PROPERTY ARTICLES

The announcement of the "born again" Federal Ministry of Works and Housing by the President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration brought a mixed feeling among many in the building and construction industry.

To many, it was taking the industry 360 degrees back to square one. To some others, it meant a position of subjecting the housing sector to the second-class position it had maintained in the past. Yet to some others, it spelt a better omen to the Nigerian public than in the last dispensation when the federal government joined the ministry in an unholy wedlock with the transport and aviation ministries to form the transportation ministry.

Many felt that the housing sector, which was blessed with a full-fledged ministry was going back to the doldrums or even oblivion. For them, the granting of the ministerial status by the President Obasanjo’s administration should have been given the opportunity to gain confidence and grow with time and not to merge it back to the ministry of works.

Those who hold this opinion feel that housing and urban development will not receive good attention if put under the ministry of works.

In its last time out as the transportation ministry, the works arm of the ministry was almost dead because nothing was heard about our roads and bridges. Maritime and aviation received the most attention while the nation’s road network was neglected. A lot of noise was generated when the repairs of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos came up because the sector had been out of the news for a while .

But as the new Minister and Minister of State for Works, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Hassan Mohammed Lawal and Mrs. Grace Ekphiwhre respectively take full charge, much is expected of them to bring the ministry to the level of reckoning, especially as the sector remains the heartbeat of the nation, saddled with infrastructural provision and housing which ranks high in the scale of needs of man.

In the past, the ministry was known to employ the largest labour force in the federation because of the strategic position it occupies. The workforce comprised high class professionals cutting across the seven professions in the building and construction industry, vis; engineers, architects, town planners, builders, quantity surveyors, surveyors and estate surveyors and valuers as well as administrators, And because of its the vast area of coverage that includes the whole of the country, it maintains State offices under the leadership of State Controllers of Works. These are supposed to ensure that the federal investments in the states such as roads, bridges and housing estates and landed properties are maintained.

How fare the States and federal arm of the ministry have been carrying out these assignments in the past remains a big question. Where were they when the roads went bad and some impassable? It has become a common belief that these supervisors deliberately leave the roads when they go back gradually without making any serious efforts to get them repaired so that they would totally go bad and make good case for big contracts that would fetch enough percentage for ‘kick backs’.

As it were, there are too many of Nigerian roads awaiting attention. The ministers should be wary of these as they embark on massive rehabilitation of the nation’s road network .So much time has been wasted that the people are now impatient. No excuse can suffice. What the people now want is action. They want to see things happen.

The economy has suffered because of bad roads. The nation’s hinterlands have been cut off from the rest courtesy of bad roads. Dwellers in rural communities who move their goods and services to the cities have suffered due to bad roads. To move agricultural products to the cities, a lot of them spend many days to get to their destinations by which time the perishable ones would have gone bad. They run at a loss even as they spend higher for transportation of the goods.

As for transporters, they justify their high fares by claiming that the roads were taking a high toll on their vehicles. The wear and tear often noticed on their vehicles, they claim,- is much due to damages recorded as a result of bad roads. These claims cannot be swept under the table. The minister must see himself and the ministry as the major servants of the people. The expectations of the people are that the ministry should give them good, passable and durable roads.

The state of the bridges in Lagos has awakened the people to the realisation that these ‘hanging expressways’ are no longer safe as we thought they were before now. The insistence of former Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Dezieani Allison-Madueke, that action must be taken immediately to repair the Third Mainland Bridge before any disaster is commendable. The speed taken to do the repairs and release the money was also noteworthy.

Dr. Lawal’s administration could also toe this line to declare some of the nation’s roads as "emergency roads" that must be repaired on emergency basis so as to get quick approvals from the due process office. Instead of closing your account by 15th December this year with our roads still in bad shape while the ministers return the unspent money voted in the budget, something must be done now. Even the due process officers pass through these roads to their homes. They must be considerate when it comes to roads in the country.

Even if they decide to make Abuja their permanent homes, they would one day pass through the roads to get to the homes where they were born and whether they like it or not they would be force to go through the roads.

Perhaps, it might be necessary the minister takes inventory of the state of the nation’s bridges to be able to ascertain the level of their stability. Before now there have been calls that a lot of our bridges are in bad shape. Some must be done urgently to maintain the bridges to avoid any impending disaster. We should not forget so soon the Five Cowrie Creek incident of 1994 when a section of the Third Mainland Bridge collapsed.

Closely related to this is the recent alarm raised by no lower organization that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) that the Onitsha Bridge was at the verge of collapse. Though the agency made a U-turn afterwards, it was evident that it did that to remove fears from the people who were traveling for the festivities. Now that is settling down, do not let it be forgotten. The minister should follow it up and ensure that he gets to the root of it to get the correct state of that bridge knowing that that for now is the only route linking the east and the west and some other parts of the north and south south.

To achieve that, the Second Niger Bridge at Onitsha and Asaba ends must be a goal you must set for yourself to achieve. It is very clear that this Bridge project has become one project in this country that has suffered in the hands of successive administrations since the tenure of military President Ibrahim Babangida. Hindsight knowledge of the genesis of the project that has been kept in view for almost 17 years shows that President Babangida had in 1992 challenged the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) to design and build the bridge. It had since remained a controversy whether they can build such a bridge or not. What Nigerians are now saying is that Second Niger Bridge should be built. Who does it is immaterial but le it be built. If built it would help to avert any impending collapse of the steel one in use.

If the cost of road projects in the country could be reviewed to cut it down, the minister would have achieved much accolades, respect and honour for himself. As at now road construction in the country is said to be highest in the country. This should be looked into. And the best thing to do is to listen to the Quantity Surveyors. They have for long cried out against this high cost trend without being listened to. They also say they are marginalized and not given their due position in the ministry where they would be able to play their role by checking the loopholes in costing.

A lot of proposals were not put in place before the former ministry gave way to Transportation ministry among which is the proposed Road Board and Road Fund. Are these still relevant? If they are, the minister must as a matter of urgency call a stakeholders conference to work out the way forward and convince both the presidency and the executive council on the rationale while a legislation should be sought for through the National Assembly.

The role of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) should be reviewed. The populace should be able to see what these people are doing.

For sometime now legacy they left in the State are the observation points where tax payers’ millions of Naira were wasted without being put to use.

The most annoying of these is the observation point at Ore in Ondo State which is located at the very point where people are always held up due bad road. The Minister must do something to redeem the image of the ministry.

If ferma is a road maintenance agency, the men must be seen where the roads are bad. The country was told that the idea was to bring back the PWD of the past even if in a higher degree due to academic attainment, let them be seen as working.

This ministry is standing on a tripartite leg - Works, Housing and Urban Development. In the past, the Housing and Urban Development legs have been made to wobble due to lack of attention in funding and priority. There had been grumbling and accusations of marginalization which was responsible for the calls for a separate ministry. The ministry was heralded when it came but no sooner than it was created than it became beclouded with controversy.

The ministry was not allowed to pick up before it was overwhelmed by policies that turned it to a racketeering ministry where the highly placed shared the houses requited the civil service structure by our heroes past.

The ministry was therefore, rendered impotent and could not perform through the period it lasted. Today people could no longer make case for the retention of the ministry.

However, now that it has come back to base, something must be done to make it work again. Both the minister and the minister of state must see themselves as one and working for one purpose. Any success recorded goes to one entity. The issue of lack of funding for one arm of the ministry should not be repeated.

If anything, there should be a declaration of a state of emergency for the nation’s housing sector. The issue of homelessness in the country is alarming. The housing deficit according to experts is put at between 15million and 17million housing units. This is enough to send fears into the spine of anyone the minister inclusive considering the enormity of achieving the task. The experts have also put the financial requirement to make this deficit of to over N40 trillion when put at the barest minimum of N2.5 million per unit of three bedroom flat.

This estimate is alarming considering the fact that our annual national budget for now is below N3 trillion. It therefore, means that to provide housing for the people would take 14 years budget if nothing else is provided for. The minister must take steps to ensure a breakthrough in housing.

One of the steps to take is to borrow a leaf from Lagos State that just launched its first tranche of N50 billion infrastructure bond. The minister should be able to the presidency and the Federal Government to float this bond. Since it will be for housing which remains an essential commodity anytime, anywhere, financial institutions will buy into it as well as other investors. It will even attract foreign investors.

Government must see housing as a social responsibility and not economic issue that should fend for itself. When you invest into it a social issue, the money should be seen as seed money that would be plowed back to provide more.

And now that the issue of constitutional review is being raised the Minister should make his proposal for the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution so as to give the people the opportunity to have free access to land without the encumbrances posed by the Act since 1998. The issue of housing provision is a joint responsibility between government and the private sector.

The ministers will be remembered if the ministry affects the lives of teeming Nigerians through infrastructure and housing development.