Government intervention in housing delivery
predates Nigeria’s independence. The colonial administration provided limited
staff quarters for the colonial masters and reasonable chunk of the class
dwellings. However, successive post independence government, military and
civilian, have adopted national development plan as potent instrument for
economic development, covering all vital sectors of the national economy.
Unfortunately, virtually all the plan buried
housing in obscurity, lumping it among other services in the social services
sub-sectors. Rural housing is an exhibition of decadence, criminal neglect, and
quantitative inadequacies of indices of comfortable living, of social and
infrastructural facilities and services. Housing in a typical rural setting,
particularly in developing counties, illustrates deprivation. The
rural areas parades housing environment devoid of basic amenities provided to
meet the psychological and physiological needs of human living. In Nigeria, the
rural housing sub-sector has suffered untold neglect from the hands of
successful government. The colonial masters did not prepare a housing programme
for the teaming Nigerian populace.
The
establishment of Lagos executive development board was informed by
circumstances outside the realm of concern for the housing plight of citizens
saddled with the primary assignment of effective planning and developing Lagos,
the Lagos executive development board was established in 1928 following the
bubonic plague in the 1920s. However, by 1954,
after the approval of Lagos central planning schemes, the board began to solve
the problem of public housing in Lagos. This resulted in such schemes as
surulere workers housing estate and Eric Moore housing estates.
The establishment of the African staff housing
scheme for the main purpose of encouraging civil servants to own their house
was a belated realization of the enormity of the housing problem. With this
scheme, the systematic development of estate in surulere, apapa and other areas
saw the continued demand for house ownership by civil servant. This was the
beginning of elitist housing programmes. It was the era when government
reservation area was built to house the colonialist and the compromised of
highly placed Nigerians.
Other categories
of lagosians and Nigerian in the hinterland suffered untold neglect. Between
1960 when Nigeria obtained independence and 1971, there was virtually no
housing’’ in the scheme of national planning. It was in 1972 that a housing
programme was established during the 2nd development plan
period. and the Thrust of the programme was the plan to build 59,000 dwelling
units 15,000 in Lagos, 4,000 in each of the eleven state in then 12
state structured Nigeria till date. In all this, there was not even a vague
reference to rural housing. In 1973 the federal housing authority was created
to co-ordinate a nation wide housing programme at the federal level. The 4th national
development plan of 1975 had the plan for the construction of 202,000 dwellings
at then, a whooping cost of #2.6billion.
This was immediately followed by the creation of
a ministry of housing, urban development and environment. In particular, the
ministry was to initiate and co-ordinate policies in housing related matter and
areas. Between 1979 and 1983, the NPN controlled federal government gave high
priority to housing targeting the low and medium income groups
40,000 were meant to be constructed annually, nationwide. In 1983, only about
30% achievement was recorded. It was pathetic to note that most sites and
location of these housing estates were either at city centers or their
immediate peripheral precincts. This indeed, has shown that all the
action taken by government and their agencies, rural housing was neglected
however, virtually all national housing policies, since 1991 seemed to address
the housing plight of rural dwellers. But again, the tidy and laudable paper
works have been denied executive implementation toward the realization of
decent and affordable rural housing. however, the rural housing situation paint
a disturbing picture aside of the glaring qualitative shortcomings, the Nigeria
rural housing qualitative inadequacies can be said to be the
intricacies of locally soured building materials, leading
to crude construction technique.
Lack of
infrastructural facilities, absence of modern toilets facilities, the bushy
surrounding land provide succor in this respect. Building is preponderantly of
traditional courtyards designs, mainly of swish mud with thatched roof, bamboo
splint for ceiling and employs anthropometric methods in determining dimension
of rooms, corridors, headroom. At this expense, the government over time was
only in recognition of rural economy as a nerve center of the nation, this it
did by sponsoring some programmes like integrated rural development in 1970,
river basin authorities in 1976, better life for rural women in 1985 and
directorate of food, road rural infrastructure in 1986 respectively. These
meaningful options were unfortunately encapsulating rural enterprises with
infrastructure with no specific attention on upgrading the quality-deficiency
rural housing stock and environment. Yet, report indicates that the entire
citizenry depend on rural out put for survival.
The non-implementation of strategies spelt out
in all national housing policies and programmes of 1991, 1994, 2004 and 2006
underscore the degree of neglect. Expectedly, government at all levels; need to
come to the rescue of rural housing by coming up with a workable rural housing
policy an independent policy not in any way made an apron-string of a national
housing policy which is biased in favor of other housing sub-sector. It is a
policy that must attract as much attention, political will, commitment and
resources allocation as its affect other counterpart, even though there is much
a do with meeting the need of its teaming populaces.
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