Speeches

Commissioning Of Saliu Olaitan Mustapha And Kuburat Adetoun Mustapha Housing Estate In Ojokoro

Sep 27, 2011 - We gather today to keep a covenant with our people. A covenant made in honour as a promise for votes to be cast in an election.

The people have voted as we requested, we have come to redeem our pledge to do our best to solve the housing problem, by handing over a set of housing units that Government has built.

The solution to the challenges of housing that our people face will not be achieved simply by Government alone building houses. This is because the problems that stand in the way of supply of affordable housing for our people extend beyond what happens inside the State Government alone.

The solution therefore requires a combination of forces of Government, private sector collaboration, inducing investment in housing, developing or inducing a fiscal and monetary policy control, exchange rate and interest rate that are friendly to the housing sector, evolving policies that lead to competitively priced building materials and cost of labour, the pricing of fuel to run construction equipment and transport building materials in a way that will positively impact housing delivery are some of the many hurdles that we must address and overcome.

I have led a team of dedicated officers in the public service along with private sector volunteers to work behind the scenes over the last three years to examine some of these problems that our knowledge and skill can help us identify.

We have agreed, disagreed and come to compromise on what we consider to be the most efficient solutions that we can deploy especially when we do not have control over some of the variables like cost of fuel, interest rate, exchange rate and tariffs on imported building materials.

Inspite of these limitations, these men and women have shown resourcefulness, determination and passion to find a road where none seems to exist, they have evolved a series of policies and plans which we have started implementing, and I am convinced that with the support of our people, their patience and understanding, we will succeed.

One of the policies we have implemented is The Tenancy Bill 2011 which I have recently signed into Law. It is essentially aimed at regulating the tenant-landlord relationship in a way that is mutually beneficial to all parties.

Let me use this opportunity to emphatically state that the Tenancy Law is not a substitute for affordable housing. It is also not a price control mechanism which is a function of market forces of demand and supply.

What it aims to achieve is to regulate onerous conditions attached to already highly priced houses. It also aims to restore private investment confidence in housing by making recovery of possession less cumbersome as it seeks to protect tenants from exorbitant collateral costs of agency and legal fees.

It must therefore be understood that one single action such as the building of houses by Government alone will not solve the housing challenge.

What is required is a combination of building and enunciation of policies that will re-energize the housing sector, restore confidence of investors to partner with Government and unleash the enterprise and potentials that are clearly inherent in the housing sector.

Having therefore used the Tenancy Law to set a policy agenda, we have moved from there to inaugurating Housing Arbitration Rules which is another policy to ensure that disputes within the Housing Sector can be dealt with through an alternative dispute resolution platform of Arbitration which financiers and investors have been known to prefer because of its speed and commercial efficiency.

In the build up to the formal launch of the Lagos Home Ownership Scheme (Lagos HOMS) which will take place shortly, we have launched a website to provide the information platform for the scheme in order to ensure its transparency and competitiveness, so that potential home owners need not know anybody or have need to induce anybody before they can benefit.

These are some of the lessons from the past that created setbacks for similar well intentioned programmes which have become our own learning curves about how to proceed with the current scheme to ensure that it is sustainable after we have left.

The next stage was to start the handing over of the completed housing schemes that will form the first stock of houses that will be sold under the Lagos HOMS Scheme, which I will inaugurate in the next few weeks.

We started with Sir Michael Otedola housing scheme, in Odorangushin in Epe which was a scheme of 336 Housing units.

Today, we gather to hand over 80 Units in Ojokoro of 3 Bedroom each.

As I speak, we are already accelerating plans to conclude other housing units that we have started, while plans are underway to finalize new ones to start, so that we can ensure a continuous delivery of housing units periodically as they are completed into the stock of the Lagos HOMS Project for onward sale on mortgage or what people call 'rent to own'.

This course will be another jolt to a slumbering economy through a value chain of supply, construction, labour, buying and selling that will create more jobs.

As I prepare to conclude this address, I re-call with fond memories two people who would have been here today because of their patriotism and undying love for progress and for our Government and our party.

Sadly, they will never be with us again because our country failed them, they died as a result of inhalation of carbon monoxide fumes in their sleep which came from generators they had bought to mitigate the failure of their Government to supply regular electricity.

I speak of no other than Hon Olaitan Mustapha and his wife, Adetoun Mustapha now both of very blessed memory.

Although they will continue to live in our hearts, I have decided that nobody was better deserving of honour than this wonderful couple and this Housing Estate in the Local Government that was their primary constituency will be our token memorial to honour them forever.

It is therefore with pride that I handover this housing estate to be known from today and called Olaitan Mustapha Housing Estate and Adetoun Mustapha Housing Estate.

I thank you all for your attention.

Eko o ni baje o!

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State