Category: autopost

As institutions of state, part of the responsibility of the media and civil society groups is to advocate for the less privileged in society. Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and economic powerhouse which attracts  thousands immigrants daily from across the nation and from neighbouring states, have not a few of this survivalists who with no relatives in Lagos often end up sleeping under bridges or turning Lagos Lagoon shorelines to illegal shanties. Civil society groups including those seeking attention of foreign donors have often picked up the battle for these fortune-seekers. And following their persistent blackmail, successive Lagos State governments have come up with most liberal laws that are not only protective of immigrants, but that which literarily put landlords at the mercy of tenants and squatters.

I remember a few years back when Governor Babatunde Fashola wanted to clean up Lagos Lagoon shoreline to encourage tourism, the media and the human right groups challenged him to first provide alternative accommodation for the trespassers. It was as if anyone could start the erection of a structure in any state of the federation without permission from the traditional ruler or local council chairman.

What has brought the helplessness of Lagos landlords home more vividly is the ongoing protests of tenants of recently demolished Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) shopping complex opposite the Computer Village in Ikeja. As it is often the case, the sympathy of the electronic media (Channels and TVC) that reported the case live and  The Punch that reported it later on its “Metro” pages was with non-law abiding tenants.

The focus of the media was on the plight of the tenants, their losses and their false claim that they were never informed of the demolition.  Even after admitting notices were issued by the owner of the distressed plazas in 2019 and 2020, little was done to correct the traders’ false narrative including the claim of the chairman of Computer Village Dealers Association, Tayo Shittu who accused Lagos State government of storming the complex with about 300 policemen at 12 am to bring down the two plazas with 300 shops.

This has however forced the Lagos State government to deny having any hand in the demolition of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) shopping complex. .In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said: “The structure is owned by the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), which ordered its demolition.”, adding that “those circulating the fake news that Lagos State government is demolishing Computer Village are opportunistic ethnic chauvinists who will always relish in vacuous propaganda that can fuel their fiendish mission; they will always fail in dividing Lagosians.”

What must not be lost on us was the fact that it took POWA two years to eject tenants from their plaza already declared distressed by Lagos State. And this was made possible because their husbands were able to mobilise 300 police officers to battle tenants that are ready to take laws into their own hands.

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Are you still wondering why Lagos landlords are at the mercy of Lagos State’s over-pampered tenants? 

Although I will not consider myself a landlord but let me share with readers my recent encounter with two young men who lived with their young families in the boys quarters vacated by my children after marriage or joining the JAPA syndrome.

The first was introduced along with his wife by one of my daughters who is a pastor.  She had claimed the young man used to stay in a boys quarter directly opposite our house while all of them were in the university. Claiming their apartment was ravaged by flood, she pleaded they should be allowed to pay just about a quarter of the going rate in the estate.

First year, the young man said he could only pay half of what he agreed to pay because his cousin was wedding at home. There was another excuse the second year. But trouble started when PHCN discovered he had paid only N7k in about three and half years despite almost 24 hours power supply during which he used his air-conditioner, morning, afternoon and night since he claimed to work from home.

PHCN calculated his backlog of arrears as N1m and advised me to seek the help of police because I would have to pay if he vacates the house without settling the outstanding. Because I turned down the request for money by the police officer in charge, he had declared after a few unproductive meetings, that it was not the job of police to collect debt on behalf of PHCN or anyone for that matter. Now I have a PHCN meter I cannot use except I pay N1m.

 My second nightmare was introduced to me by my neighbour. He and his young wife wanted to do naming ceremony of their first child and there was no water where they were staying in the outskirt of the estate. I also discovered he was my 300L student at University of Lagos Distance Learning Institute.  I was to later personally take them in my car to their church for the naming. The baby was often kept with our house girl when the wife was going out while the husband on some occasions borrowed my car for outing. We were that close that when he had his second baby, without telling me he removed my cars , erected canopies and took control of my generator to have a party from morning till late in to the night.

Again trouble started when it was discovered part of the house including the fence behind his apartment was distressed and needed a comprehensive work which would require us vacating the building. We both agreed on when work would start and for that reason he paid for six months. Instead of moving out like me as agreed at the end of the six months, he brought a long letter from a lawyer claiming he was never given a quit notice. Initially I had thought it was a joke. I approached my neighbour who suggested a refund of the six months payment he made even after the expiration of his tenancy period. He turned down the offer insisting his lawyers would have to decide. Meanwhile he got the police involved claiming inconvenience because of materials already deposited for repairs. Even while I remain a tenant elsewhere, this young man for the next two months held everyone to ransom until the POWA strategy minus the 300 police men option was adopted.

My last example was from my lecturer and senior colleague at the University of Lagos. A tenant who occupied his uncle’s house in Ikeja GRA not only refused to pay his rent for several years, he would not allow anyone entry into the premises. Relief only came when the then military governor of the state ordered an invasion of the premises by soldiers who discovered an erection of a new structure and the conversion of the old one into an illegal drug manufacturing factory.

I think most Lagos tenants desirous of taking advantage of Lagos State tenant-friendly laws are of the same colour. The two tenants that gave me nightmare are Yoruba from one of the southwest states.