The Case For And Against Demolition
There is a gale of executions from Lagos to Abuja, Ogun to Enugu. The Government bodies argue that the affected properties did not get the appropriate approvals but there is growing opposition by various individuals and groups. Who is right?
From being the proud owner of a N300 million mansion in the commercial city of Lagos to becoming homeless, the life of Chimobi Ezenwa experienced a drastic turn following an enforcement exercise by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). The house, which he built with the proceeds of years of hard work, became a pile of rubble before his eyes. It looked nothing like the edifice he and his family once happily lived in. The building, along many others, was demolished for contravening the master plan set for the Abule Ado, Festac Phase 2 area in Lagos. While he was still counting his loss, four landlords in the area couldn’t live to stomach the pain as they “died of heart attack,” said Ezenwa, adding that many others were hospitalised.
A demolished building in Festac
Demolished buildings were illegally constructed
In its defence, the Federal Housing Authority, which carried out the demolition in the area, stated that the land where houses were demolished, was purchased without its approval. The management of the FHA said the land, originally designated for the second phase of housing in Festac, was sold illegally to unsuspecting buyers by land grabbers when litigation stalled construction. In a statement, the FHA said the litigation period led to the “springing up of many illegal developments built without approvals and against the master plan. Houses were built at the centre of major roads, very close to the canal and setbacks, and very close to oil pipelines. The area was rapidly developing into a modern slum.” The FHA said the effort to check the development was met with resistance as armed thugs molested and beat up its staff, “and in many instances near to the point of death”.
In 2019, after being able to get adequate security, the FHA stated that a Stop Work order was served to owners of houses in the area that contravened the master plan. This led to a meeting with stakeholders in the many estates in the area, resulting in a compromise that saw many buildings spared after certain agreements were reached, which the FHA said was not complied with by the other parties.
Reasons for demolitions in Lekki
While the Federal Government was demolishing buildings in Festac, the Lagos State Government was embarking on a similar exercise in the Lekki area of the state. Drone footage released by the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, showed visually in real time, the motive for some of the demolitions. In the footage, many fully built houses could be seen sited on the drainage channel of System 156 Igbo-Efon to the Ikota channel in Lekki. The encroachment resulted in the total blockade and diversion of System 156 into System 157 by the developers and owners of the property. All the structures were fully built on the setbacks and alignment which is an alteration of the drainage master plan along the area. “We have served several contravention notices and enforcement will begin after the expiration of the contravention notices,” the commissioner shared on X social media. In another post on X, the commissioner said a Stop Work order had been issued to a developer who sand-filled System 156 channel behind Victoria Crest Estate II in Lekki without any approval.
Photo of houses blocking a canal pathway in Lekki. Image source: Tokunbo Wahab
In a similar stance, The Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Oluyinka Olumide, while giving a reason for the ongoing demolition, cited an instance of how unapproved buildings contribute to the flooding usually experienced in Lagos. He told Channels TV, “The one that happened in the Ikota area, people deliberately built on the canal pathway, taking advantage of the COVID-19 period. I think a couple of days before a commissioner went there, there was a heavy downpour. The people in the community on the other side were complaining of flooding. So when the commissioner got there, we started demolition and immediately the water causing the flood started flowing and the people of the flooded community were happy.”
Oluyinka Olumide said, “…people deliberately built on the canal pathway, taking advantage of the COVID-19 period.”
Demolition politically and ethnically motivated
The demolition by the FHA and the Lagos State Government led to outrage from Nigerians on social media who expressed different views against the exercise. One school of thought wondered why authorities allowed the illegal buildings to reach competition before demolishing them. According to those with that position, approval must have been gotten from the state government, prompting the completion of the buildings. In response, Commissioner Olumide said, “The buildings causing this uproar were buildings rushed during the COVID-19 period where activities of officers were at the lowest ebb because of restrictions on movement. Since those buildings were demolished, nobody has come out to say they were demolished under approval.”
Sprinkling ethnic colouration to the exercise, Aloy Ejimakor, a counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, stated that the demolition is adding to the systemic injustices faced by the Igbo ethnic group of South-East Nigeria. He shared on X, “The relentless demolition in Lagos is so notoriously discriminatory and unjust, such that will surely trouble Lagos State with countless scorched-earth litigations. For now, it has done so much to add to the systemic injustices that make it very tough for Ndigbo to be Nigerians.” Toeing Ejimakor’s path, IPOB, through its Spokesperson, Emma Powerful, said, “What the Lagos Government is doing against Ndigbo in Lagos is a clear indication that Yorubas are not friends of Ndigbo and can never be. It is a demonstration that they don’t want Ndigbo in their region.”
“Demolition make it very tough for Ndigbo to be Nigerians” – Aloy Ejimakor
However, during an interview on TVC, Commissioner Wahab, whose ministry had been engaging in demolition exercises in the state, said the law respects no one. “I don’t see ethnicity, I don’t see tribe. I see law and I see the enforcement of the law. If there are infractions we need to correct, irrespective of who you are, the status of justice is blind, I will enforce it,” he said.
Wrong timing
Faulting the demolition in Lagos, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 elections, Peter Obi, argues that the timing was wrong. He further stated, “What a responsive government should be doing under the current harsh economic conditions in the country is to come up with measures aimed at alleviating the people’s hardships and to carry out measures that will take more people out of poverty.” On his part, a Labour Party chieftain, Pat Utomi, shared on X, “I believe people should follow the rules. And that there should be consequences for failing to. But stories of demolishing people’s homes and places of business that are cumulative of lifelong effort, with no care, make me wonder if we have lost our humanity.”
Peter Obi faulted timing of demolition exercise
Watching property worth hundreds of millions of Naira and which represent the hopes and wealth of families being demolished will rankle any individual. And there is definitely an emotional pull to support those who have borne the brunt of the caterpillars. Is there any or sufficient justification for this? You, as the reader, can be the judge.
