Housing policy implementation problems in Nigeria
By SHU'AIBU MUSA UMAR
Housing means more than a mere shelter. The United Nations inter-regional seminar on special aspects of housing in 1975 defines housing as that which, “encompasses all the ancillary and community facilities which are necessary to human well-being.”
In terms of national development objective, housing is recognized as a major investment item which could make a tremendous contribution to economic development and that any housing policy that is effectively employed could serve as a vehicle of improving social welfare and shaping the urban settlement. The conference indicates that the problem of the country’s planning efforts, have been hitherto emphasizing on economic, particularly sectoral and financial planning, to the near neglect of physical planning. Moreover, there has been a rapidly increasing urbanisation in the face of an intense housing problem in almost all the major cities of Nigeria, Kano inclusive.
Available and relevant research work existing, on the above subject matter, dwelt on the management and implementation of housing policy by the agencies vested with such responsibility. One should appreciate that it is the operational effectiveness of these public agencies that helps in the achievement of a nation’s objective of housing policies.
Although the present housing difficulty in Nigeria arises not necessarily because of poverty, but because of the absence of an effective administrative machinery to mobilize and organise the country’s natural resources, human, industrial, etc, for housing and urban development, however, the problem of poor co-ordination and ineffectiveness of some public housing agencies in Nigeria is in most cases responsible for the failure of certain laudable housing policies and programmes. For instance, Abiodun J.O. asserts that some of such agencies with adequate knowledge refuse to perform their duty of seeing to it that the beneficiaries of the housing scheme fulfill their obligations and hence constitute a threat to the successful execution of the scheme. Again, some of these housing agencies evade from taking decisive action on certain beneficiaries who violate certain laws due to either political or social reasons.
Magbolugbe, in his study, 'Federal Low Cost Housing in Ilorin, Kwara state' (1985), uncovers the dynamics of urban housing policies that have on paper tended to be in support of low income group, but which have in practice largely benefited other income groups, the middle class and upper income families. This study further states that the very few low income beneficiaries of the scheme in the country are unable to hold on to the conditions attached or even do so at the risk of excessive over-crowding.
In examining the relationship between the housing policy of the federal government and the income of the urban poor in Kaduna state, Segmour T. finds out that the intended goal of the policy of catering for the low income group is only a hoax and further establishes that while public housing policy has often been meant for the low-income groups, it has actually benefited more the relatively privilege urban minorities such as the civil servants, etc.
In the same vein, most observers and commentators of the scheme in the country are of the opinion that the major problems hindering the smooth and effective take-off of the scheme in most states of the federation are, among others, its discriminative and segregate posture, where non-indigence residents in the low cost houses are denied the right to participate in the scheme; the exclusion of the senior civil servants from the scheme which makes it almost impossible to correctly ascertain whether or not an applicant is either actually a low or high income earner and results into giving false information when filling and returning the owner-occupier scheme form; the politicisation and external interference on the part of the bureaucratic class from the political class who often give directives to the former so as to alter collective decisions already taken in the interest of the scheme; the inability of most of the beneficiaries of the scheme, especially the low income group, to pay the mandatory initial deposite of 10 per cent of the total cost of the subsidised houses under the scheme; the unwillingness of most financial institutions to provide loan facilities to the beneficiaries of the scheme, except some state’s housing loan boards that undertake to pay the initial deposite which is hardly remitted in time or even not at all, etc.
Other problems associated with the implementation of public policies commonly confronted include compromises during implementation, lack of political sensitivity, corruption, etc. For instance, Egonmwan J.A. argues that compromises made during implementation that seek to alter basic policy goals are detrimental to the successful execution of programmes.
He cited the case of the failure of housing policy in Nairobi, Kenya, where because the policy was turned out to be the means of rewarding party loyalists and other economic elites who would otherwise, have become unruly and pose serious threat to political peace which the third world countries strive towards, the poorest group for which housing programme was designed did not, however, benefit from the programme. Also, lack of political sensitivity is another problem facing policy implementation in most parts of the third world.
In contrast with advanced countries, Egonmwan states that policies in the developing countries generally emanate from the political system rather than from the demands of the citizens. In the developing countries, the focus of citizens is on the implementation of policies while in advanced countries generally, the focus is on the legislative system. Grindle M.S. (1980) buttresses the above by saying that public policies failed “because of the characteristics of the political systems themselves, such as the remoteness and inaccessibility of the policy making process to most individuals and the extensive competition engendered by widespread need and very scarce resources.
In the same vein, Egonmwan contends that corruption is another common problem that confronts the implementation of public policies in the third world especially. He explains that “in many developing countries corruption and corrupt practices are reported in both low and high places where power resides where bribes are freely given and freely taken before services are rendered. He further states that, “when corruption penetrates the implementation process, policy becomes mutated and the desired goals may not be achieved.
Therefore, bribery and corruption constitute a serious roadblock to policy implementation in the developing countries. Policy implementation is thus a tedious process that requires a great deal of analysis before starting it. One should thus also appreciate and understand that there are various factors involved in the implementation process, namely; capable leadership to convert inputs into outputs, the administrative and political factors affecting implementation arena, etc. In other words, there must be a linkage between policy formulation and policy implementation before a policy succeeds.
Generally, like with any other scheme introduced in the past by successive regimes, the owner-occupier housing scheme is no exception when it comes to its own share of problems associated with implementation. Although nobody contests the fact that housing is facing series of problems, but yet we should appreciate that people’s perception of these problems differ markedly as presented above.
However, it is important to note that public policy implementation stage involves the translation of goals and objectives of policy into concrete achievements through various programmes. Hence, it is often said that policy implementation is programme implementation. And of course, it is the most difficult stage in the policy process and hence the problems being confronted in the implementation of the lowcost housing scheme in all parts of Nigeria.

Sha'aibu Musa Umar lectures at the Department of Social Sciences, Kano State College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies, Kano.