Modestus Umenzekwe:
Indeed, the Authority is saddled with numerous statutory responsibilities which include but not restricted to preparation and submission from time to time, to the Government of proposals for National Housing Programmes; the making of recommendations to the Government on such aspects of urban and regional planning, transportation, communication, electric power, sewage and water supply development as may be relevant to the successful execution of housing programmes approved by the Government; and the execution of such housing programmes as may be approved by the Government. Germane for the realization of these above laudable duties of the Authority is the mission which is to promote housing delivery in sustainable settlements through partnerships and end-user driven initiatives, as a catalyst for socio-economic development in Nigeria; while the vision is to be the leading facilitator of access to sustainable housing solutions in Nigeria and become a model government agency in the world.
Beyond the statutory responsibilities of providing shelter for millions of Nigerians in various categories of housing needs, the agency has assumed other roles of development and nation-building; for aside helping to raise structures for shelter across the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, such structures have gone ahead to enhance the beauty and esthetics of the nation’s landscape, constructing drainages and planting flowers within the estates. The Authority has also become an instrument of unity. The FHA estates throughout the country accommodate almost every ethnic nationalities living there as brothers and sisters without any rancour. When you go to such estates like Festac in Lagos, Gwarimpa in Abuja, Umuahia in Abia, Owerri in Imo State, Ibadan in Oyo State (under construction), and the recently commissioned 748 house units in Zuba area of Abuja by President Muhammadu Buhari on 2nd May, 2023, you would be shocked to witness the level of peace, unity, love, cooperation, networking going on in those estates, nobody talks about, Igbo, Yoruba, or Hausa, they are all brothers and sister.
And you can see that the FHA as it is presently constituted is made up of men and women of timber and caliber who understand the importance and magnitude of the assignment given to them by the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) who himself is implementing the critical Housing vision of the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari.
And when you are talking about the successes recorded by the Federal Housing Authority, the names of two fantastic gentlemen comes to mind: they are Senator Shuaibu Lawal, the Chairman of the Federal Housing Authority and the man who oversees the day-to-day activities of the Housing agency, Senator Gbenga Ashafa.
Senator Lawal Shuaibu, I will always say the truth and nothing but the truth and which I will challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Senator Lawal is a well-known Nigerian, a very very strong politician of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a dignified senator for that matter. He is a hard negotiator and a goal getter, he is a no nonsense man, you see him laughing all the time, but highly disciplined. At the slightest mistake he can reprimand you and tell you he doesn’t like what you are doing, but not to the extent of going to punish you unduly; he would tell you there and then I don’t like it, and would now come in with the correction. He is a man that doesn’t take excuses, he gives you assignment and you don’t deliver, he doesn’t take excuses, you must get it right, you must do it the normal way. So whenever you are with him, you must be on your toes. He dislikes wasting time, and he is very very frugal, very very cautious. He is a man that talks about due process, you don’t cut corners and he is a very very strong man, you can’t push him around. But then, Senator Shuaibu Lawal is a teacher. If he gives you tutorial, you go home and sleep; he is so versatile in governance; a well-educated man, tall, back, handsome man, may God bless him.
Then on the other hand, is Senator Gbenga Bahiru Ashafa, Managing Director of the Authority, is well known to Nigerians, he is a Lagosian from the southwest, and in Lagos when you talk about land construction, you must mention his name. He is a fine handsome gentleman, very unassuming and focused. He knows when to cut his onions, very calm in nature but very very decisive. He has a good heart and he has experience in human management. Above all, Senator Ashafa has been a senator of the Federal Republic. I do not know him as a man of severe mistakes, we are all human beings, we can err in one way or the other, but I do not know him as a man with dangerous mistakes. He is well organized and he has done a lot to reposition FHA. He has gone all out to visit the property of FHA wherever they are throughout the country irrespective of how volatile such area is, you still see him there. You see him in the southeast, Northeast, Northwest, North central, south-south, southwest, his own area. So he keeps touring round the nation, visiting, and solving one problem or the other, and he doesn’t make noise about it; and the entire staff of FHA and the entire Board have good working relationship with him. Yes they do disagree, which is normal in every organization, otherwise there would be a lot of mistakes. Such arguments normally arise in order to sieve out the grey areas, but in the end, everything will come to conclusion in a very very peaceful and dignified way. And that is why FHA is moving up.
The other day President Buhari commissioned a project in Zuba, 748 housing units, another construction is going on now in Bwari, the area you have law school, it is scattered like that all over the Federation, and you see this man visiting all the sites to make sure that things are in order. I congratulate him and more grease to his elbow.
The Federal
Government of Nigeria through the FHA and the Ministry of Works and Housing has
delivered 8,938 housing units across 35 states and the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT). It is not strange, we
all heard it from the horse’s mouth, Mr
Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) while delivering the scorecard of his stewardship
as the Minister of Works and Housing in the administration of President
Muhammadu. The theme of the scorecard was ‘Tour of Duty as Honourable Minister
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: A Time and Economic Resource Report
(2015-2023)”.
The soft spoken indefatigable former governor of
Lagos also reminded those who may have forgotten in a hurry that, the ministry
has also created jobs too. He said “We have created 383,431 jobs, constructed
9,290.34 kilometres of roads, linear metre of lane marking 2,270,319 and number
of road signs installed 254,690. What
this is doing in effect is that journey time are being reduced, improving human
conditions and promoting prosperity.”
He went on to say, “We have 46 sites in 35
states with 6,068 housing units and 2,870 housing units in the FCT. Fashola added that the ministry issued 1,262 building
contracts, while 6,685 Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) were signed from 2015
to March 2023. He also added that the
ministry generated a revenue of N13,09 billion within the period.
Over 2,200 housing units are currently being
completed in Apo, Abuja, Odukpani in Calabar and Yenagoa in Bayelsa State and
Awka, Anambra State, many of them are at their various completion stages.
The authority is also currently carrying out direct development of 330 units of various house types with complementary infrastructure in six states across the country namely: Gombe – Gombe State, Makurdi – Benue State and Osogbo – Osun State, the construction of the 17-storey headquarters of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja which has reached its peak. The N39.2bn project is certainly going to be one of the landmark buildings that will shape and define the skylines of the city of Abuja after its completion. What of the FHA proposed head office site at the Central Business District and the Lugbe extension, they have become a reality now.
There is the Kabusu, Shisipe II in Abuja metropolis; the site for the proposed FHA Smart City project sits on 700 hectares of land. The FHA Lugbe extension project is on 190 hectares of land, the FHA Ajoda GRA scheme is a partnership project started in 2020, expected to deliver a total of 896 units of various house types.
Statistics have shown that Nigeria is among the nations of the world that have shown capacity in the provision of shelter for its people. Although efforts geared in this direction appeared not to have ameliorated the wide gap created by population, but the truth remains that the government of Nigeria has put in place commendable and gigantic policy measures to ensure that their citizens have affordable shelter over their heads.
Private individuals on their own have equally contributed their quota by also playing tremendous roles in the provision of houses for themselves and fellow citizens just as they do in any part of the world; but in all these there still appear little is being done to make mass housing a reality.
No doubt, it is evident that there is the desire by government to
ensure adequate shelter for the teeming population of Nigeria however,
available financial resources and population size have posed an impediment in the
realization of mass housing for all not just in Nigeria, but also in other
climes, that is aside the political will to do so.
In terms of the generation of jobs, both direct and indirect, the FHA has proved to be a veritable tool for wealth distribution. Reports garnered from the various construction sites through various means, including site inspection by the minister or his representatives, no less than 1,000 people are employed on each site, apart from the staff of the successful contractors. These sites are an ecosystem of human enterprise, where artisans, vendors, suppliers, and craftsmen converge to partake of opportunities and contribute to nation-building.
The Authority has proved to be one of the veritable means of achieving president Buhari’s vision of lifting 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years. With a combination of employment, access to opportunities, value asset renewal, increase in income for those already employed, access to nutrition, freedom from disease, access to shelter and many more life-enhancing opportunities that move people from want and poverty to access and prosperity, which agency has provided in the last six years, the president’s vision is achievable.
It is no longer news that wherever the Authority has a project, the
generality of the people in that community also benefit from such project, and this
has been attested to by the minister himself who once painted a clear picture of the economic
benefits of projects carried out by his ministry from the contractor/construction
company that wins the bid to the labourers on-site who earn N3,000 a day, (N18,
000 a week (for six days) and approximately N72,000 a month); to the owner of
the concrete mixer who charges N20,000 a day: to suppliers and vendors of
building materials, and employees of companies that manufacture paint, tiles,
roofing materials, the Federal Government, and state government collaboration
provided a step up towards the ladder of prosperity. Above is how the minister
captured the role of his ministry and agencies in promoting prosperity through
various construction projects across the country.
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