For the majority of Nigerians, the road to standard, quality and decent housing remains long and tortuous. They are still far from meeting virtually all the global standards and yardsticks for measuring what constitutes adequate and decent housing, going by a recent report, by the UN-Habitat, a United Nations (UN) human settlement programme, titled “The Right to Adequate Housing.”
The UN’s report, which was accessed by The Nation, broadly defines what constitutes adequate housing, in the context of global standards, to mean adequate privacy, space, security, lighting, heating and ventilation.
Others are access to basic infrastructure, such as water supply, sanitation, waste management and adequate location to work and basic facilities – all at reasonable cost.
The report, which recognises adequate and decent housing as everyone’s fundamental need, said, for instance, that citizens’ right to adequate housing should contain some freedoms, such as protection against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction and demolition of one’s home; the right to be free from arbitrary interference with one’s home, privacy and family; and the right to choose one’s residence, to determine where to live and the freedom of movement.
“If eviction may be justifiable, because the tenant persistently fails to pay rent or damages the property without reasonable cause, the state must ensure that it is carried out in a lawful, reasonable and proportional manner, and in accordance with international law.
‘’Effective legal recourse and remedies should be available to those who are evicted, including adequate compensation for any real or personal property affected by the eviction.
“Evictions should not result in individuals becoming homeless or vulnerable to further human rights violations. In general, international human rights law requires governments to explore all feasible alternatives before carrying out any eviction to avoid, or at least minimise, the need to use force. When evictions are carried out as a last resort, those affected must be afforded effective procedural guarantees, which may have a deterrent effect on planned evictions,” the report said.
The UN report, which ought to put the authorities in the housing sector on their toes on meeting the global definition of adequate housing, also contained some entitlements such security of tenure; housing, land and property restitution; equal and non-discriminatory access to adequate housing; participation in housing-related decision-making at the national and community levels.
The Nation checks showed that the UN report may have exposed the lapses in the Nigeria’s housing sector. This is because majority of Nigerians still fall far short of global recommended standards or definition of adequate and decent housing. For instance, most of the suburbs in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, such as Ajegunle, Orile, Isolo, Alimosho, Ajangbadi, Agege and others, an average room designed for an occupant takes as many as eight persons.
Experts’ reaction
Expectedly, the UN report has elicited diverse reactions from industry experts and stakeholders. However, a common thread that runs through their reactions is the fact that the report exposed the shortcomings in the nation’s housing sector, as well as the need for authorities in the sector to go back to the drawing board in the country and her citizens must meet global standards for adequate and decent housing.
For instance, a former National Secretary of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers, Sam Ukpong, said most Nigerians, or rather most people in Lagos cannot be said to be living in a house. He said those who can be said to live in houses built with bricks and mortar practice open defecation, as the houses are without toilets or it takes too long for residents to take turns.
He said the aggression and impatience that pervade the society could be attributed to where people reside. He said, for instance, what happens on the streets of major cities, especially Lagos, where people transfer aggression on road users is as a result of the stress they go through commuting either to work or their places of business speaks for itself. He said the time it takes one to get to his place of business or work has a major effect on the behavioural pattern of the particular person.
Ukpong said: “Adequate and decent housing has a way of increasing the life expectancy of people. The government is not doing enough in terms of housing provision. Adequate housing is a human right. If the government wants to fight insecurity and crime, it should work seriously in making housing affordable to those in the lower rung of the ladder.
“In Lagos, for instance, the HOMs Programme, which is supposed to make housing accessible to first time home owners, is almost comatose. I am yet to identify anybody that has the opportunity of owning a house through that programme”.
Ukpong said a man that is not sure of where he would sleep after a day’s hard work, or already has it ingrained in him that his accommodation is not what it is supposed to be and is already thinking of how he will wake up early in the morning to take his bath before others, is likely to be short tempered and angry at almost everybody.
He, therefore, called on the government to take housing seriously by ensuring that those entrusted with providing housing or making it accessible to the low income earners, do it right.
Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) President Mr. Rowland Abonta also said a wrong housing policy could stall the development of the nation and encourage insecurity.
Abonta, who spoke at the inaugural meeting of the 2019/2020 National Council of NIESV in Abuja, stressed that housing should be incorporated in the national development policy to check insecurity.
He said: “Nigeria would become a better nation when stakeholders stopped playing politics with housing issues. I call on the government and policy makers to be honest with the issue. It is a human requirement ranked as number two among human needs. The day we stop playing politics with it is the day we will be a better nation.”
Indeed, people brought up in squalors and indecent environments, according to experts, are aggressive and always upset with nature.
They are very reactive and aggressive to the public. If a census of convicted criminals is taken, one will almost be sure that they are usually from poor backgrounds. This means that Nigeria may have been unwittingly breeding criminals with her national and anti people housing policy.
According to Abonta, the biggest challenge in the Nigerian housing sector is lack of planning. He expressed regret that over the years, housing has been made a political issue such that every administration spends huge sums that is not based on any indices at all because they do not know what they are providing for, neither do they attain the goal they set for themselves. But at the end of the day, some budget has been spent.
To properly plan for housing, Abonta advised that there is the need for the government to undertake a housing survey to determine what the people need. He maintained that housing survey is necessary to determine the housing stock, and the housing needs in the country, adding that adequate planning will bring all other problems into proper perspective.
The NIESV president said the 17 million housing deficit being bandied about may not be correct because there was no empirical basis that gave rise to the figure.
On social housing, he said it would be impossible for low income earners to own their houses with the kind of housing arrangements and financing available in the country.
According to him, in developed societies, there is provision for social housing, stressing that the NIESV had in the past harped on the need for the establishment of such housing schemes in the country to no avail. He said a responsible system or government will insist that investors in the housing sector should dedicate a reasonable percentage of their investment to low income people.
Abonta advised the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to devote more time and resources to building big housing estates. “I am yet to know when they (FHA) will do the kind of thing they did in Lugbe, Abuja, in those days, which was called National Housing Programme,” he said.
Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, advised the Board of the FHA to invest massively in housing development nationwide as a means to further address the challenge of unemployment in the country.
Fashola, who spoke after receiving the yearly report of the board of the FHA in his office, urged the Authority to replicate, nationwide its ongoing 700 units, 10, 000 employees Abuja Mass Housing project in Zuba. According to him, such investment, if replicated in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, will create an ecosystem of opportunities for jobs and industrialisation.
The Minister noted that through the project, FHA has identified appropriately the critical role that housing development could play in responding to and solving some of the problems and challenges currently faced in the country.
He said: “If you go to a site where over 700 housing units are being built and 10, 000 people are benefiting and getting employment there, you are really beginning to address the social issues of exclusion, unemployment, joblessness and restoring the dignity of the human being.
SOURCE: THENATIONONLINE
