In spite of hundreds of mansions abandoned or unoccupied in Nigeria, over 108 million people are said to be technically homeless and living under bridges and in the open across the country. In this report, MURITALA AYINLA takes a look at the pathetic world of Lagos under-bridge dwellers.
It was 11:45 p.m., a time most night traders under the popular Apongbon Bridge on Lagos Island had closed for the day. But it was time for other Nigerians to resume ‘duty’ in the empty market space. Suraju Adekunle, fondly called Surri by his friends, was set to rearrange the empty traders’ tables, which he uses as a bed under the bridge.
But he needed to get a mosquito coil or other insecticides to disperse mosquitoes from his corner, where he sleeps and passes the night. As he strolled to Elegbaata Street, an adjoining street where the 23-year-old hoped to get the insecticide to ward off mosquitoes, a combined team of OP MESA (a joint Police and Military Patrol team) and the Task Force on Environment and Special Offences Unit, who were on a routine raid in the area, descended on him. Along with some miscreants, also known as ‘area boys,’ suspected to have been responsible for the mayhem in the area, he was arrested.
All entreaties and explanations by Adekunle, a bus conductor, to prove his innocence fell on deaf ears as he ended up in detention, where he was tortured along with other suspects before he was finally released. “It was on Easter Sunday, April 1st, to be precise, I was arrested and detained for something I knew nothing about. I didn’t even know there was a crisis in the area until I was arrested,” he said.
Adekunle’s story wasn’t different from Olusegun Kasim, a cobbler, who also sleeps under Sir Gilbert Thomas Carter Bridge, popularly known as Obalende Bridge. If not for the timely intervention of the security guards stationed at one of the new-generation banks at Obalende on July 5, 2018, the 27-year-old, who hails from Owode, Ogun State, could have been lynched by the angry mob in the area. His offence: he was accused of using the bridge as a hideout to kidnap and sell human parts.
According to him, one thing gave him away: having no shelter. “I became a subject of suspicion the moment I started living under Obalende Bridge because what most people in the area know is that I disappear and reappear near the bridge every day,” he said. Although a cobbler, he joined the community of homeless Lagosians when he fell out with his uncle at Abule-Egba because “he was maltreating me.”
“Frequent arrests by the police and attacks from armed rascals forced me to leave Oshodi under-bridge for Obalende. The police intermittently accuse us (under-bridge dwellers) of being responsible for pockets of crime in Oshodi. Some armed thugs also visit us to dispossess us of our belongings.”
According to the hapless Nigerian, his life and those of his colleagues living under the bridge are constantly under threat, such that if they are not unjustly arrested by the police for being homeless, they would be robbed or maimed by armed thugs. “The worst of the threats is that we could also be kidnapped by fetish people looking for wretched people like us for money rituals,” he added.
If uncertainty and frequent threats to life are what Kasim sees as the major challenges of living under a bridge, for Suleiman Adetoro, the burden of having to live among lunatics is a major albatross the 32-year-old beggar has to bear. Since under-bridges are mostly occupied by all manners of people, irrespective of status and mindset, it is not uncommon that in this part of the world, mentally retarded people usually find a home under a bridge.
Lamenting his ordeal as an under-bridge dweller, Adetoro said: “More than three times, I have found myself at different rehabilitation centres in Lagos. I was mistaken for a destitute person by officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development. I was chained and tortured for days before I could convince them that I wasn’t mad.”
The beggar explained that government rescue officers, saddled with the responsibility of evicting destitute people from the city metropolis, raid the nooks and crannies of the state, especially under the bridges at night while they are sleeping. “They came after us while we were sleeping, and before we knew what was happening, we had been taken to the rehabilitation centre. The reason for going through all this is because we live under the bridge. This is one of the major challenges confronting under-bridge dwellers, especially when you don’t look like rascals,” he said.
Sunday John, a 32-year-old Benue State-born porter, is currently writhing in pain under Oshodi Pedestrian Bridge following an injury he sustained from an attack by hoodlums. While sleeping at night around 3:30 a.m., armed urchins, numbering about three, rudely woke him up and dispossessed him of all the money he had after a thorough search. For refusing to surrender his phone after being taken by the robbers, he was stabbed in the back. “They took all I had, including my phone. Initially, I refused to let go of my phone until I was stabbed. The little money I make from helping people carry loads could hardly feed me daily, let alone secure better accommodation,” he lamented.
Those were the plights of Lagos under-bridge dwellers. They constitute over 108 million Nigerians said to be technically homeless. They live, work, and sometimes procreate beneath the bridge, come rain or sunshine, with fear and uncertainty in their enclave. Hot or cold weather, they have nowhere to go but to remain in their chosen abode, where they hope to live until fortune smiles on them. The dream of living in highbrow areas such as Banana Island and other Nigerian billionaires’ choice areas rarely crosses their minds. Unlike other residents who have a roof over their heads, they have no doors, windows, or gates to shut while going to bed at night, let alone hiring a security guard for the protection of their lives and property. This category of Lagosians is always at the mercy of various threats to their lives or sometimes constitutes threats to others.
During the day, they join other Lagosians with better accommodation in the hustling and bustling but retire to unfinished bridges and those under construction at night. Their homes are located under all kinds of bridges, whether pedestrian, flyover, or ramp. They bathe, defecate, and urinate in the open or patronise commercial mobile toilets in the city metropolis whenever they feel like it. This category of residents is not bothered by the luxury of having an air-conditioner, ceiling or standing fan, mattress or pillow, television, and all that is found in any decent home; all that matters to them is where to lay their heads overnight.
Unlike other inhabitants of overcrowded rooms, also known as Tan’lese, where people pay to sleep, payment of electricity bills is never part of their expenditure, as this category of Lagos residents has no dealings with electricity providers. They are not always connected, and if they do, they tap cables through illegal connections, and no electricity company official dares visit them for payment.
Under Bridge Inhabitants pay too
In what could be described as confirmation of Jeleli’s claim, New Telegraph’s findings reveal that not all the dwellers just pass the night under the bridges free of charge. Some dwellers part with few naira notes to sleep under the bridges located in Oshodi, Apongbon, CMS under-bridge, Obalende, Iganmu, Iddo, Apapa, Obalende. This payment, it was gathered, were forcefully made to some rascals and self-acclaimed landlords through other miscreants who act as ‘caretakers’.
Despite not having any laid foundation or moulded block of any shape under the bridges, these individuals, who claim to be landlords their fellow dwellers as little as N50 daily. But Jelili insisted that money collected from dwellers under the bridges were not formally paid but usually taken under duress with the aid of gun other weapons. “On several occasions, you will be forced to drop what you have. If you are obstinate they will tie you before they search your body, it is not rent but robbery,” he said.
But Aminu Jamiu, an Adamawa State-born scavenger who became homeless in Lagos following the insurgency in the northeast, said he pays N100 to some boys who claimed to be “caretakers” before he is allowed to sleep every night.
Dwellers Categories
Incidentally, investigation reveals that there are certain categories of people who spend their time under the bridge. There are classes of people who stay during early hours till about late noon; these are the business types, who could be porters, cobblers or bus conductors and others who wander around looking for what to do earn a living. There are also other groups who stay in the late evenings who are basically rascals from all points of view while the last categories are those who stay under the bridge from late nights till morning. Those are the homeless ones, who truly have nowhere to go. They make ends meet by roaming around looking for jobs that pay wages and hardly even eat with that money let alone affording a bed or a home, hence, the bridge settlement.
How they got there
Tracing the genesis of under bridge dwellers, a sociologist, Mr Muyiwa Alao of the University of Ibadan said studies have shown that parental neglect, discontent at home, marital instability, family orientation, poverty and peer influence were the major causes of being on the street or living under the bridge.
According to the Ibadan-based sociologist, “While some sleep under bridges, others sleep at the beach, in motor parks and vehicles, in market places, and in uncompleted buildings. Some also sleep inside the wheel barrow. Their survival strategies include engaging in some income-yielding activities such as carrying load, being bus conductors, packing refuse, buying and selling, engaging in commercial sex and begging. Substance abuse and engaging in risky sexual behaviour were common. All these are attributes common with inhabitants of under bridges or other homeless Nigerians”
The sociologist added that this populace faced the problem of insecurity, police harassment and all forms of exploitations and abuses from social miscreants. “These inhabitants are predisposed to a number of hazards including sexual abuse, molestation, health hazards and other risks from ritualists,” he stated.
Health hazards of being homeless
According to studies by health experts, more than 8 out of 10 people (85%) of homeless are prone to chronic health condition. People experiencing homelessness are susceptible to the same issues as people, who are not, but their living conditions tend to make treating and coping with issues much more difficult.
Corroborating this, Dr Oloriegbe Yusuf of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, AKTH, Kano, said that the homeless have a significantly higher risk of death. He added that they could be victim of unintentional injuries which could lead to cause of morbidity and mortality.
The paediatrician highlighted other health hazards prone to the homeless to include: Musculoskeletal disorders and chronic pain, hunger and nutrition and skin and foot problem, infectious diseases and other ailments. He said due to constant exposure without a shelter, those living under the bridges and in the open are also at the risk of respiratory disorder, chronic diseases and disorder and metal health issues.
“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, bronchitis and other forms of respiratory disease are also common among people experiencing homelessness. This is because they live in the open which could also be overcrowded, the chance of getting infected is very high,”Oloriegbe added.
Statistics of Homeless arrested
In spite of the health hazards associated with being homeless findings show that more people still live under the bridges. For instance, findings show that between January to December, 2018, a total of 16,154 homeless Lagosians were arrested as criminal suspects across the state by the Lagos State Task force on Environment and Special Offence Unit. Majority of them were nabbed from various under bridges and other public places in the metropolis.
Of all the suspects, 6,320 of the homeless were released after scrrening while 9,834 suspected to be criminals were charged to court for prosecutions. According to the Public Affairs Unit Officer of the agency, Taofik Adebayo most the suspects were found roaming around aimlessly on the streets of Lagos while some were raided from their hideouts including under the bridges in the state.
“For us at the Taskforce, we don’t differentiate those living under the bridges and those found on the street wandering aimlessly but we do screen them before charging them court.”
To ensure that innocent under bridge dwellers are not mixed up with the criminals when arrested, a senior official of the agency, said : “We have a systematic ways of separating the criminals from the innocent under bridge resident. I just released 24 out of the 27 suspects arrested from Ojota under bridge after screening.”
Global housing deficit, rising homelessness
Getting the exact picture of global homelessness is deemed as extremely challenging but experts said about 1.6 billion people are believed to lack proper housing globally. As at 2005, the United Nations estimated that no fewer than 100 million people were without roofs above their heads.
But revealing how the Nigeria’s housing shortage seems to be worse than the UN figure; the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently put the nation’s housing shortage at 18 million. The housing deficit is described as not only unhealthy for a developing country but also nauseating.
Also, while calling for urgent attention to address the housing shortage in the country, the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), said that over 108 million Nigerians technically homeless. According to the bureau, the estimated 100,000 houses built yearly in the country are insufficient, adding that it was time for stakeholders to join government’s efforts in providing affordable houses for the people by taking advantage of the on-going Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme.
Sadly enough, the statistic may likely rise as Amnesty International, in a study of displaced Nigerians, says that 1.7 million people in North-East Nigeria are displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital may likely be the host to some of these displaced Nigerians.
Reacting to the challenges of the state increasing population while briefing journalist on the efforts to tackle the rising traffic gridlock in the state occasioned by the population growth in the state, the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode said that the Lagos is becoming a victim of its successes as more Nigerians whether rich or poor find a home in the state in spite of the economic hardships security challenges experienced in some parts of the country.
Despite Housing Plans, homeless on the rise
Incidentally, successive governments in Nigeria also have rolled out plans to address the housing problem but none of the plans appeared to have meaningful effect on the rising number of homeless. No thanks to the nation’s uncontrolled population growth and the worsening economic situation which fuels the rural-urban migration.
Budget are made for housing scheme development by both the federal and state governments but the impact is hardly felt as more people live in the substandard structures while thousands are homeless.
According to the United Nations report, during census, data is typically collected based on household and, while the “hidden homeless” such as the settlers of slums, shanties and dwellers of uncompleted and abandoned buildings are not usually captured. This, perhaps, is responsible for what appears as a disconnection between the government’s plans on the scheme.
Also, the World Bank’s study showed that Nigeria with an estimated population of about 180 million people is currently facing a national housing deficit of about 17 million units. The study revealed that Nigeria has a population growth of about 3% and a density of 205 per km2 (532 people per mi2).
Housing experts also described Nigeria as one of the most rapidly urbanising countries in Africa with over 48% of the population skewed to the urban areas, towns and cities, covering less than 10% of the habitable land areas in the country. Findings also reveal that Nigeria’s housing deficit rose from 7 million in 1991 to 12 million in 2007 and 14 million in 2010.
The implications of the ever-increasing population, experts aver, will not only impact on the high housing deficit but also be making the tenants in rented apartments, particularly in the cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, pay as high as 60 per cent of their average disposable income on housing which is far higher than the 20-30% recommended by the United Nations.
Housing Schemes and the Affordability questions
None of government’s housing scheme is believed to be affordable irrespective of the claim by the government. The cost of the housing is usually on the high side just as the cost of putting the structures in place. For instance, the Lagos State Home Ownership Scheme also known as LagosHoms is still believed to be too expensive for the low-income earners which the government claimed the project was designed for.
Speaking on the prices of the housing units, the state’s Commissioner for Housing, prince Gbolahan Lawal said that units of flat range from N4 million to N32 million depending on the size and location of the housing scheme. In the scheme, the least apartment which is one-bedroom flat located in Epe, a developing ancient town, cost N4,340,000 while the highest cost N32,530,000, which is located in Gbagada, in the state metropolis.
It was discovered that in spite of efforts to slash the price by the Ambode-led administration in the state, the scheme is not still fully subscribed and occupied. Consequently, most of the units are left unallocated while applicants are grumbling that aside the criteria listed for eligibility, they cannot afford the prices of the mortgage scheme, even when couples merge their monthly income to subscribe.
Meanwhile, as criticisms over affordability of the housing scheme rage, experts blamed the high cost of housing scheme on the inflation rate, saying that the building materials are also too expensive.
Speaking on the impact of inflation in the building sector, the General Secretary, Association of Real Estate Developers Association of Lagos State (AREDOLS), Olumegbon Mutairu, said that cost housing will continue to rise as long as the inflation rate is high.
“The bag of cement which was sold for N2,300 or above in 2016 is now sold for N2,600 while the prices of iron rod had also gone up. This is one of the major reasons why it appears houses built by private sector or government are not affordable to some classes of the citizens. The price of cement will certainly affect the cost of buying blocks. Inflation has also affected what you pay to the artisans who handle the construction work as well.”
Findings also revealed that nine inches blocks, which sold for around N130 in 2015, now sells for N180 or N200; the six-inch blocks, which hitherto sold for N120, has risen to N160 or above while prices of other building items have gone up.
More Empty Mansions occupied by reptiles
It is paradoxical that while many residents are becoming homeless or living in the substandard structures or overcrowded homes, hundreds of multi-million naira mansions located in some highbrow areas in Lagos are lying fallow with very few or no occupants in them. The LagosHoms, and other ones built by the government to bridge the housing deficit also belong to class of these empty houses.
Many of these vacant mansions which are often secured by security guards are either over-priced or abandoned by owners or acquired by owners who are based abroad.
Speaking with New Telegraph, an official of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, who pleaded anonymity, said that most of the empty mansions that dotted the major city could have been possibly taken over by the anti-graft agency, especially when the owner is found wanting for financial crime or other offences. He added that other abandoned mansions could also have been acquired by the owners to tie down money or illegally acquired wealth since the commission agency is monitoring financial transactions of every of Nigerian.
Another source in the commission, said that some of the mansion could also be serving as reservoir for the illegally acquired money, saying that many of the houses are owned by high-income individuals who could have as many of such across the country.
Tackling Housing Challenges
Despite the fact that homelessness may be difficult to eradicate across the globe, housing challenges could as well be effectively tackled by the government, if the right plans are designed and implemented without fear or favour. As governments at all levels promise low cost housing to bridge the 17 million national housing deficit, efforts must be made to make the housing scheme accessible to the truly low-income earners. If the cost of the housing unit is not cheap, certain efforts must be made by the government to make the houses relatively affordable through attractive arrangements.
In the same vein, a former Director-General of Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR, Dr. Joe Abah, observed that providing housing for the people had become a great concern with the 189 million population in the country, he said there was need to take housing issues seriously. This is why a former Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban development, Mr Olutoyin Ayinde, a town planner, advocated a review of the nation’s financial system and arrangement towards enabling the citizen access housing, calling on the government both at the federal and state levels to assist the residents by making policies that will truly guarantee accessibility.
“Let’s be factual, you can’t get cheap or low cost housing anywhere in Nigeria or beyond because there are no low cost building materials, but we can talk of affordability and this comes from financing arrangement,” he argued.
According to him, attention should be focused on the accessibility of the finance to be able to pay on an instalment basis to acquire the houses.” It is just like what obtained in those days when one can acquire a house or a car and pay over a period of time. That’s what affordability is about.”
Like other experts, the town planner aside ineffective housing finance system, he identified bureaucracy in land acquisition and documentation as major factor responsible for housing challenges.
Lending his voice to the ways out of the nation’s housing challenges, the World Bank’s Financial Sector specialist, Sinon Walley, confirmed that the state’s population was growing faster than the state could develop houses.
Walley, who spoke during his visit to Lagos State Ministry of Housing,said what the state needs is to develop houses on the long term to encourage the private sector to move away from luxury house and concentrate on middle income houses that are as low as N3 million.
For Lawal, the state government, under the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode remains committed to addressing the housing challenges, saying that was why the administration reduced the prices of its housing scheme by about 50 per cent and unveiled the Rent-to-Own policy and House Rental policy to enable more residents access the housing scheme. But experts said that it is worrisome that despite the state government’s claim, the current administration has not commissioned any housing scheme in the last three and half years while some of the inherited housing projects are yet to be completed.
