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Job Osazuwa
Shelter is indisputably one of the basic necessities of human existence. Everyone needs a relatively comfortable place to lay his or her head.
But with the increasing population in Nigeria, there is also increasing pressure on available structures for human habitation. The number of homeless persons in the country has grown considerably in recent years. This has become worrisome to all and sundry.
Some Nigerians are fortunate enough to have a roof over their heads, but this is not so for millions of other less privileged people. Every day, people are left in the cruel hands of the midnight cold. They are exposed to diverse predators due to lack of this basic need of life.
The lack of affordable housing has led to high rent burdens on many, especially those who are living in urban areas. Rents absorb a high proportion of their income, resulting in overcrowding in apartments as well as erecting substandard houses for low and sometimes zero-income earners.
This is one reason governments in the developed world do not just take keen interest in providing accommodation for their citizens, but also ensure proper regulation of the sector.
Many analysts argue that the need for shelter precedes food and clothing.
Shelter is believed to be capable of giving one the moral boost needed to survive and help the individual to prepare mentally for the days ahead. A proper place of refuge allows one to rest, mend one’s injuries, and renew one’s mental and physical energy before setting out every morning for the day’s job. Having a desired place of abode could also give one a sense of accomplishment and hope in contrast to the grimmest of circumstances.
Perturbed by this huge gap in housing in Nigeria, a United Kingdom-based architect, Mr. Morakinyo Bayode, gave tips on what government could do to bridge the housing deficit in the country.
Bayode, a University of Lagos-trained architect, is head of reinvestment at Optivo, a firm touted as one of the largest providers of houses in the UK. He spoke as special guest at The Journey Thus Far, an online interactive programme with participants from all over the world. The moderator was Mr. Tope Adeboboye, Features Editor, The Sun Newspapers Group in Nigeria.
Having handled many projects in Nigeria and in the UK, Bayode was persistent that corruption was responsible for most of the challenges bedevilling Nigeria’s housing system.
Looking at the difficulty in having an effective housing policy for low-income earners in the country, Bayode asserted that the people in authority have no plans for low-income earners.
He explained that, to deliver affordable housing, innovation in design and use of materials were important. He raised the alarm over the high number of greedy developers working with unscrupulous government officials in Nigeria.
He recalled how he was involved in a scheme with a state government in Nigeria about five years ago that had to do with low-cost housing for civil servants. According to him, a one-bedroom house was targeted for about N2.4m, while a four-bedroom house would have cost the buyer about N10 million. But he got the shock of his life when some key government officials and technocrats were demanding luxury houses to be built for them as part of the deal. He stated that he lost hope as the unscrupulous demands kept increasing.
“Low-cost housing has been done successfully in many places. There are needs for selflessness, commitment, an enabling environment and innovation on all parts to make it happen,” he said.
In finding a lasting solution to the problem, he called for a radical review of the national housing policy. He pointed out that there was an urgent need to address the difficulties in planning as well as to stop planning department from being wealth-generating centres for civil servants, so as to ensure a smoother land registration, titling and planning process.
In his submission, access to credit must be made easier. He advised that the Federal Mortgage Bank be overhauled and made to do what it was set up to do.
“We need to reduce dependence on imported building materials and develop our indigenous materials and construction methods,” he added.
He also counselled the Minister of Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola and other top government officials.
His words: “If I were Minister of Works and Housing, I would address the knowledge gaps in construction, put in place effective contract management and audit mechanism and partner with the professional bodies to ensure a commitment to delivering low-cost units.
“I will also make it a planning condition for the big developers and multinationals to pay development levies, which will be put towards infrastructural development and low cost housing.”
Bayode agreed that the rising number of quacks in the building industry in the country had become worrisome, but he insisted that the development was part of the rot in the system. He said that employing quacks for building projects has led to so many collapsed buildings, loss of lives and other disastrous consequences.
“They cannot operate if the system doesn’t let them,” he averred. “If the Building Control Departments don’t turn a blind eye to the filthy money they get, refuse to process applications from quacks, shut down sites without valid planning and jail people who breach regulations, that part of the industry will continue to exist.
“Corruption is everywhere. There is a lot of corruption of construction in the UK as well. They are just less crude than in Nigeria. However, the UK has a solid housing policy and commitment to social housing by providing grants and making Section 106 a key part of planning, thereby enforcing developers’ contribution to local infrastructure development and increase of social housing stock.
“Planning is less cumbersome here in the UK with an eight-week approval deadline. Building control is very strict and compliance is robustly monitored. The freehold issues are commercial transactions based on supply and demand. You need to do your own due diligence before committing,” he stated.
When asked how to make housing investment in Ekiti State and other parts of the country profitable, he said there was an urgent need to do urban regeneration in Lagos and some other Nigerian cities.
Said he: “Profitable housing investment in Ekiti will be challenging but possible. The figures have to stack up and the supply chain management must be robust. It is a largely civil service state, hence there must be a tie-in with government and cooperative societies.
“Urban regeneration is definitely in our major cities alongside proactive policies to enable urban to rural migration. Investment will be capital intensive and buying into government regeneration and urban development plans, which can be influenced privately. Access to funds is key.
“Private sector is all about profits, hence their focus is different. They can only be compelled by government to contribute either by a proportion of their developments being for low-cost earners or making them contribute to infrastructure levies. The best lead on low cost earners is government. One way could be by partnering with developers, offering tax rebates, putting basic road infrastructure in place for private developers.”
Prior to his relocating to UK in 2001, Morakinyo occupied the position of architect, project manager and Partner at Gioconsult Architects. Looking back, he said that practising architecture in Nigeria was challenging and innovative.
“I got into it at a time architects couldn’t live on designs alone and had to construct as well. I had the opportunity to do some great jobs. I did some residential estates in Park View, Lekki etc. I handled some Mr Biggs branches, Diamond Bank branches at VI and Kaduna, head office for Savannah Bank then in Abuja, and a massive presidential development at Maitama, Abuja for a minister,” he recalled.
With the outbreak of coronavirus, should the government demolish shanties that dot the different parts of Nigeria and leave the inhabitants to their fate? Morakinyo has a piece of advice for the government.
His words: “Shanties are unhealthy places that pose great risks to public health. They should be demolished. However, the government doesn’t have the moral right to demolish without providing viable alternatives. The people who live in shanties do so because they have no option. Social Housing will provide better options.
“The government can invest in social housing or enable charities via grants, rebates and allocations by private investors. Local authorities can then nominate low income or the homeless to the housing stocks and pay the housing providers through welfare benefits.
“Government should be more involved in the provision of mass housing rather than the lip service being paid. They can partner with developers as proposed earlier, partner with people through part own/part rent schemes (shared ownerships) and enable the subscribers increase their ownership gradually over the years. Government can facilitate mortgages at much better rates through existing avenues (National Housing Fund, etc).
“Significant investment is required at Ire Bricks in Ekiti State to expand into roof tiles, more aesthetically pleasing bricks, flooring etc. Every time I visit Spain, Ekiti comes to mind due to their materials, including clay bricks, roof tiles, terracotta floor and wall tiles. Ekiti government should look into apprenticeship schemes and revise the curriculum of the technical colleges to address skills shortages gaps.
“One of the major issues in Nigeria is lack of credible credit history. However, the introduction of BVN makes a sort of verification process easier. For the civil service, government should provide a sort of indemnity and link repayments to salaries like the car loan scheme.
“For non-civil service groups, partnerships with cooperative societies, who have been operating micro-credit scheme successfully for generations in communities is key. There are already some working models in Nigeria.”
Taking a look at the avalanche of buildings in developing sites in Ekiti that hardly adhere to town planning rules, the architect said it would be a major source of problem to the state in years to come if such concerns are not addressed now.
“The onus is on the Ekiti planning department and the state’s urban development agency to be pro-active in zoning and designing new areas, and ensuring a smooth planning process instead of milking applicants dry and delaying for years. They should demolish illegal structures. El-Rufai did this to instil some sanity in Abuja.
“People, out of desperation, impatience, need or greed will exploit government lapses and inattentiveness. The government should play its role well for the people to play theirs. Where the government has played it role, it can then sanction the populace who flout the law,” Morakinyo charged.
