Somehow I picked up interest in housing/property sector quite early in life. It was in the mid seventies, my late father made the “mistake” of taking us to where he was going to build his house in the village. It was during the holidays as he was a teacher in a far flung village.
By the time block moulding began, I was already asking him when the house would be finished! Innocence is good. Well, it didn’t take long for him to get to the level of finishing he wanted to before we could move in. In those days, especially in the villages, once you have managed to roof your house, you could be said to have almost finished it.
Though I was seven or eight years old then, I remember vividly who the bricklayer was and how much my father paid for the bricklaying: a whopping N100 for a whole block of four bedrooms and a store. Yes, one hundred Naira only.
Fast forward to my senior secondary school days. I picked up interest in Geography, and it didn’t take long for it to be the subject I liked most, especially Human Geography. This aspect of geography transported me mentally to many places especially provinces and cities in Canada. In the 1980s, you could not study human geography without coming across places such as Vancouver, Newfoundland, St. John and such like. Of course, some elementary studies of town planning, housing, population growth and density, climatic conditions were also discussed.
Surprisingly, I encountered a course similar to Human Geography in my master’s degree programme at the University of Lagos. I am not sure but I think the course was called Urbanisation and Population Development. I remember the lecturer very well; Dr. (Mrs.) Esan. A very amiable woman; she had to leave the country shortly after her husband was shot and killed in mysterious circumstances in the Ikeja area of Lagos.
Up till now, I have the habit of walking or driving around some property development sites, walk into some of the properties under construction, observing and generally asking questions. In addition, I do not miss the property segment of The Guardian newspaper every Monday. I like to know what is going on in that space; which estate developer is coming to town with a bespoke architectural design. Town here means any part of Nigeria, even though most of the concentrations are in Lagos and Abuja.
These early experiences have not been lost on me. One of the few things I admire most is property. Mentally, I have owned and lived in some of the most beautiful neighborhoods, and buildings that I come across. My fascination for advanced societies is just the beautiful environments and buildings. The reasons are not far fetched: we’re humans, God’s most priced possession; living in nice neighborhoods is refreshingly good, makes you think right thoughts, have good visions, dream good dreams and makes you feel healthy, comfortable and more productive. I can go on and on and on. Oh! The old adage that cleanliness is next to godliness isn’t for nothing!
But living in beautiful places and houses is a luxury for most Nigerians. In 2020, the number of Nigerians who lived in decent neighborhoods and houses was said to be 30 percent of the population. This means that about 150 million Nigerians live in substandard houses. In fact, millions live in what do not qualify to be called houses. In all our cities especially Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Port Harcourt, slums sprawl everywhere.
As is in many other human capital development indices, Nigeria has one of the highest housing deficits in the world. The real estate industry is largely unorganized; most of those who operate in the sector in a few of our cities are shylocks ready to squeeze from investors. The Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria says Nigeria’s homeownership rate is very low; actually ranks among the lowest at 25 per cent compared to Brazil (74 per cent), Kenya (75 per cent), South Africa (70 per cent) and Indonesia (84 per cent).
The high cost of borrowing to buy a house in the country is a great disincentive to many prospective homeowners. Because we operate a cash and carry economy, not many people have the means to buy houses without mortgage. And if you want to get mortgage to pay for a house, you would almost certainly be mortgaging your life. The reason being that the rate is not only so very high, the credit is given for short term. Ask an otherwise good civil servant, the fear of not having a roof over his head is the reason he’s involved in corrupt practices.
This explains why in places such as the Federal Capital Territory and Lagos, some of the choice property owners are traced to people who have been in government at the federal and state levels. Some property developers are said to be fronting for public office holders. This is not to say that there are no genuine property developers. Nor have governments taken the issue of decent housing as a social need.
Perhaps the very last time a government was genuinely interested in providing affordable housing for the citizens was during the Second Republic government of Pa Lateef Jakande in Lagos. Since then, lip service has been paid to the issue of affordable homes for Nigerians.
I will recall that in the nineties, one of the For-All mantra was housing. As we approached what appeared as a magical 21st century, the governments of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha were very good at making fanciful promises: Food For All By the Year 2000; Health For All By The Year 2000; Education, Housing and so on and so forth. Nothing concrete was on ground to actualize the policies, if indeed they were policies. Which explains why the country is still grappling with the same issues perennially; add to the more complex issues of insecurity, poverty, and corruption. Today, hardly any civil servant entirely dependent on his or her salary can afford a decent home in Nigeria.
Just as in other maladies afflicting the country, the acute housing shortage is not insurmountable. The very first step is for Nigerians to hold people in public positions to account. The almighty Land Use Act needs to go down to make land more affordable. The process of registering land titles in the states is anachronistic; and it makes no sense why it has to be a governor of a state that must sign certificate of occupancy for it to be valid. Without blaming it on the past military rule of the 1970s (and there must have been genuine reasons then) those reasons are no longer tenable. For starters, Nigeria’s population then was less than a quarter of what we have today. Not to mention the advancement in knowledge; what we know now is so much more than what the military regime of Murtala-Obasanjo knew then.
Back to the issue of mortgage, state governments need to help, at least civil servants own homes at very liberal mortgage rates. They can also acquire lands and sell to their citizens with provision to pay off over a period longer than what the private sector is offering. They can also partner with property developers to build affordable houses for the people. Researches into the use of cheaper building materials need to be encouraged both by the governments and the private sector.
There is also a psychological flavour to decent housing: aren’t we humans; don’t we deserve, just by being humans, to live in decent homes and in beautiful neighborhoods? If we love fellow humans, it should rile us to see people live in squalor side by side with unexplained and unexplainable opulence. Or so I think.
Esiere is a former journalist
