Reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved N37 billion for the renovation of the National Assembly complex and continuous demand for foreign loans worth billions of dollars has sparked reactions among many Nigerians.
The approved fund which is part of the 2020 budget, doesn’t, however, include N128 billion allocated for the National Assembly for next year.
The Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday said there has been no major renovation of the National Assembly building for 20 years and many parts of the property had become dilapidated.
The national assembly have also in turn approved the president’s request to take additional loan of up to $30b.
But this doesn’t sit well with stakeholders in the country, especially members of the Housing Development Advocacy Network – a group of housing sector professionals dedicated to affordable housing advocay.
According to the President of the Network, Festus Adebayo, such funds can be channelled into more pressing areas of the economy, especially the housing sector.
With a housing deficit of over 20 million, the group believes that it will only be appropriate if such funds were channelled towards affordable housing projects for the low and middle income earners in the country who are in desperate need of housing.
“It is unthinkable to allot N37 billion to renovate a solid non-deteriorating, non-threatening building, plus a loan of $30b. The question is who is going to repay these debts? We are only mortgaging the future of millennials with this. We should rather be coming up with solutions to address their housing needs,
‘’It will be better using that N37b to jump start a functional building project with mortgage scheme spread over 25 years. This is the solution and I repeat and dare to say the only solution to the millennials housing equation. Otherwise, they will retire into debt without shelter and infrastructure.’’
According to the stakeholders, countries with well-developed mortgage systems inject good schemes to help the young join the mortgage system. They cited examples from countries like Germany and Switzerland with functional and well-structured mortgage systems for every citizen.
The group chides those behind these decisions for not feeling the pain of the people whom they represent. Every day, millions of Nigerians sleep in slums, informal settlements and make shift shelters without any hope for a change. It is therefore unimaginable for national legislators to earmark such amount of fund to the renovation of a building that doesn’t generate any income for the country.
The group therefore calls on all responsible stakeholders and every Nigerian to condemn this decision in order not to affect the future of generations unborn because who will inherit the impact of such reckless spending and national debts.
