Season of demolitions

FILE: Demolition of buildings in Lagos State

IT is Nigeria’s season of demolitions. Across the landscape, states and the Federal Government seem to be deploying the same tactic and rhetoric as they demolish properties. While it is within the government’s powers to clear illegal structures and revert to the original master plans, governments should be wary of damaging investors’ confidence, and protect the rights of citizens.

The most current is the demolition of residential and corporate properties in Victoria Island, Lagos State, by the Federal Government. This was done to pave the way to construct the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. It is compounded by the expected demolition of over 2,000 houses in the Okun-Ajah community in the Eti Osa Local Government Area of the state for the same purpose. Other properties will fall to bulldozers as the project continues. The government should transparently compensate individuals who legally acquired their properties.

Lagos has also embarked on massive demolition of properties. This occurred in Ojota and Ojodu, where the government claimed the buildings were erected on drainage facilities. Other places like Lekki, Ikota, Alaba, Abule-Ado, Ajao Estate, and Ladipo have been visited by bulldozers.

With a history of unpalatable building collapse, homeowners and real estate investors must do due diligence before acquisition and secure all the necessary approvals to prevent losses.

Residents of Anambra, Enugu, Kogi, Oyo, Kano, and the FCT have witnessed the demolition of houses, shops, and make-shift houses in recent weeks. In Bauchi State, where the government is about to construct two interchanges, the governor has been labelled ‘Mr Demolition.’

Bulldozers have descended on shops and shanties in Abeokuta, the Ogun capital, and under bridges and illegal shanties on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Early in May, Benue pulled down 40 houses for “defacing Makurdi,” the state capital. Eight hundred houses have been marked for demolition in the state because they block the flood plains. While some were executed to restore sanity, others were rash.

Yet, the government is mainly to blame for allowing the illegal structures to stand in the first place. It feigns ignorance when areas earmarked for industrial layouts, farming, and other activities are sabotaged by corrupt government officials, infringed upon by slum dwellers, and sold by greedy landowners.

When the rustic area becomes urbanised, the government wakes from its slumber with bulldozers. This is backward and wasteful. The government must make its master plan publicly accessible; create guardrails by placing thorough monitoring systems and implement its master plan rigorously.

For now, many urban cities and towns are poorly planned. This has made successive governments destroy existing structures to cater to new and evolving infrastructural needs. While Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Benin, and many other cities do not fare better, Lagos is rated as the fourth-worst city to live in, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index.

This is due to poor planning. It is reflected in the absence of hospitals, good roads, and public schools in towns and suburban settlements. Although the government’s response to restore sanity by demolishing illegal structures is apt, it must be done with a clear sustainability strategy.

Unfortunately, governors deploy bulldozers to demolish projects to score cheap political points and discredit the achievements of their predecessors.

In 2021, a lawmaker representing Bauchi Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives accused the state government of demolishing his house at the GRA for “political reasons.” Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has also been accused of demolishing structures for political reasons.

Instead of embarking on destruction without commensurate construction, the government could take a leaf from the books of India and Brazil, which have implemented systems to regularise and integrate informal settlements into the formal city fabric.

Instead of demolitions, governments must prioritise and enforce comprehensive urban/regional planning to achieve a liveable and sustainable environment.