PROPERTY ARTICLES

Mr. Bode Adediji is the Executive Chairman of Bode Adediji Partnership, Kontinental Developers Nigeria Limited and House of Estate International Limited among others. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). He spoke to media executives on some national issues like the Land Use Act, the position of real estate in the current global economic meltdown and others. SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Dada Jackson was there. Excerpts:

Recently, the Presidency sent a bill to the National Assembly for the purpose of amending the Land Use Act, what is your position on this Act?

Thank you very much for this question. Let me be frank with you, my candid position on the issue is that the Land Use Act should be abrogated, no more, no less. My grouse with the Act is the enormous powers given to governors in respect of signing of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O). The centralised administrative law is an anathema. You may want to know that the volume of applications for land approvals on a daily basis is so enormous that the governor would have nothing else to do if he concentrates only on signing of certificates of occupancy. I believe strongly that the Act should be totally abrogated and not amended.

There is this school of thought that says that the current global economic melt down would have little impact on Nigeria, how true is this?

One of the greatest assets that this country has assets has always been the ignorance of the masses. No nation is an island on its own. Whatever affects the global economy, there is no part of the universe where human beings live that will not be affected one way or another. In the case of Nigeria, I would like to say categorically that the use of the word global meltdown being used all over the world is a child's play to what Nigeria is entering into. I would regard our own as "A National Economic Tsunami". The reason is simple. Nigeria is a mono-product country. The country depends only on oil, other countries that are affected by this economic meltdown have multi-product economy. Second, and Nigeria is being bashed on this mono product from two angles. The price of crude oil on the international market is crashing.The supply side is being affected by the Niger Delta restiveness so that the supply is being hindered. If you look at both factors, oil which the only product responsible for over 70 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings, then one is not actually looking at national economic recession, but a national economic tsunami which every body should brace up for. As far as our own sector is concerned, we are going to be affected in more ways that can become explicit now. One, the prices of building materials would escalate as a direct result of the devaluation of the Naira and spiraling inflation. A few months ago, dollar was barely N117 or N118 but as of March, 2009, the same Naira is exchanging for N185 to a dollar. You are looking at almost 40 per cent devaluation. And to the extent that apart sand and water, the bulk of your building materials such as iron, cement, aluminium, roofing sheets of all types are brought in one way or the other. Simply put, these materials are imported. You can then see that Nigeria cannot be insulated from the global economic crisis. The oxygen for funding real estate project is finance. To the extent that the banks are being affected. With this development, the real estate sector has been affected fundamentally. And you see a sector now confronted with problems from various sources escalating prices of building materials, virtual stoppage of lending to that sector by the banks and o cap it all,wiotiout income there is no demand, it means that you struggle to build a house, with the expectations that these house would be rented when people can barely eat, they would be unable to rent a house not to talk of buying. So eitherbway you look at the sector, we are already being affected by what the press and government regard as global economic meltdown but what I can say in our own case here as national economic tsunami.

How do you situate this with the notion that whatever is the state of the economy, the real estate sector would still thrive?

The notion that real estate would always thrive in any economy is not true considering the effect of the global economic meltdown. Let me say without mincing words that in the present situation, the cost of construction is rising, while the prices of houses are falling due to the dwindling fortunes of the Naira. Like I mentioned earlier, virtually all the materials that are used for construction are imported except for sand and water. There is no way the real estate sector would thrive in a depressed economy. So, to answer your question directly, the cost of building houses has gone up while the price of buying houses has fallen.

What is your take on the use of local building materials like clay to build considering the high cost of cement?

That is a very intelligent question and I would like to answer it professionally. If there is any issue you are discussing concerning housing today in Nigeria that had not reared its ugly head before. There was a time when it was fashionable for all the regional governments then to invest massively in green clay industries, you have in Minna, Ikorodu, Abak, and Sokoto.What happened to them, they all died.Two, there was a time that the production of local cement was the in-thing. You had Sagamu, Ewekoro and Nkalagu.But you need a government because tackling the national problem as far as reordering your taste and priorities are concerned cannot be driven from a single man's table. Those countries that succeeded in using what they are producing to meet their own demand, are governed centrally in terms of philosophy, in terms of practice and in terms of reward to tell their populace this is where we are going. That is what Nigeria lacks. For me, with all the experiment I have performed in terms of using local materials. My house in Ada is partly local material and partly imported. What you find is that you need a critical mass to be able to drive a revolution. What you need is a central driver to say, this is where we are going. And in all nations that have attained that that is what their government has done. That is why I have said that this national economic tsunami is going to be a blessing for Nigeria in disguise because this is an emerging environment that would condition the mind of government and the governed as to how to live a national life that will be based on self- sufficiency, dignity and care for the next generation. Another tragedy we have in this country, we run our affairs as if this society is going to end with our present generation. That is not the issue, those who plan for energy abroad, those who plan for food sufficiency, do not look at the present .They are looking at the third, fourth and fifth generations to come.

Sir, you are vying for the position of first Vice President at the forthcoming annual conference of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), what informed this development?

Thank you very much. Let me say without mincing words that the decision to vie for the position of first vice president of our great institution was necessitated by pressure from some members of the body, who felt that there was the need for somebody like me to aspire to the exalted office of the first vice president. Also, the time has come to heal all the wounds of the pat and to equally bring together every aggrieved member of the institution. We cannot fold our arms and allow what we have built over the years to crumble. I believe strongly that now is the time to put the association back to track. It is equally important to put behind us primordial factors like which tribe you come from. Whether you are Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa, the institution belong to all of us.