Princewill Odidi|26 November 2017
Let’s talk about affordable housing and the hypocrisy of the Nigerian government when it comes to housing policies.
Do you know since independence virtually all public housing schemes in Nigeria favored only the rich and middle classes? In recent memory, one of the only housing estates that was truly assigned to the poor is the Jakande estates of Lagos.
Our governments over the years acts as though the very presence of the poor living side by side the rich irritates them.
Take a look at virtually all government housing in recent memory, they are built for the consumption of the rich. In the event poor people live too close to the rich, government comes up with some cook and bull story to displace them.
Do you remember the demolition of Maroko a slum situated in the present Lekki phase one? Maroko was a community in Eti-Osa, Lagos State, Nigeria. It was adjacent to Ikoyi and east of Victoria Island.
It was a low income area that attracted a lot of migrants since it was in close proximity to economically robust areas.
In July 1990, the Lagos State government, under Raji Rasaki, evicted the residents of Maroko and demolished the community. About three hundred thousand poor people were evicted.
The government and the Nigerian rich elites in their usual lies, said the reason for the eviction was because Maroko was below sea level and to prevent a future flooding disaster.
Instead of building sand barriers or at most rebuild affordable housing for the residents, government chased them away and today built choice housing for the rich and now called Lekki phase one and two.
The mindless Governor Rasaki demolished the entire community and today Lekki is the new Maroko a city for Nigerian rich, no one talks about below sea level Today.
What is so difficult for the Nigeran government to build an actual affordable housing where the poor can live? Our politicians steal in billions and starch in foreign banks, just a small percentage of the stolen wealth can solve our housing projects for the poor. Recently in Lagos another demolition is going on, poor women and children who attempted to protest where driven off government property with tear gas.
Some leaders that even attempt to construct housing estates, the names assigned to the development alone is sufficient to tell you it is no go areas for the poor.
It is time the poor start getting it right. Money that accrues to the government from crude oil sales is no one’s birthright, it is our collective wealth. The difference between democracy and military rule is that no one puts a gun to your head and tell you what to do.
Let’s demand cheap and affordable housing for the poor, retired civil servants whose challenge is going back home with nothing to show for it. If the rich do not have the tolerance to coexist side by side the poor, then let them have a separate voting box for them designed by INEC and let’s see if they are truly the majority. Unfortunately until the government decides to use our collective wealth to improve the living conditions of the poor and powerless, the smiling face of the young kid below, amidst dirt and hunger will continue to haunt our sleep.
Princewill Odidi writes from Atlanta USA.
