From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Candidates aspiring for the office of President in 2023 have been charged to pay more attention to the issue of providing affordable housing for the masses.
Festus Adebayo, the convener of the African Housing Awards 2022, said all the Presidential candidates had so far not shown enough commitment to the issue of affordable housing which is critical to the country’s economy and citizen’s welfare.
Speaking at the event which held at the weekend, Adebayo said: “We consider this event an avenue to engage politicians. We have seen all of them speak severally but none of them has spoken seriously affordable housing. We have gone through the manifesto of some of them, some of them used one paragraph, some used two. But this topic is too critical and any body who wants to be the president of this country must state clearly as to how they intend to house Nigeria. This is one of the major problems that has affected the country. Affordable housing is key and by the way housing effect to the economy is very huge. It creates jobs.
“What are saying is, presidential aspirants, share your strategies with. You said you want to build 500,000 houses, every year, tell us how you intend to achieve this. Tell us the agency you are going to use? who are the people that are going to build them? What we are engaging this people for us the mistake we made in 2015 when somebody told us I am going to build one million houses every year and eight years later, they have not been able to give us 10,000 houses.”
He added that the country keeps making the mistake of producing houses for the same set of people who can afford them but has done nothing in the area of affordable housing.
Mr Peter Obi, who was represented by Ibrahim Abdulkarim, Director General, Obi-Datti independent campaign council, , the only candidate’s that graced the event, said they plan to ensure that every Nigerian has a shelter in order to reduce social vices in the society
According Abdulkarim, “Mr Obi has already said it clearly that housing and infrastructure are best legacies he will give because for example, there is no way you can build a nation where there is no shelter. The importance of shelter is not only for protection, it is also for privacy. We are looking at it from a different angle, we looking how shelter is going to reduce rape, reduce crime,
“The kind of house a political office holders lives in keeps changing and improving over the years but that of the people who voted them into office remain the same or even gets worse. Some can’t even afford a decent roof over theirs heads. So we in the Obi-Datti movement”
Meanwhile, the Governor of Yobe State, Mala Buni, among other notable awardees, was been named Nigeria’s housing-friendly governor of the year.
He was said to have given 50 per cent subsidy on 2,000 houses built for civil servants.