Will Kogi Govt Provide Affordable Housing? —Odunayo Joseph
There is no doubt that since the creation of Kogi State by the Babaginda administration in 1991, much attention has never been paid to housing by past governments and the present Governor Ibrahim Idris-led PDP government in the state.
On page 34 in the Nigerian Tribune of Monday, 31 January, 2011, the President of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN), Dr. Ifenna Chukwujekwu made a clarion call on Local Governments in the country to play the roles assigned to them in the National Policy on housing. The wake-up call is indeed laudable but the fact remains that until state governments’ take the bull by the horns and give the expected recognition to shelter which is one of the basic essential needs of man apart from food and clothing, there is little Local Governments that has remained the focus of the clarion call can do in provision of affordable housing for the people until state governors’ penchant for tampering with the monthly allocations to Local Governments is checked, while the usual business of sharing of the remnants of the allocations left over by the state governors for use by the councils is nipped in the bud and efforts intensified by local governments at improving their internally generated revenue capacity.
All things being equal, if a state governor recognises the importance of housing in the development of the nation by giving due recognition to the sector, there is the probability that local governments might be encouraged to take a cue from the state government and vice-versa. It is unfortunate that despite the promise of provision of affordable housing for all by year 2000 i.e. 10 years ago, availability of affordable housing continues to be a mirage nationwide with the exception of a few states among the 36 states in the country that can be counted on finger tips.
Also, the fact remains that most of the past and present governors in Nigeria since the inception of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 have not done much as far as delivery of affordable housing to the people is concerned. It is more worrisome when it has been discovered that state governors relish in buying mansions overseas in countries such as America, Britain and lately, Dubai, for themselves and their children, a situation that better explains the state governors’ definition of ‘housing’ in the context of governance in Nigeria.
The AHCN President, the newspaper report added, expressed his regret that “despite the fact that local governments were the closest tier of government to the people, they had not contributed positively to housing provision in the country and that apart from market stall projects, most of which are substandard and makeshift usually provided by some local governments, there is no noticeable contribution of local governments in housing deliveryâ€.
There is no gainsaying that in Kogi State, the lukewarm attitude of the state government to housing is evident in the N85.5 billion budget for 2011 which was presented to the Kogi State House of Assembly (KSHA) on 20th December, 2010. It is unimaginable that for a state consisting of 21 local governments, the state governor earmarked a paltry budget of N738 million for housing as against a N8.2 billion budgeted for only the Government House administration while sadly enough, the members of the State House of Assembly, as widely reported by most newspapers in the country, made a passionate appeal to the state governor after the presentation of the 2011 budget to the house to allow them take 25% of the total budget figure of N85.5 billion for the running of the House which translates into N21.375 billion. There is no doubt that with this kind of open display of misplaced priority by the state government on the one hand and greed by members of the State House of Assembly on the other hand, nothing much can be achieved in the area of the much needed provision of affordable housing for the state citizenry.
It is also unfortunate and sadly enough that despite the location of the largest cement manufacturing company (Dangote Cement) in Africa at Obajana in the state, there is nothing to write home about as far as housing development in the entire state is concerned. This is apart from the fact that Kogi State’s holding in the company is not less than 29% going by information making round in the state.
It is no gainsaying that it is high time much attention was paid to provision of affordable housing by both state government and the local governments in Kogi State and this is only achievable if there is serious commitment on the part of the state government by way of adequate funding that would in the end ameliorate the dearth of housing for the people as is presently the case in all Local Governments across the state.
•Joseph wrote in from Kogi.
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