N2.5 Billion Workers’ Housing Scam

The botched N2.5 billion mass housing scheme  initiated by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has become scandalous and a serious embarrassment to Nigerian workers nationwide and the country as a whole. Due to its failure to provide affordable houses to Nigerian workers as intended, it is imperative for the NLC to clear the air and ensure that the scheme, or scam as it is being described,,achieves its purpose.

In 2013, NLC collaborated with Kriston-Lally, a private development company, to provide affordable mass housing for Nigerian workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The housing project was launched with the intention to build 300,000 homes for Nigerian workers with the projection that the first phase of the project would deliver 100,000 units in Abuja by December 2014.

Over 3,000 subscribers were said to have keyed into the housing project by paying the initial 10 per cent deposit amounting to over N2.5 billion. Unfortunately, two years on, subscribers have neither gotten their houses nor their contributions refunded. This has pitched the subscribers who are predominantly members of the NLC against the leadership of the labour union in the country.

According to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, the anti-graft body had begun investigation into the mass housing deal. He revealed that EFFC operatives are on the trail  of the Managing Director of Kriston-Lally who absconded after the botched housing programme.

It is of important for EFFC to realise that Nigerian workers are counting on the agency to painstakingly probe the housing scam and bring culprits to book no matter how highly placed they are. EFFC should prove to Nigerians that it is not a toothless bulldog as it is being perceived in many quarters owing to its failure to successfully prosecute high profile corruption cases to logical conclusion.

We acknowledged the fact that the agency has limitations such as in the area of funds and might not be able to assume the role of the judiciary in prosecuting culprit, but it is pertinent for the agency to do its best and use this particular case to change the negative impression the majority of Nigerians have of it.

The workers who have been conned have every cause to be angry and the reason for their protest is genuine. They sacrificed their hard-earned income to participate in the scheme. They should be compensated or their money refunded if at all the affordable houses cannot be delivered.  Many workers took part in the scheme due to the involvement of the Nigerian Labour Congress and it is pertinent that the labour movement to deliver on its promise to the workers who reposed their trust in the labour union because hope deferred makes the heart weary.