Mr. Bode Adediji, the Group Executive Chairman of Bode Adediji Partnership, Kontinental Developers Nigeria Limited and House of Estate Limited and President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers spoke with?? FLORENCE?? UDOH? on issues affecting the industry. Excerpts:?
The Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Ama Pepple, recently set up a committee with the mandate to review housing policies in the country. Do you think this is what we should be doing since policies have never been our problem?
I believe the minister meant well by asking for a review of policies. A review of policy means what has been the policies formulated before? What have been their effects on ground? And if effects on the ground are not commendable, what have been the challenges?
I think that should be the focus of any panel. As you rightly said, in Nigeria, not only in housing alone, our dilemma as a nation is that even if policy and programmes are well spelt out, the implementation is our major problem.
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Also, a former minister in the ministry promised to build 500 housing units in each senatorial district only for him to renege on this promise, blaming some factors for his non performance. Does that mean government lacks capacity to deliver on its mandate?
The former minister that you quoted said he was going to provide 500 housing units in each senatorial district, to me he just said what is common in Nigeria. I know implementation is not always matched with action.?
To me, I will look at the immediate infrastructure and assets to be deployed before I can begin to doubt him. So, if anybody says that 500 housing units are going to be built, you look at the finance, infrastructure, land policy and the manpower and so on; and of course, the political will of the government in power.
Virtually everything is possible, but what is lacking as far as housing is concerned is the political will to surmount the problem. And until we muster that, we will not be able to reach the promised land as far as housing provision is concerned.
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Why has it been difficult for stakeholders to compel the authorities to expedite action on the amendment of the Land Use Act, which has made access to land difficult in the country?
You have just supported my submission that to tackle the problems confronting housing requires one’s giant steps by summoning the political will to do what is needful.
The Land Use Act has been in the pipeline for a review since the era of Obasanjo and nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, has been done about it, which means it has passed through so many regimes. Don’t forget that this law was promulgated in 1978, which means it has passed through the hands of so many regimes.
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If over night the National Assembly can pass the Doctrine of Necessity when there was impending crises during the era and demise of President Yar’Adua, why has it become so difficult for the same National Assembly to yield to the desire and aspirations of Nigerians that Land Use Act as it is now is a major impediment to government, a major impediment to progress and a pointer to the class divide in this country?
The Land Use Act, quote me anytime, does not affect the interest of the upper class no matter how clumsy the clauses contained therein. They can still get their Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) done within a month, and maybe that is the reason it has been pushed to the back burner.
Where government is responsive and is responsible to the yearnings of Nigerians, it does not take one month for all the notorious clauses in the Land Use Act to be expunged and replaced with some or most that are people-oriented.
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What do you want President Goodluck Jonathan to do concerning the Land Use Act?
The president knows what to do as far as housing is concerned. Do you want to rule a country whose housing is no longer a problem? Or do you want to rule a country where housing remains a problem that people and government talk about but never want to do anything tangible?
To resolve this, you have just mentioned, one problem concerning factors behind housing crisis in this country is the Land Use Act. I mean access to land and don’t forget, it is not only the Land Use Act that government has developed cold feet in implementing. Ask yourself, what has happened to Mabogunje Land Reform report?
It is still in the cooler in the ministry, whereas if housing problem in the country affects all the social classes equally, something dramatic, something permanent would have been done to make sure that this problem is solved. The other one, which we must not forget is finance. Finance is key in the implementation of any housing policy and programme.
Today, Nigeria remains one of the countries where you amass amount of resources and yet from one regime to another, the political will to roll out a virile and sustainable mortgage system that can benefit all classes of people remains an illusion. The government from one regime to another still believes that the operation of ‘Cash and Carry, economy is the best approach to modern governance.
So, whether you are a professional man or a professor in housing, you can only talk about it, you have no power to change the system that a few people think is beneficial to them and the majority feel it is against their interest.
In South Africa, if you have been in regular employment for one year or two with regular income, it is the mortgage companies and mortgage institutions that will be trailing you to be able to have you as one of their potential customers.
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What do you have to say about the incessant increase in the prices of building materials especially cement despite President Jonathan’s directive to the manufacturers almost?? two? months ago to reduce price?
Everything I am going to tell you revolves around one summary -political will, if you have a regime, with due respect to President Jonathan, he is just barely??? a? few?? years?? old? on the saddle,?? and?? I? think?? he? is?? doing?? his? best?? so? far.
The question you and I should ask ourselves is, why would a country so endowed as Nigeria focus on importation of virtually everything from toothpicks to pants, from dresses to shoes, from cars to building materials? Until a regime is able to solve that problem, even when you have solved the problem of access to land and the problem of access to finance to the extent that the processes of imported building materials are going to push the lowest category of housing units beyond what the ordinary man can afford, housing for all will remain a mirage. If you look at countries that have overcome housing problem, it is by public policies and programmes.
It is highly entrenched in their culture that housing the people is a must and the starting point is to generate and deliver internal capacity to manufacture and produce all these basic building materials that can be utilised to produce houses for all categories of income groups.
But in Nigeria and unfortunately since independence, the nation has quietly embraced a policy of always looking to foreign countries to solve our problems when indeed potentially, the internal capacity to solve these problems are there and are available. How we make this mistake from one regime to another will be an issue for a political scientist to decide and educate us.
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The Lagos State Government?? had? launched the Housing Arbitrary Rules to guide the Home Mortgage Scheme. The governor also tasked the Federal Government to follow the line. What is your opinion on this?
Fortunately, I was the chairman of the mortgage issue when the biggest national conference was held by the Lagos State Government in October last year at Eko Hotel and Towers.?
One issue that became clear was the fact that housing finance crisis has nothing to do with housing; it takes the institutional arrangement, the adequacy or otherwise and political will to actually implement all the laws and regulations pertaining to those institutions that have been the bane of the moribund approach that has befallen the mortgage system in this country. Let us give kudos to the Lagos State Government for tackling some of these fundamental problems head on.
However, what you have just had from Governor Fashola regime was still pronouncement. You could only comment about whether the Federal Government should follow the line or not when you have begun with the implementation and has become successful. I said earlier that Nigeria’s problem did not lie with policy formulation and programmes packaging, not at all.
Nigeria’s problem was, still is and may remain capacity for implementation; and until the Federal Government in particular and all state governments pay attention to that, the serial problems of policy summersault, lack of performance and shoddy manners in which we implement beneficial programmes and policies will continue to haunt us.