CONTRIBUTION OF KADUNA STATE GOVERNMENT IN HOUSING DELIVERY

CONTRIBUTION OF KADUNA STATE GOVERNMENT IN HOUSING DELIVERY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Large and rapid increases in the urban population have caused a crisis in housing in the third world countries. Various sources indicate that the proportion of inadequate housing varies from country to country because each nation has its own unique, complex mix of economic, social, and political, ecological and demographic characteristics which influence the form that urbanization takes, as well as the types of housing problems that emerge.

The problem of homelessness in cities around the world defies generalization, essentially because the growth of every city and the way the authorities attempt to manage its growth are rooted in its history, culture, as well as its local politics. There are differences between cities in the same country and the differences result from factors such as differences in size, rate of growth, location and functions of the city in which these settlements are located This argument is applicable to most countries including Uganda. Housing solutions have to be flexible, responding to the different conditions in each city and to the varying needs of poor households and communities. Something that has worked well in one city or country is not necessarily applicable to another. Successful approaches and good practices therefore have to be taken as inspirations and starting points for adaptation and development of own pro-poor housing solutions. There is no one golden solution to solve poor people‘s housing needs in our cities. Political contexts, legal frameworks, land ownership, urban histories, employment sources, social and cultural norms and community organizations all vary dramatically from place to place. What is therefore needed is a wide range of housing delivery systems involving a wide range of producers.

The majority of governments play an important role in developing the housing sector.  Whilst every government adopt special programs which are harmonious with its economic situations and political ideology,” good programs are those with fewer holes in the bucket and hence fewer leaks.

There are a lot of obstacles which curb government capabilities in eliminating the housing problem themselves including developed countries such as the U.S. “current assistance programs in the U.S., however, provide large housing benefits to a small fraction of the poor, only about one out of every three poor households benefit from government programs, and about one out of every five households receive housing assistance is not classified as poor. Alas, the American housing subsidy bucket does leak.

As a result of increasing demand on housing, and numerous loads, many countries have changed their policies from bailsman to assistance. ―This change can be described as a change of role of the local government whose main role is not to produce services, but to enable others to produce them. To solve the housing problem, all institutions must cooperate in planning and the implementation of such, “Cooperation is a necessity; In this case, the local authorities‘ policy plans are a product of this cooperation”.

In capitalist developing countries, urban housing has a configured mix of government, markets, NGOs, and household self-help roles. The prescriptive theory of low-income housing emphasizes whole sector housing development. Housing is connected to infrastructural services, land policy and land management, capital market and financial systems and micro economic conditions (Aldrich & Sandhu, 1995).

Libya is one of these countries which completely adopted the housing bailsman policy in 1970s and the middle of 1980s, by building and allotting housing to poor people, or directing the commercial banks to give loans for housing. In contrast, in the second half of the 1980s Libya began to desert the bailsman policy to play a secondary role by assisting institutions which invest in the housing sector.

International experts are beginning to recognize that providing good, secure housing in third world countries is not just a matter of bringing in new methods and techniques, but recognition of the fact that housing programmes must take into consideration local political, economic, and social variations in order to be effective (Aldrich and Sandhu, Ibid.).

The struggle to solve the housing problems should not be viewed as exclusive public or private sector responsibility, but rather as product and responsibility of a collaborative partnership of not only the public and private sectors but also that of the people (community) sector.

The performance of institutions/agencies/organizations (responsible Government Ministries, Housing Corporations, appropriate financing institutions), that underpin housing in the countries –along with appropriate revision and updating of relevant laws, codes and regulations in all the countries plays a big role in trying to solve the housing problem. Unfortunately, there is limited co-operation and co-ordination of actors and stakeholders involved in housing development in many developing countries like Uganda.

The Government cannot run away from its responsibility of providing housing for its people, particularly the very poor and disadvantaged. Housing is a long term investment requiring large sums of money, but it is at the same time a basic need. Consequently, it requires long term planning, projection of needs and mobilization of resources. Kaduna state Government, like other states in Nigeria, has always given low priority to housing considering it to be purely a social and bottomless pit of investment.

1.2       PROBLEM STATEMENT

The government of Kaduna State adopted the National Housing policy which was and is supposed to shoulder the responsibility of creating an environment in which households, firms, NGOs and community groups can operate effectively, and efficiently and thus be in a position to provide decent, affordable shelter. Unfortunately the various stakeholders are not well coordinated, pro-poor housing and land provision policies are ineffective. The Government looks to have left the housing problem of the urban poor in the hands of the private sector which in most cases provides expensive houses because of profit maximization motives, high taxation on building materials, high mortgage rates and high costs of infrastructure and other services. Although the responsibility of building houses to low-income groups should be shared among all the players in housing industry, the government should be actively involved in providing either houses or an enabling environment for other players. It is against these problems that this study seek to examine the contribution of Kaduna State Government in Housing  delivery.

1.3       OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

1.3.1    Main objective

The main objective of the study is to assess the role of the Kaduna state government in housing delivery

1.3.2    Specific objectives

1. To ascertain the housing situational analysis justifying the need for government intervention.
2. To assess the performance of government policies and strategies governing housing of the urban poor.
3. To analyze the coordination of actors in regard to provision of affordable housing to the urban poor.
4. To analyze the Government‘s provision of enabling environments to;
5. Non government/ charity/ community based organisations
   1. Financial institutions
   1. Real estate developers
6. To suggest ways in which the government can get actively involved the provision of affordable housing to the urban poor.

1.4       SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

In the past, analysis of the role of the government in the provision of affordable housing has mainly sought to quantify the effects of lack of Housing policies in Kaduna state . However, such analyses often fail to appreciate the implications of the functionality of the government on the performance of all stakeholders in the provision of affordable housing to the urban poor.

This study will help the reader to know the status of the government‘s involvement in housing of the urban poor and also to appreciate responsibilities of the Government in the context of affordable housing provision. The recommendations in this study can guide the government on how to efficiently enable all stakeholders to provide affordable housing to the urban poor.

1.5       SCOPE OF STUDY

1.5.1 Geographic scope

The research was limited to Kaduna metropolis due to the reasons here-under but is outcome (conclusions and recommendations) can be applied to most urban areas in Nigeria  

1. Accessibility
2. Availability of data
3. Financial constraints
4. Availability of time

1.5.2    Content scope

This study was strictly limited to provision of affordable housing to the urban poor. The urban poor referred to are those whose income is insufficient to help them afford decent housing.

1.6       Definition of Terms

Housing: Housing refers to houses or buildings collectively; accommodation of people; planning or provision of accommodation by an authority; and related meanings. The social issue is of ensuring that members of society have a home in which to live, whether this is a house, or some other kind of dwelling, lodging, or shelter (Aribigbola, 2008)

Affordable housing: Affordable is a relative term, the common definition is when the cost of shelter does not exceed 30 percent of gross household income.

Housing Demand: It is defined, as the amount and quantity of housing people are willing and able to pay for at a particular time.

Housing needs: It is the number of housing units required to accommodate a population at a given standard of housing occupancy.

Housing Stock: It is regarded as the total number of existing habitable housing units in a given place.

Housing Unit: It is defined as a unit of accommodation occupied by a household, be it one person or more.

Vacancy rates: It is most useful for measuring the existing match between households and housing units. That is the percentage of total available housing unit not occupied.

1.7       The Study Area

Kaduna is the state capital of Kaduna State in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade centre and a major transportation hub for the surrounding agricultural areas, with its rail and road junction. The population of Kaduna was at 760,084 as of the 2006 Nigerian census.

Until the late eighties when Kaduna State seemed to have slid into intermittent sectarian and ethnic violence, its capital city, Kaduna, was one of the most peaceful, cosmopolitan and politically important cities in Nigeria. These crises have, however, merely diminished rather than eliminated the city’s virtues, thanks largely to the effective measures the authorities in the state adopted from 2000, the year of the worst crisis, to curb the hostilities in the state.

Established in 1912 by Lord Frederick Lugard, first as a garrison town and then as the regional capital of the then Northern Protectorate, Kaduna soon attracted people of all races, religions and cultures. Within two decades of its establishment, it grew from an almost virgin territory of small scattered settlements of the indigenous population, mostly the Gbagyi, to a town of over 30,000 people. This population comprised the British colonizers, artisans from other West African British colonies, artisans and clerks from the Southern Protectorate as well as labourers and traders from the Hausa, Nupe, Kanuri, Fulani and other tribes in the Northern Protectorate.

By 1963 the town had about 250,000 residents and nearly 30 years later, the 1991 census put its population at 1,307,311, a little over a third of the population of the entire state.

Kaduna’s history reflects that of the North in particular and Nigeria in general. This history dates back before 1912, the year Lord Lugard chose it to become the dual capital of the North and Nigeria. The road to Kaduna actually started in 1900 when Lord Lugard was first appointed the High Commissioner of the Northern Protectorate. At that time Lokoja, at the confluence of the mighty rivers Niger and Benue, was the centre of British missionary activities and British trade. It was also the headquarters for its wars of occupation of the North.

Lugard first settled in Lokoja as regional capital to continue with the colonial conquest of the region. Two years later, i.e in 1902, he moved the capital from Lokoja further upstream of River Niger, to Jebba. However, Jebba remained the headquarters for only a few months. Towards the end of the year, he moved even further upstream to Zungeru with the intention of making it the permanent capital of the North. Many Nigerians will remember Zungeru, a major railway town, as the birth place of Nigeria’s foremost nationalist and first president, Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe. His father had worked there as a railway staff.

For a while it seemed as if Zungeru had succeeded where Lokoja and Jebba had failed; it remained the regional capital for 10 years. However, with time, Lord Lugard himself began to doubt the wisdom of his choice especially given the vastness of the North which had been “pacified” by 1906. He then began a search for a more central and more accessible location than Zungeru.

His search finally ended at a location on the Zaria plains, roughly in the middle of the region. Not only was Kaduna centrally located and much more accessible than Zungeru, the Zaria plains in which it was located were well served by two major tributaries of River Niger, River Kaduna, which gave the settlement its name, and River Gurara. River Kaduna itself was so called because it was crocodile infested, kadduna being the plural of ‘crocodile’ in Hausa.

Apart from its centrality, accessibility and abundant water supply, the location also possessed a clement environment. Also, following the not-too-happy relationship of the colonialists with the large indigenous population of Lagos as capital of the Lagos Colony and Calabar as capital of the Southern Protectorate, the British considered the virginity of a location an important consideration in their choice of a capital. Kaduna, with its sparse and scattered settlement of the indigenous population, satisfied this criterion.

No sooner had Lord Lugard settled down in Kaduna as regional capital in 1912, than he began to plan for it as Nigeria’s capital, ahead of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914. This followed his promotion that same year as Governor-General of the amalgamated Nigeria. As Governor-General, he did not hide his antipathy towards Lagos and recommended that the capital be moved to Kaduna as quickly as possible. “Government House, Lagos,” he wrote in one of his papers, “would make an excellent hotel if the transfer to Kaduna was achieved.”

The transfer was never achieved. First, the Colonial Office in London thought Kaduna was too far inland for quick and effective communication between motherland and colony. Second, in 1919, Lord Lugard was succeeded as Governor-General by Lord Clifford, who did not share Lugard’s loathing for Lagos. In any case, such a transfer was considered too expensive an exercise by the British.

And so it was that Lugard could not fulfill his wish to see Kaduna become the capital of both the North and Nigeria. However, as the capital of the biggest region in the country – at 730,885 square meters the North was more than three times the size of the Western and Eastern Regions combined. It was also the most populous – Kaduna City was to assume an unmatched political importance in the country, not least because it became the headquarters of the Northern Peoples’ Congress. The NPC eventually became the ruling political party in the North and the senior partner in a coalition government at the centre up to the first military coup in January 1966.

The political status of Kaduna before independence rose a notch higher when a group of Western-educated Northerners led by the late Dr. R.A.B. (Russel Aliyu Barau) Dikko, the region’s first medical doctor, founded the Jam’iyyan Mutanen Arewa AYau (Association of Northerners Today), in 1948 in the city, ostensibly as a cultural association. The JMA transformed into a political party in October 1951 and subsequently chose Sir Ahmadu Bello to lead it. It held its first convention in Kaduna in July 1952.

The most important symbol of the city’s political importance was and remains the Lugard Hall Complex, named after Lord Lugard. Located at the heart of Kaduna and painted in the national colours of green and white, the complex with its prominent dome sits on a large expanse of land that forms a huge roundabout bound almost right round by Coronation Crescent and by the northern end of the broad Independence Way on its southern entrance. It served as the regional House of Assembly and House of Chiefs during the First Republic. Today it serves as Kaduna State’s House of Assembly.

In addition to being the political capital of the North, Kaduna soon developed into a pre-eminent center of media ( Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria, New Nigerian and the defunct Today, Hotline, Democrat, Citizen and Reporter) and of commerce and industry in the region and in Nigeria. These developments started in 1957 as the city became the most important hub of the country’s railway network connecting Lagos to Kano, Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and Baro, the country’s then biggest and busy inland port on River Niger.

The Arewa House lies on twenty acres of beautifully wooded land with equally beautiful landscape in the quiet neighbourhood of the former Ministers’ Quarters. It is located on No. 1 Rabah Road, on the grounds of the official residence of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the regional premier who was assassinated in the first military coup in the country.

Apart from the Arewa House, Kaduna has a large concentration of educational institutions including the Kaduna Polytechnic, possibly the largest in Africa, and the Nigerian Defence Academy, which doubles as a military training institution for officers of the Nigerian military and a degree awarding institution.