The presidential candidate for the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye, has described housing as the catalyst for social and economic development in Nigeria.
He said this at a town hall meeting on the state of Nigeria’s housing market organised by University of Lagos for presidential candidates which held at the weekend within the University premises.
According to him, about 108million people are without homes.
“If you do not build homes, you will build prisons. Building shelter has been the centre of social and economic development for most of the developed world.,” he said.
If given the mandate come May 29, 2019, he assured that housing will be at the core of his priorities and plan; adding that his government will declare state of emergency on housing as well as set up a national emergency housing fund that will become the trigger point for every other thing.
On his part, the presidential candidate for African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore said it is time for Nigeria to have more housing revolution; saying housing will become a fundamental human right under his government starting from June 12, 2019.
“We cannot continue to vote for people who destroyed our opportunity to have a house in the past,” he said.
Also, Professor Kinsgley Moghalu, the presidential candidate for the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stressed the need to meet the challenge of the deficit in housing, which according to him is 17 million housing units that needs to be in existence.
While he mentioned that housing is one of the major needs of Nigerians, he noted that building houses will give Nigeria economy a more inclusive growth; a growth that will be broad base and across sectors. “Constructing houses requires labour across a wide spectrum including masons, brick layers, carpenters, electricians, welders among others. It is a very important way of creating jobs and skills.
“Developing the housing sector is important for the quality of the live of Nigerians, it is also important for the diversification of the economy from oil. Developing the housing sector is also going to be a very important way to fight corruption because a lot of acts of corruption are driven by fear that when they retire, they may not have a roof under them,” he stressed.
