By Femi Oyelola
Kaduna, the capital city of Kaduna State and the former political capital of northern Nigeria, is undoubtedly a commercial center and a major transportation hub as the gateway to the northern states of Nigeria, with its rail and important road networks.
The Crocodile City as Kaduna it is known, is an administrative town well-planned and had good and well-distributed urban facilities and services in the early years of its existence.
However, the pressure of urbanization that has seen the city expand beyond its planned limits into hitherto rural settlements along the urban fringe has today given the city a different character from the once celebrated well planned, and beautiful town, which has led to housing deficits.
On the one hand, you have the earlier settled areas of the city with good roads, quality housing, and other necessary urban facilities while on the other you have the new expansion areas that have grown outside of formal planning control and are characterized by haphazard development, poor quality housing and lack of basic urban infrastructure and services.
It is within this context and the scarcity of resources that the city authorities are struggling to cope with the challenges continually posed by rapid urban growth.
One such scarcity of resources in the city is affordable houses for the poor and vulnerable who are said to be over 3.7 million individuals from 991,533 Poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs) in the State Social Register, (SSR).
It is largely unimaginable to think of providing houses for such massive figures, but the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, on August 15, 2023, took everyone by surprise when he performed the groundbreaking ceremony of the Qatar Sensible Project for Economic City and Mass Housing Project for the Less Privileged. He has taken the bull by the horn, as they say.
To many a Kaduna resident and dwellers, this ambitious project is a welcome development, needed to end the perennial housing shortage, a driver of the state’s housing affordability crisis.
Already, the governor has brought in developers to build half a million homes for the poor and vulnerable, something that has never happene at least in the modern history of the state.
The developers, Qatar Sanabil Project is a multi-million dollar project that will impact positively the lives of over 500,000 poor and vulnerable citizens of Kaduna State.
In the words of Governor Sani, the Economic City will provide world-class infrastructure and make Kaduna a reference point for modern and affordable accommodation, adequate security, and a conducive atmosphere for business activities.
“The Economic City will facilitate international trade. It will serve as a platform for entrepreneurs and traders. It will help harness product value chain opportunities and improve economic growth.
“In the Economic City, there will be houses for the poor, clinics, shops, poultry farms, farmlands for the rainy season, and irrigation farming.
“The Mass Housing Project for the Less Privileged is a major contribution towards putting roofs over the heads of the poor, underserved, and vulnerable in our state.
“This will go a long way in addressing a major gap in our interventions in the housing sector over the years,” the governor said during the groundbreaking ceremony.
The Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) of Sanabil Project, Abdullah Alabduljabbar, said the project is a multi-million dollar investment, and the vision is to be a globally influential investor that helps transform groundbreaking ideas into tangible realities as it is being witnessed in Kaduna state.
While lauding the State Government for what he called “the giant stride”, he said history is replete with countless examples of how bold ideas have disrupted traditional business models; ideas that enable new and improved ways of producing, consuming, and experiencing things and that is what Governor Sani has demonstrated.
This stride, to the average Kaduna resident, looks so out of scale with the state history that it might be impossible to achieve.
But Arc. Mark Amos, opined that practical concerns, including developers lining up enough financing and construction workers to build so many homes so quickly, could hinder the effort.
He expressed confidence in the developers, saying Governor Sani got the best hands from Qatar to put roofs over the heads of over 500,000 of the most vulnerable in the state.
However, an investigation by our Correspondent, revealed that as good as this project appears, the poor and vulnerable whose cause is being pursued by the governor seem not to be on the same page with him.
Malam Balarabe Liman, of Faringida a remote community in the Igabi Local Government Area, believes that by the time the project is completed, it is only the high and mighty that will take over the houses unless Governor Sani changes that familiar narrative.
Corroborating Malam Liman, a resident of Rail Crossing in Kachia Local Government Area, Pastor Timothy Abraham, said the project sounded good and gives hope to the poor and vulnerable, but the end will only justify the means if the houses got down to originally intended beneficiaries.
Yusuf Goje of Kaduna Local Government Accountability Mechanism (KADLGAM) described Governor Sani’s move as a piece of good news for the residents of the state, especially the low-income earners.
According to him, the construction of 500,000 housing units is a huge investment. Also, the significance of such a huge project lies in the number of direct and indirect jobs that will be created, he said.
“However, modalities need to be put in place to ensure that most of the workforce and materials to be used are sourced from within the state.
“More importantly, the government should ensure that the target beneficiaries get the houses by checkmating elite capture of the houses.
“The 500,000 housing project is a paradigm shift in a state already engulfed with housing deficit. In the words of Mallam Saleh Ahmed, “We cannot wait to see the completion of this project which will rekindle hopes in the minds of the poor and vulnerable in the state.” He stressed
Some poor and vulnerable who spoke to our Correspondent on condition of anonymity agreed with Goje saying the move by the governor is a right step in the right direction to sustain them in line with his SUSTAIN agenda covering; safety and security, upgrade of infrastructure, strengthening institutions, trade and investment, agriculture, investment in human capital and nurturing citizen engagement.
