Victor Umeh: FG Unserious in Building Mass Housing for Nigerians

Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land, Housing and Urban Development, Senator Victor Umeh, recently accompanied the Managing Director of Federal Housing Authority, Hon. Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo to inspect the demolished houses in Abule Ado area of Lagos State. After the inspection, Senator Umeh told Charles Ajunwa that the matter has been largely resolved amicably. He also said that the federal government is unserious in building affordable and sustainable mass housing for the teeming population of Nigerians, wondering what the Federal Housing Authority will be doing with a capital base of N2.5 billion, among other issues

Recently, you accompanied the Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to inspect demolished houses in Abule Ado area of Lagos State. What were your findings?

In November 2023, I saw on television where bulldozers were pulling down houses already built; very beautiful mansions were being brought down and people were wailing and crying. Pictures were shown of where some families were displaced within short notice, and their houses brought down. I looked at it, I felt no matter who was living in that location, whether Igbo man or anybody, government should not be doing such a thing because the houses were not built overnight. If an estate has been largely developed, and the government was negligent or acquiesced to the development, it would be wrong in the day to come after the whole place had been built up for the government to wake up and start demolishing them.

When I saw it, I’m an estate surveyor and valuer, I’m a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and I read Land Law. I know that possession is nine-tenth of the law. If you allow somebody to be in possession of a piece of land, develop it fully, and you wake up to go and drag the ownership, the law will protect the person who is there, because you wouldn’t have allowed the person to go to that extent before wielding the stick. On that understanding, I spoke out against the demolitions, and of course confronted the Minister of Housing who was appearing before the Senate at that time. I told him what was going on in Abule Ado Lagos was not acceptable. That these are Nigerians, you want to throw them into the streets after building those houses with their own resources. Whatever the issues may be, whether defective title or anything can be discussed later, that the demolitions should be halted. I made that point to him, and he promised to look into it. The demolitions continued and I started receiving calls from people in distress in that location after they saw me speak against it on the television. I went to see the Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority when demolitions were being carried out by the agents of the Authority. The Managing Director then Senator Gbenga Ashafa who was my colleague in the 8th Senate received me very warmly, and I told him my mission. That these demolitions, one, is not good for Nigeria. Two, the way the demolitions were going on, is against natural injustice as well. If these things have got to that level where over 5,000 houses have been built up, the government should not go in with bulldozers and begin to demolish indiscriminately. That there was need to halt the demolitions so that we can look at it both the Senate Committee and the Federal Housing Authority, will look at the matter and find amicable settlement to it. I met with him on a Monday, and they went on a Tuesday again. He told me that this thing has gotten out of hand. That the way I was pursuing this matter, that he feels too with the outcry and tension the thing has generated, that I should please allow them to work on a Wednesday. That there was a road they were trying to open which they said was blocked. I said no problem and by Wednesday midnight the demolitions were halted. Now, we started looking at how to find solutions to those that were found to build on drainage channels, because the claim was that some houses were built on drainage channels, some were built on areas marked for roads for the estate and it was because of the disorderly development that the demolitions started. We agreed to go and see those who built on drainage channels and those who built on areas marked for roads. We set up a team that should go and check these things, in the process there was a change of leadership. The President appointed Hon. Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo, a former member of the House of Representatives as the new Managing Director. As soon as he came in and started to work, we engaged him immediately. Myself and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land, Housing and Urban Development, my brother and good friend, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the former governor of Sokoto State. We met with the new MD and he agreed to look into it dispassionately and also with the human conscience that the action will require. From that last year, it has been one level of investigation or the other trying to get things done. Flying drones across the estate and by November he told me that he was ready for us to visit the place together so that we will see for ourselves the state of affairs and make decisions on how to proceed. One was that we agreed that the best thing to do, would be to regularise the allocations, the titles, and give those whose properties are on good standing the opportunity to fresh allocations so that they will pay and get proper documents. And then there were people who were original allottees, they still have to settle them. Their properties have been built upon and they have to be given alternative allocations. We agreed severally to come but due to exigencies of duties since October last year we have been rescheduling and finally this weekend, we were able to agree. He came to FESTAC, the Lagos office of FHA in the South-west Zone on the 19th of January. They have been working on this and on Friday, January 24, I arrived Lagos to meet him with some of the developers as well. We agreed on a joint inspection on January 25. On Saturday, we went to Abule Ado and traversed the entire estate. We were walking around the estate for over four hours. It was a painstaking exercise, very laborious and we were able to identify the demolished properties and their owners. everybody would stand on his own and we would come and see, check and record. We were able to cover the whole place and addressed the entire community including the Kabiyesi and his people. At the end of the exercise, everybody was happy. He read out to them the way to go about it and the template has been established – everybody will come with his or her own receipts and go through the FHA screening, get their properties back and they will give them documents for them to establish and perfect their titles. It was agreed between the natives and the people who are presently living there and with the housing authority. It was a tripartite understanding. The other thing, is that when the matter generated tension when the President appointed him the MD, the President was aware of the crisis going on there and he told him to go and do the right thing and make sure that nobody is victimised. I want to use this opportunity to commend President Tinubu for giving him that directive and allowing him to go and solve the problem without ethnic bias. It turned out that Igbos are majority in the estate and when it started they spun it to be an action against the Igbos. But when I got into it, I knew it was far more beyond those claims. People had built on lands that had been allocated to others because that land was acquired in 1975 and given to the Federal Housing Authority. The first phase is the present FESTAC Phase 1, and this place is FESTAC Phase 2 and because allocations were made and swamps are everywhere, no work was done. People in the early ‘80s never went there again and with the spread of development leaders of those communities started selling the land they had received compensation for many years back. They call themselves Omoniles. People were buying and building; there was no disturbance and they built up the entire place. That is what the present FHA MD is faced with. Because of our mediation, the matter is largely settled now. I want to thank Hon. Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo and his team for doing great work. He has developed very great strategies not only for Abule Ado but for the Federal Housing Authority. We have been working with him, and we see him as somebody who is very resourceful and eager to work. When we were walking round the estate you will not know that even me as a Senator or himself as FHA MD can take that stress to trek round the entire estate. But we did and people were surprised. Now it’s not about staying in the office getting briefs from people who are on ground, he goes to the field. We went there and saw for ourselves, walking around with residents and Abule Ado indigenous people. They were happy with the resolution reached.

Millions of Nigerians are still without shelter despite the government’s claim to have built affordable and sustainable houses in almost 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). What is the National Assembly doing to address the housing deficit?

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has started what he called the Renewed Hope Housing Agenda, to create millions of housing units for the teeming population of Nigerians. But you see, government can be doing this with all good intentions but the programme managers may be the problem. It’s a very well-taught programme and agenda but we who see what happens on the ground, know that more will be done to be able to solve the housing deficits in Nigeria. For example, the Federal Housing Authority had been established long ago by the Government of Nigeria, and over the years after FESTAC Town which was developed in 1977, those houses were built because of the Festival of African Culture. Then other places that the government tried to set up estates include Gowon Estate and Jakande Estate built by Lagos State government. Government has been very unserious in building mass housing for Nigerians. Shagari came with his own programme and that was mismanaged. They sited the estates in bushes where you go and see some two-bedroom bungalows, maybe 40 or 50 built to where nobody can come and live. Some of them have been occupied by lizards and reptiles up till today. It’s because of the poor coordination. The federal government established the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN). All these things were programmes designed to aid affordable housing to the Nigerian public. But if you go to see the details, it will shock you that these names are there without any activity. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria was capitalised with N2.5 billion. The Federal Government of Nigeria is to provide mortgage to millions of Nigerians at the capital base of N2.5 billion. Today, that sum is so little that even an individual, small businessman can have N2.5 billion. So the Federal Government of Nigeria has a mortgage bank its capital base is N2.5 billion and out of this N2.5 billion, the federal government paid N1.5 billion, and the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN) was to contribute N1 billion. Since then, the CBN contributed only 600 million. You can see that the whole thing is in a mess. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria exists only because of the national housing funds where workers contribute money to them to be able to access a pool of funds to build houses and rent houses. In terms of capital to do the normal business of mortgages, the way it is done in America, Europe and elsewhere, Nigeria has not started. It is because you have people in government who try to divert the attention of the government. They create institutions and don’t fund the institutions. They will not be able to provide the services. So, we are saying this present National Assembly under the House of Representatives and the Senate Committees on Land, Housing and Urban Development, we are looking at it very seriously to see how to direct funds into these agencies of government that will render these services and help in housing delivery. We have identified the Federal Housing Authority particularly under this current leadership to be effective. The present FHA leadership is very determined and visionary. We have identified him as a vessel where funds can be put into and houses would be built and delivered. The Federal Ministry of Housing is also building some of these houses. There is what is called Family Homes Funds as well which is part of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI). They are also charged with the responsibility of providing mass housing. Government does these things, they have scattered programmes but very poor coordination. We intend to help as committees of the National Assembly to put the force and the energy in the agencies that can drive these things to happen. Just recently, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated came up with an idea, they want to go into mass housing. They call it MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund. They want to get into creating mortgages when you have a mortgage bank you have not put any money there. Federal government has already put N150 billion in the MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund with a promise to give them N100 billion totalling N250 billion. Yet you have a mortgage bank that has only N2,5 billion as its capital base. Mortgage is driven by mortgage institutions all over the world. So why should the Ministry of Finance get involved in creating money when they have a bank that has structures in almost all parts of the federation? There is no state capital you don’t have the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. You don’t want to put money there, some civil servants will stay somewhere and write memos, they start another thing and channel funds. There are lush funds everywhere that can be used to develop houses for Nigerians. The PENCOM Fund is running up to N21 trillion. These are funds you can use to invest in real estate in a coordinated manner to build affordable houses to the teeming population of Nigerians. But you know, everything in Nigeria is business. Those funds are accumulated, they place it in banks to earn interest and they invest in stocks and bonds. While the critical sector that the money would be used to provide houses continue to suffer. So these are some of the things we have to look at and find how to get these monies channelled to proper development institutions that can help to provide affordable housing.