BY: Deco Suleman
The National Housing Policy of 1991 outlines Nigeria’s government commitment to ensuring all Nigerians have access to decent and affordable housing.
The right to housing is a fundamental human right recognised in various international treaties and declarations to which Nigeria is a signatory.
However, affordable housing has eluded millions of Nigerians and has become a pipe dream, with the residents of Takushara being no exception.
Affordable housing for the residents of the Takushara community, located after the Apo Mechanic Village in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has remained a mirage. Residents groan over the area’s sharp increase in house rent due to the massive migration of workers and local miners.
The local mining community, known for its rich mineral resources such as Sodalite, Aventurine, and Lithium, has attracted local miners, foreign expatriates, and workers within Abuja. This influx has overstretched the community’s infrastructure, including housing, education, roads, and water.
When Housing TV Africa visited the community, our correspondent witnessed the low presence of government intervention within the area. The access road leading to the community is in deplorable condition and disrepair. Residents who graduate from junior secondary school have to send their wards to Government Senior Secondary School Apo Resettlement or Government Senior Secondary School Kabusa, which is ten kilometers away.
Speaking to our correspondent about the spike in real estate prices within the area, the village head, Alhaji Muhammed Saidu, appealed to the federal government and the Federal Capital Territory Administration to upgrade the community and build affordable houses for locals and workers to reduce the huge cost of building on private individuals and developers.
Local miners’ activities in the area are inadvertently affecting the locals’ houses. Blasts from stones and other mining activities have left some houses with cracks and weakened foundations. The Makama of Takushara, Alhaji Tanko Umar, told our reporter that although the practice of open blasting of rocks and stones within the area has stopped, the occasional noise from mining and its environmental impact continues to affect residents.
Takushara, with an estimated population of ten thousand, is located thirty kilometers away from the city center. It lacks modern amenities such as piped water, access feeder roads, and has nucleated settlement arrangements. With no secondary school, it has continued to play home to many city workers who cannot pay the high rent in the city and its satellite towns.
Is Takushara really affordable for residents of the Federal Capital Territory who flock there for their housing needs? We spoke to Mr. Sani Halilu Bala, the community youth leader and a real estate agent, who provided the average cost of rental for different classes of houses. “For a studio apartment, prices range from three hundred thousand naira to five hundred thousand naira. A one-bedroom flat ranges from six hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand naira. A two-bedroom apartment ranges from nine hundred thousand naira to one million, two hundred thousand naira, and a three-bedroom apartment ranges from one million, three hundred thousand naira to one million, five hundred thousand naira.”
Mr Sani Halilu Bala further appealed to landlords within the area to consider the economic situation within the country and be flexible with the payment of rent to ease tenants’ financial burden.
The plight of Takushara residents underscores the broader challenges facing FCT residents in securing affordable housing. The soaring rents, driven by an influx of workers and local miners, have placed significant financial strain on the community, highlighting the urgent need for government intervention and infrastructure development.
The ongoing construction of a divisional police station and road construction works in the area, once completed, will likely further hike rental prices and open up the real estate sector within that corridor.
