CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Housing
(Shelter) is unarguably one of the basic necessities of man. It used to be
ranked second after food in the hierarchy of man’s needs but according to Ebie
(2009) it is the first and most important of all rights. According to him,
because of the importance attached to housing and coupled with the fact that
housing in all its ramifications is more than mere shelter,then,execution of
public sector housing embraces all social services and utilities that go to
make a community or neighbourhood a livable environment, this is now a right in
Nigeria.This position is reinforced by section 16(1)(d) of 1999 constitution
under the Fundamental Objectives of State Policy which compels the Nigerian
State “to provide suitable and adequate shelter for all citizens” Even though
this provision is not actionable, it reinforces the call for public sector
driven mass housing provision in Nigeria. Housing being a right entails that
all strata of a society including the less privileged members of the society,
the old, the disadvantaged, the wondering psychotics should own or have access
to decent, safe and sanitary housing accommodation at affordable disposal
prices or rental with secure tenure.
Unfortunately
the reverse is the case as in spite of the policies, institutions and
regulations which various Nigerian Governments have put in place since
independence; there is still dearth of housing for low income segment. A recent
study of housing situation in Nigeria put existing housing stock at 23 per 1000
inhabitant. Housing deficit is put at 15 million housing units (Mabogunje,
2007) while 12 trillion naira will be required to finance the deficit. This is
about 4 times the annual budget of Nigeria (FHA, 2007). Housing is of supreme
importance to man and one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of
living and his place in society. However, at no point has it been adequately
supplied either quantitatively or qualitatively (Jiboye 2009;
Omoniyi&Jiboye, 2011). Over time, the need for adequate shelter has
continued to attract global attention especially in developing countries where
the urbanization process has been growing at an alarming rate. The phenomenal
rise in population, increase in number and size of most cities in the past
decades have led to acute shortage of adequate dwelling units in many urban
centres globally (Jiboye, 2009).
Consequently, in recent time, the issue of
housing has formed part of the major discussion in several global summits such
as the 1992 Rio-de Janeiro summit on environment and development, the 1996
Habitat summit at Istanbul, the 2000 New York, United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MDGS) summit, 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg and the 2005
La Havana, UN sustainable Cities Documentation of Experience Programme
(Oladunjoye, 2005; UN-Habitat, 2007; UNDPI, 2008).
Nigeria,
like other developing countries is saddled with uncontrollable growth of the
urban population caused by lack of provision of infrastructural facilities and
poor economic conditions in the rural areas. The proportion of the Nigerian
population living in urban centres has increased phenomenally from 7% in the
1930s, 10% in 1950, 20% in 1970, 27% in 1980 to 35% in 1990
(Okupe, 2002). Over 40% of Nigerians now
live in urban centres of varying sizes. The incidence of this population in
urban centres has created severe housing problems, resulting in overcrowding in
inadequate dwellings, and in a situation in which 60% of Nigerians can be said
to be “houseless persons” (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2004).
Besides
the incidence of overcrowding in the existing housing stock, rural-urban drift
has occasioned the sprouting of make shift dwellings or squatter settlements in
cities that are devoid of minimum structural and normative quality. Majority of
the houses are constructed with all sorts of refuse/second-hand materials in
illegally occupied self allocated land, they are badly maintained and lack the
basic necessities of life like sanitary facilities, light, air and privacy. As
evidenced by past researches in housing studies, most urban centres in the
country are characterized by high density buildings, acute sanitary problems,
pollution of air, surface water, noise and solid wastes (Filani, 1987, Agbola,
1998). According to Olotuah (2002) estimated 2.3 million urban dwelling units
are substandard, only 33% of urban houses can be considered to be physically
sound, and 44% and 19% require minor and major repairs respectively to bring
them to normative and structural quality. Despite all efforts of the government
at achieving sustained housing delivery to the common people, existing
realities indicate the goal is far from being achieved. It isagainst this
background that this research examines the major issues and challenges of
execution of public sector housing in Nigeria with a view to stimulating
relevant agencies of government and other stakeholders into designing
appropriate strategies for effective execution of public sector housing in
Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In
many developing countries, including Nigeria, urban housing crisis is
escalatingunabated despite a number of new policies, programs and strategies
being engaged in bypublic and private sectors aimed at execution of public sector housing in addressing this problem (Okupe,
2002). Since execution of
public sector housing
is principally carried out by government agenciesand their collaborators, the
researcher argues that one vital step to addressing myriads of issues and
challenges in execution of
public sector housing in
Nigeria is to identify areas of weakness inpublic housing agencies and
subsequently address such weakness for enhancedproductivity (Jiboye, 2009). It
is for this reason that the study investigated the contextual andorganizational
challenges related to execution
of public sector housing
in Nigeria in the postindependenceera.
This study attempted at using
keyorganizational components to assess areas of challenges in execution of public sector housing amonggovernment agencies in the study
area. This is with a view to assisting public-sectorhousing policy makers and
program managers chart future pathways for improvedperformance in public
housing provision and management in Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
general objective of this research is to analyze the issues and challenges in
the execution of public sector housing in
Nigeria while the following are the specific objectives:
1. To
examine the challenges of execution
of public sector housing in Nigeria.
2. To ascertain the factors causing housing
challenges in Nigeria.
3. To determine the solution to the issues of
execution of public sector housing in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What
are the issues and challenges in execution of public sector housing in Nigeria?
2. What are the factors causing housing
challenges in Nigeria?
3. What are the solutions to the issues of
execution of public sector housing in Nigeria?
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the
significance of this study:
1. Outcome
of this study will educate stakeholders in housing development and the general
public on the issues and challenges of execution of public sector housing in Nigeria thereby making the
study very useful as a guide to policy makers in government. This will however
helped in better housing development policy adoption and implementation.
2. This study will alsoassist public-sector
housing policy makers and program managers to chart future pathways for
improved performance in execution
of public sector housing and management in Nigeria.
3. This
research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested
in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied, it
will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic.
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This
study on issues and challenges in the execution of public sector housing project in Nigeria will cover the
major issues on poor housing development in Nigeria with a view to determine a
strategic framework for massive execution of public sector housing projects in
Nigeria.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the
researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information
and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time
constraint- The
researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work.
This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Housing:
Buildings or structures that individuals and their family may live in that meet
certain federal regulations. Different housing situations vary for individuals
and may depend on age, family, and geographic location. For example, a recent
university graduate in an urban environment in the US may live in a rented
apartment whereas a middle-aged entrepreneur may live in a house with or
without a mortgage.
Public:
of or concerning the people as a whole.
Population:
all the inhabitants of a particular place.
Migration:
Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find
work or better living conditions: the extensive rural-to-urban migration has
created a severe housing problems.
REFERENCES
Agbola, S.B. (1998) The housing of Nigerians – A review of policy
development andimplementation. Research
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Ebie, S.P.O.F.(2009, May). Public sector
driven housing; achievements and problems. Paperpresented at the 2009 Faculty
of Environmental Sciences Annual lecture, NnamdiAzikiweUniversity, Awka.
Federal Government of Nigeria (2004) National Housing Policy
Draft, Abuja.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) Constitution 10
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Okupe, L (2002) Private sector initiative
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OladunJoye, A. O. (2005). Implementation of
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