Abuja residents condemn lawmakers’ rejection of rent bill

“The residents react to the House of Representative’s dismissal of a motion to reduce rent in the capital city.” 

Abdullahi Yahaya, a messenger in one of the ministries at the federal secretariat, Abuja, says he spends an average of four hours daily on the road to and from his office as he lives far away due to high cost of accommodation in Abuja.

According to him, he was staying in one of the federal housing estates with his family of six including his wife but was forced to relocate to Mararaba (in neighbouring Nasarawa state) when it was sold by the federal government.

“I couldn’t buy any of the apartments because of my low salary; I managed to stay one more year after the sales but was forced to move to Mararaba as the rent was doubled,” he said. “When (former FCT Minister) Nasir el-Rufai started demolishing buildings in town, many people came to Mararaba and the rent there became high again. I have to further move to Keffi because my salary cannot carry both my house rent and my children’s schooling.”

Yusuf is one amongst many Abuja residents who are suffering from the geometric increase in house rent in the country’s capital. The residents, who were relieved when they heard that a bill was being considered at the National Assembly to tackle the high cost of accommodation in the city, had their hopes dashed by the lawmakers who said reducing house rent will belittle the fastest growing city in Africa.

On Wednesday, that the House of Representatives rejected an attempt to force down the escalating housing cost in Abuja, on claims that such move will downgrade the city which hopes to be amongst one of the world’s topmost capitals.The lawmakers, who turned down the motion proposing the introduction of government-controlled pricing for homes, augured that the problem needs wider remedial measures than merely fixing the rate.

They, however, predicted that the plan may win greater support if properly repackaged to address concerns ranging from the cost of acquiring land to those of building materials.

In reaction, Bidemi Ajayi, a banker, decried the action of the lawmakers. “Our Nigerian politicians have never represented us well, why wouldn’t they kill the bill when they can steal as much money to buy over the whole Abuja without going to jail?,” he said. “I am sure they would have allowed the bill to scale through if it were to allocated lots of land to themselves? Our leaders have demonstrated a high level of greed by their actions yesterday.”

Some other residents said they were not surprised by the action of the lawmakers. “Their plan is to chase us away from this town,” said Joshua Dike, a trader at Dede Market, another satellite town. “El Rufai has said Abuja is not meant for the poor people and he demolished our houses and chased us out of the town. Now, even the government workers have joined us and are causing the rent to go up again here that we are hiding.”

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By Chris Onyeose

Source: DailyTimes

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