Housing is a basic necessity for everyone regardless of class, race or age. It does not only provide man with shelter, but offers protection to him and his environment.
In Nigeria and specifically Abuja, this basic necessity is either inadequate or beyond the reach of most low income earners. Major cities in the country are characterised by exorbitantly high rents coupled with expensive service charges especially for those living in estates where they have to pay for monthly service bills.
Ironically, despite the country’s large housing deficit, which causes are not far fetched from stringent government policies/ bureaucratic bottlenecks, corruption as well as outdated land use act which does not conform to the present economic realities coupled with excessively high prices of buildings and building materials, one can still see a lot of abandoned / uncompleted buildings and estates around the town, with some glumly providing cover for criminals who uses them to perpetrate their unthinkable crimes.
If one drives round Nigeria’s federal capital territory (FCT), you will notice the predominance of this abandoned as well as uncompleted buildings lying fallow and wasting even in a city where countless homeless Nigerians trips in daily to find economic means of survival
Recently, during an inspection of housing facilities around the FCT and Suleja which is in Niger State, but, a suburb of the FCT, Nigeria’s minister of Housing and Urban Development, Architect Ahmed Musa Dangiwa sighted some abandoned and dilapidated buildings, specifically in Suleja and a mass housing estate initiated and embarked under the National Housing Programme in Gwagwalada which were left in a wasteful and dilapidating conditions. The minister promised to take immediate action by selling the properties to off-takers who can put them to use, in order to recoup expenses incurred by the federal government on those properties and by extension, provide affordable housing for Nigerians living in the FCT.
For developers who also left their structures unoccupied, the minister said his ministry will interact with them to know the reasons why they abandoned their projects and see if they can assist in finding solutions or the needed intervention. He equally warned those who deliberately left their building projects unattended to and said the government will work towards ensuring that owners of such structures pay triple ground rents on those facilities, instead of the present one ground rents that they are being charged. This he said will compel them to put those unoccupied buildings to a productive state that can provide shelter for homeless citizens.
Despondently, despite the warning given by the minister, one cannot categorically say that there is substantive positive reaction due to the presence of countless unoccupied buildings seen to be littered around Abuja.
Danladi Drambi who lives around Kado axis of the FCT also told LEADERSHIP that some of these buildings are left wasting due to the high price placed on them by the landlords or estates owners as the case might be. He gave an example around his neighbourhood, of the BUA estate situated along Kado, which harbours over 200 beautiful mansions with a large percentage of the structures seen to be unoccupied and in a dilapidating conditions, he said the reason why some parts of the estate are abandoned is largely due to the price tagged on the facilities. He further explained that some estates and buildings around Kado and Gwarimpa have been left unoccupied due to price as well as conditions of payment where some house owners could insist on two year payment for a first time tenant.
A civil Engineer Mr. Ernest O. living at Rock-view estate in Karu, FCT, but works in Gwarinpa, while responding to reasons why some buildings especially in the heart of Abuja are abandoned, said some are owned by top politicians who feel they are being trailed by any of the nation’s anti-graft agencies or in other cases the property could be associated to an existing court order on the forfeiture of the asset which he said as well could belong to one of the numerous corrupt politicians or even public servants.
The Civil Engineer who showed LEADERSHIP a house by 69 road in Gwarinpa, situated just by the right hand side of the road, when coming from Galadimawa gate and explained that the building has been abandoned for over twelve years also said: “Paucity of funds and lack of mortgage facilities are equally factors that could make developers or home owners abandon their building projects or investments” .
As much as developers hurriedly build mansions for certain class of persons whom the society ascribe to be the high profile personalities, it is also necessary for them to consider the lower earners who constitute the larger part of the population and make affordability and quality a major factor of their housing business.
Those who sell building materials should stop compounding the already unfavourable housing situation in the country by pegging prices of their commodities beyond board and thereby prompting developers to increase the cost or prices of houses which ultimately will result to creating a situation where Nigerians especially the low income earners can no longer aspire or afford to own a home of theirs.
As the federal government has shown the desire to tackle housing deficit through a multi-facetted approach by pioneering the development of the Renewed Hope Cities which they promised will prioritise inclusivity and feature Multi-Level Flats catering to low to medium-income earners, Terrace and Detached Bungalows, and Duplexes tailored for high-income earners, many Nigerians can no longer wait, they are desperately in need of that prompt response.
The minister of housing has also committed that they are providing a total of 34,500 homes to Nigerians within its first phase of housing programme, Nigerians are therefore holding them to their words and hoping that they fulfil that crucial task that can boost the nation’s housing sector and fill the housing gap beyond that which had never been achieved by any Nigerian administration within that programmed time frame.
Furthermore, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria should wake up to its responsibilities and provide enough housing loan facilities for prospective homeowners who have met the conditions required of them to collect housing loans. Nigerians need a robust mortgage system that can assist qualified citizens to obtain housing loans and pay over a period of years. By doing so, we can provide shelter for Nigerians, reduce the housing deficit of the nation and improve the standard of living of citizens.
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