It has been all over the media recently that the Lagos State Government is on a quest to demolish all slum dwellings in the state, as they want to ensure safety of the residents and to be taken seriously as a “mega city” My question is, would they have allowed these dwellings to flourish if they did not want to be taken seriously? And what do slum dwellers have to do with the government’s seriousness? Do they have a say? What about the slum dwellers who want to be taken seriously by having safe and decent homes to live in? I sometimes fail to understand how decisions are arrived at that concerns those that have no voices. Whilst I will be the first to acknowledge the immense work the Lagos State Government puts into the State, there seems to be no plans for the resettlement of these people, which makes nonsense of the hopes for mega city status. A city that cannot provide homes for its masses is not a mega city by any standards.
We watch daily as “billions of naira is stolen or squandered on one building or a private aircraft. If only a fraction of this loot, was put towards building safe, decent and affordable homes as well as maintaining them, there would not be so many slum dwellings or shanties around. Already the mass demolition has started, displacing at least 10,000 people in the Iganmu area. Some of these people have lived there for 40 years! We are told there has been no resistance from the people although most have nowhere else to go. Last year there were attempts to move residents of the Makoko river community in Yaba, which had to be halted as things got out of hand. The scattering of existing low cost Government homes around the state, are suffering from a terrible lack of maintenance and have literally fallen apart, with crumbled or decayed plumbing, doors and windows fallen out, roofs blown off, no electricity etc. Residents mainly resort to doing whatever patch work they can just to keep a roof over their heads.
I read that some brand new luxury residential estate had been demolished because the land was acquired under controversial circumstances. So rather than sort out the land details all the dozens of completed homes were demolished, depriving the numerous numbers of people searching for a home, the chance to benefit from a roof over their heads. Where is the logic in that?
It is quite worrying that some landlords will rather leave their properties empty for years rather than lower the asking amount or consider using it for alternative sources of income ie a school or a book store. Some landlords want their properties for residential accommodation but receive offers to use it for commercial uses and do not consider these offers even though the property is better suited for commercial use. I went to a property during the week that was on a main busy road, and the area rapidly becoming commercialized. The owner wanted “corporate tenants” but was not getting any offers that matched what he wanted. He had received two offers for a pharmacy and one for a phone shop. He had refused all these offers, because they were not his idea of what he wanted his property to be used for. I had to sit him down and explain that he should seriously consider the offers as the area was being commercialized anyway. He rang me a few days later to say he had accepted an offer for the property to be used as an office space for a telecoms company.
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