- Calls for decentralizing MDAs
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Mayor of Housing, MY-ACE China, has called on the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, to decentralise government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) from Port Harcourt, and provide housing scheme for civil servants to cushion the effects of astronomical transport fare.
China, who spoke on social housing in Port Harcourt, said he was pleased when Rivers State governor, Fubara, said his administration would prioritise a housing scheme for the workers.
According to him, without the government tackling the housing problem and decentralising MDAs, it would be counter-productive, as workers’ salaries would be gulped by transportation fare.
He said: “I was very delighted with the new governor, His Excellency, Siminalayi Fubara, when I discovered that social housing was the priority of his administration.
What his administration can do to actualise this is the decentralisation of government parastatals and infrastructure.
“For instance, for you to achieve a social housing scheme, the government would go to upcoming areas where land is affordable, where construction would also be affordable. But, you would notice apathy by Port Harcourt residents to go outside the city centre.
“Now, with the rising cost of transportation, and where all the civil servants work at the State Secretariat in the city centre, and if a housing scheme is at Omagwa or Obiri Ikwerre, and a worker has to travel from Omagwa or Obiri Ikwerre to work, the cost of transportation which has been worsened by subsidy removal would be counter-productive for the low-cost houses. Yes, you gave somebody a house; but, it is not cost-effective to him because transport fare eats it up and renders the house non-affordable.
“So, the first thing the government needs to do is to make an immediate plan to decentralise some of the parastatals so people can work and live where the affordable houses are located.
“Another thing is to make basic infrastructure like schools and markets also available where they want the Social Housing Scheme. The third thing the government needs to do is to subsidise and privatise the construction.”
China said the major mistake with government-owned enterprises in Nigeria is that government initiatives are being run by the government itself.
He explained: “When another administration comes, the project suffers. Then, (there is) corruption which leads to padding and inflation of costs in components. This hampers the implementation of the project because, unlike many other ventures, housing is very sensitive to quality control.
“If you try to put kickbacks and padding and other forms of corruption in a government housing scheme, the quality would be so compromised that they might not be completed or stand well. Such projects should not be handled by government bidding and vending system or persons not experienced in social housing.
The government needs to get an experienced industry player to provide the model and discount the model and take the discount directly to the developer, and then let the off-takers be prequalified by the govt but they (Government) pay whatever payments directly to the off-taker. That way, the government only comes in to subsidise the developer and the prequalified off-takers take the houses at affordable rates.
The Mayor of Housing continued that the Rivers State government needs to fish out the qualification of the housing design.
He noted: “There is a new trend called minimalism architecture, where bogus houses are not allowed but simple eco-friendly functional houses. This is because there are too many dead spaces in a house that consume money but are not functional in return and utility to the end owners.
“In summary, the government should decentralise public amenities (such as markets and schools) at the locus of the social housing scheme; carry out privatisation to make it private-sector drove with government coming in for subsidy, and, then, very deliberate design to eliminate bogusness to gain affordability and eco-friendly functionality.
“With these, I am sure the dream of His Excellency (Siminalayi Fubara) to achieve social housing would be very successful.
“One of the things that stood out in his (Fubara) speech is social housing. I look forward to its implementation, so it can bring resurgence to the housing sector here in Rivers State.”