Stakeholders in the built industry have bemoaned the lack-luster
attitude of Lagos State authorities with mandate to enforce the policy
of one year rent for tenants moving into new apartments.
Those who spoke to Daily Sun said the inability of Lagos State government to implement the provisions of the tenancy law enacted about four years ago remained a clog in the drive to give Lagosians affordable accommodation.
Years after the law was passed, stakeholders, including tenants, landlords, estate agents and developers say the law has failed to achieve its set objectives urging government to look for better ways of enforcing its rules and policies.
Recently, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, threatened that any landlord found contravening the law would be made to suffer the penalty.
He particularly frowned at the situation where residents are asked to pay for two-year rent in advance in an economy where they receive their salaries in arrears. “We see it as wrong when a society pretends that all is well when people are asked to put forward two years rent in advance when they are getting monthly wages in arrears; something is wrong. And if we are also comfortable with it there is something wrong with us,” he said.
Mr. Cyril Okafor, an Apapa, Lagos based businessman said the tenancy law in Lagos and government pronouncement, are mere semantics. “The law is only paper a tiger that only exists on the pronouncement. The issue of accommodation in Lagos has been the greatest task residents tend to contend with. The landlords always have their way because the force with which to bring the defaulting landlords to comply are very incoherent,” he said.
Daily Sun checks also reveal that some landlords choose to let their properties to some tribes than others. Some say they do not want the Igbo because they do not pay when their rent expires while others accuse their fellow landlords of tending to be Shylock in their demands only to complain afterwards.
According to Jelili Gbadamosi, a landlord in Ketu, Lagos, “many a time I blame my fellow landlords. Some landlords believe that these Igbo boys are rich, so after they park in, they realise that they paid exorbitantly; they now want reduction or refuse to meet the yearly rent agreement. It is also wrong to discriminate about tribe because there is no tribe that is better than the other.
A recent World Bank Report on, “How Africa Can Transform Land Tenure, Revolutionise Agriculture, and End Poverty,” notes that sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly half of the world’s usable, uncultivated land but so far the continent has not been able to develop these unused tracts estimated at more than 202 million hectares, to dramatically reduce poverty and boost growth, jobs and shared prosperity.
This observation made by Makhtar Diop, the global bank’s Vice President for Africa, re-echoes the utter failure of Nigeria’s Land Use Act, which was promulgated by the then military government under Olusegun Obasanjo in 1978.
The act vested ownership of all land in a state on the governor, meaning that the governor holds it in trust for the people and gives him the power to allot and revoke land at will. This power over land given to governors has attracted criticisms with strident calls for the withdrawal of such powers.
Another report by the World Bank entitled, “Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity,” argues that African countries and their communities could effectively end “land grabs”, grow more food across the region and transform their development prospects if they can modernise the complex governance procedures that govern land ownership and management over the next decade, adding that Africa has the highest poverty rate in the world with 47.5 per cent of the population living below $1.25 a day.
The Sun)
Those who spoke to Daily Sun said the inability of Lagos State government to implement the provisions of the tenancy law enacted about four years ago remained a clog in the drive to give Lagosians affordable accommodation.
Years after the law was passed, stakeholders, including tenants, landlords, estate agents and developers say the law has failed to achieve its set objectives urging government to look for better ways of enforcing its rules and policies.
Recently, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, threatened that any landlord found contravening the law would be made to suffer the penalty.
He particularly frowned at the situation where residents are asked to pay for two-year rent in advance in an economy where they receive their salaries in arrears. “We see it as wrong when a society pretends that all is well when people are asked to put forward two years rent in advance when they are getting monthly wages in arrears; something is wrong. And if we are also comfortable with it there is something wrong with us,” he said.
Mr. Cyril Okafor, an Apapa, Lagos based businessman said the tenancy law in Lagos and government pronouncement, are mere semantics. “The law is only paper a tiger that only exists on the pronouncement. The issue of accommodation in Lagos has been the greatest task residents tend to contend with. The landlords always have their way because the force with which to bring the defaulting landlords to comply are very incoherent,” he said.
Daily Sun checks also reveal that some landlords choose to let their properties to some tribes than others. Some say they do not want the Igbo because they do not pay when their rent expires while others accuse their fellow landlords of tending to be Shylock in their demands only to complain afterwards.
According to Jelili Gbadamosi, a landlord in Ketu, Lagos, “many a time I blame my fellow landlords. Some landlords believe that these Igbo boys are rich, so after they park in, they realise that they paid exorbitantly; they now want reduction or refuse to meet the yearly rent agreement. It is also wrong to discriminate about tribe because there is no tribe that is better than the other.
A recent World Bank Report on, “How Africa Can Transform Land Tenure, Revolutionise Agriculture, and End Poverty,” notes that sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly half of the world’s usable, uncultivated land but so far the continent has not been able to develop these unused tracts estimated at more than 202 million hectares, to dramatically reduce poverty and boost growth, jobs and shared prosperity.
This observation made by Makhtar Diop, the global bank’s Vice President for Africa, re-echoes the utter failure of Nigeria’s Land Use Act, which was promulgated by the then military government under Olusegun Obasanjo in 1978.
The act vested ownership of all land in a state on the governor, meaning that the governor holds it in trust for the people and gives him the power to allot and revoke land at will. This power over land given to governors has attracted criticisms with strident calls for the withdrawal of such powers.
Another report by the World Bank entitled, “Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity,” argues that African countries and their communities could effectively end “land grabs”, grow more food across the region and transform their development prospects if they can modernise the complex governance procedures that govern land ownership and management over the next decade, adding that Africa has the highest poverty rate in the world with 47.5 per cent of the population living below $1.25 a day.
The Sun)
No comments:
Post a Comment