‘Housing policies are mere window dressing’

What do you think is responsible for the easy collapse of Nigeria roads? The major problem is corruption because every road has a design before it is built and in that design there are specifications given to the contractors but because of kick- back and other things that use to occur as we have seen […]

What do you think is responsible for the easy collapse of Nigeria roads?
The major problem is corruption because every road has a design before it is built and in that design there are specifications given to the contractors but because of kick- back and other things that use to occur as we have seen in the past years the road are of low quality. Also, those who should supervise the work are lacking in their responsibility, trying to make money here and there thereby removing professionalism. But by and large I think such things would begin to change now that we have a president who is fighting corruption. Once corruption is out you would not see a road being built badly and the culprit goes off easily. In road construction, if you are going to use one cup of sand to one cup of cement, it is already specified but not meeting the specifications is what is happening on our road. So once the specification which are prepared to meet both condition ( both weather and rain and other things) are followed , it would stay long but because of corruption and some kind of other kick- back you see our road collapsing not too long after construction.
How can Nigeria achieve cheaper road construction?
I believe Nigeria can cheaper road construction if we look inward,  the material for road construction are here in Nigeria, we are not importing anything, the cement and the rocks are on ground so you don’t need to import anything in road construction in Nigeria. The problem we have is that some contractors are just cheating Nigeria because the same materials they quoted in their proposal to buy are here and they will not buy it. They will break the rock, pack the sand, gravel and chipping which they have quoted from the Nigeria soil. What am trying to say is that at the end of the day, it is the Nigeria state that is losing because those who are supposed to monitor the whole thing like the ministry of solid mineral are not there because the system is weak. But as we begin to move into a new system where people begin to do the right thing some of these things will stop. Government can also generate money from this but we are
still paying high despite getting the material from our land. Also another factor is that contractors deliberate inflate contract sum as a way of making money. I believe that now that we have a government that is trying to stop those things the cost of construction would reduce by half so that we can have project being delivered at a cheaper cost.
There is about 17 million housing deficit in the country. How can Nigeria bridge the deficit?
The 17 million deficit is faulty because I believe it is more than that but the solution to this is making land available to people without stress. Because for instance, in Abuja you have people with N5 and N10 million from their pension and earning but they cannot build house in Abuja not because that money cannot build it but they don’t know the real land to buy. You can buy land now but before you know it they will tell you that you either bought some else land or there was not vacant land there at all. Too many things are wrong with our land system. So first government must make land available so that people can buy land and within a week period, the documents are made available to them. Once this is done those who are now having too many houses would be forced to rent them out. Today, you have many houses in Abuja and nobody lives in them. So government must take it up and made land available to people who want to build house by putting the right agents to ensure that getting land is not cumbersome and once the land racket continue it would be difficult to bridge the gap.
Do think FG 10,000 housing annually feasible?
Government does not need not to build house for anybody, all they need to do is put things in place so that people can buy land easily. As it now people are put in a tight corner as they don’t know what to do because you buy land from land agent, it turns out to be fake. Let government put up a policy that will enable people who want to build get land without stress and then if the person refuses to build in six months period, seize the land from that person and reallocate it to another person who wants to build. Also there should be law that would not allowed land to be tie down as investment.
Various governments have come up with housing policies but nothing happened, what is the solution?
The policies are not tailored towards solving housing problems, they are just mere window dressing. Secondly we need a good mortgage system which is another problem affecting housing policy. You have over N10 billion with PENCOM, that is where you fund such policy. People should be able to access such to build house but that house would not belong to them until they finish paying the money. It is just sincerity of policy and willingness to implement them. As you know implementation has always be our problem.
Proper regulation of engineering projects and engineers has been our bane in project execution, what is your take on this?
Engineers are not the problem. What happened in the past is that government has tied the engineers in to its apron string. The engineering regulation body is COREN and it is under a ministry and that ministry is under a minister and the minister handed over the entire regulation to a director while the director will also put somebody there, so you can see the level at which monitoring of engineering project has reached, the engineer has been fighting to change this because monitoring need to be on a high pedestal so that the regulation body can directly be discussing with the president.