building before it collapsed. On 702 Talk Radio, during an interview with a pilgrim, a Caller alleges that Pastor JB Joshua had prophesied the collapse of a church building days before this disaster. Why I refuse to place credence on this Caller’s testimony is that he also claimed that the priest had miraculously healed numerous people while he was resident there.

The truth is probably more prosaic. According to City Press this “Building collapse was the 4th disaster to hit the Nigerian church.”

 The church has had three previous locations, and each time something happened to its structure.

“The roof of the first church was blown off by a storm, the second church was washed away by a flood while the third church also collapsed due to severe weather conditions,” the church said.

“In every situation, God is still saying something. Today, the [church] is an architectural masterpiece located in the heart of … Lagos

Hence my money is on common or garden structural failure due to an underspecified structure possibly combined with cutting corners during construction.