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Opinion

Building houses as culture of waste

Oftentimes I looked at my life and that of others like me in this country and feel sorry because of one culture I actually disapprove of, but which I am guilty of upholding. This is a culture that put pressure on us to build houses that we can not live in, we cannot rent out, and we can not even sale.

It is a culture of waste of investible funds that could be used in building factories to create employment for the youth. But instead we leave investible money lay waste in form of houses that may never be used by us or in several cases even by our children.

If you travel across this country, you will see a lot of houses especially in the GRAs or choice areas in many villages and towns, the gates to these houses are forever locked. Only the ‘Maigadi’ and his family live inside. Oga and Madam live in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna or Kano and only come during Sallah, Christmas, marriage ceremonies, or when they are bereaved.

Meanwhile, eventually when the owners of these houses die, their children born in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna or Kano may never live in the houses because their children cannot live in Yola, Minna, Damaturu, Bauchi, Jalingo, Mubi, Katsina, Birnin Kebbi, or Zaria, for instance. If the children’s mothers hail from a state other than the father’s, it is even worse.

The houses would gather dust, develop cracks and may even become houses for reptiles to live in. Oftentimes these houses may not be sold because of such mundane things as ‘family prestige’.

For instance when I first contested for state House of Assembly in 2003, I was living in Lagos having relocated to Abuja in 2001. The campaign of calumny against me then was that I didn’t even have a house in Dasin, my birthplace. To avoid the campaign by my opponents, I quickly put up a house inside my family compound.

I am sorry to say today that I have not slept in Dasin for years because Dasin is only six kilometres away from Fufore, my local government headquarters, where I already have a house before I joined politics but was still pressured to build the one in Dasin.

Having been elected as member House of Assembly first in 2007 and re-elected in 2011, I have built a house in Yola and for several years now, I have not slept in my house in Fufore, which is 20 kilometres from Yola because I return to Yola after every visit to Fufore, no matter how late because of proximity to Yola.

Now that I live in Abuja with my family and come to Yola on occasions only, my house in the GRA in Yola is lying waste. And as my first child was born in Kano, my second in Kaduna, the third in Lagos and the last was born in Abuja, sometimes I overheard them making choices of where they want to live their lives, but non of them has chosen to spend their lives in Yola.

Meanwhile, I cannot sell my house in Dasin because it will be a shame and I cannot sell the Fufore house for the same reason, nor would I sell the one in Yola also for the same reason.

The combine value of these houses runs into millions of Naira that can be used to build factories, even if pure water factories, to create employment. Thus the investible funds that, if put to use, will grow our GDP and put people to work, is lying idle.

I am just one small man in a small corner in Fufore. There are plenty ‘big’ men and women all over this country who are in worse position than I am and who have buried more investible funds in the ground instead of putting the funds to better use, to create jobs.

This is a culture of waste shrouded in prestige and egocentricity. It stands reason on its head. It is a fallacy of economically misplaced priority for which many of us are guilty of.

I think we can change this culture by releasing the funds tied down in fixed but rarely used assets to build factories to create jobs.

Anybody who builds a house where his children may not live after his death and he cannot rent out nor sale, is guilty of the same offence as I am.

I so submit.

  • Dasin, a former lawmaker, lives in Abuja

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