Poverty Will Soon Chase Nigerian Workers Into Unoccupied Houses-NLC

The Nigerian Labour Congress has said that the houses built by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria are always unaffordable for Nigerian workers.

The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, stated this on Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of an estate in Karshi, Nasarawa State, by the Public Complaints Commission branch of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria.

He claimed that these houses were built with funds deducted from workers’ meagre salaries and yet the workers cannot afford them.

Wabba said with the high level of poverty in the country and with fading hopes of having affordable homes, Nigerians will soon start moving into unoccupied houses in order to survive.

He said when this happens; mortgage financial institutions such as the Federal Mortgage Bank will have no need to look for people to buy their properties.

Wabba said, “There is an estate built by the FMBN along the Abuja-Kaduna Road which they could not sell because they are expensive, people went there and occupied the buildings. We are getting there gradually.

“When you go round the city, just look for buildings built with workers money that are left unoccupied.”

He said that the country is gradually getting to the point where 90 per cent of the people would be below the poverty line, adding that the housing schemes must be affordable for Nigerians.

“We have told them that a time will come when they won’t need to invite people to occupy those houses because poverty will soon push us to park our loads into any empty house we see, built with deductions from our salaries.

“Governments in the past were building houses for workers and would later sell the apartments to them at affordable prices.

“Because we are stakeholders, we are social partners with the FMBN. I have set up a committee who are meeting with the Managing Director of the FMBN and his other officials to try to look at how workers could benefit from what they are contributing.”

Speaking further, Wabba noted that access to accommodation remains one of the basic necessities of man.

He said it is the aspiration of every worker to be a home owner someday.

“That is the type of system that we want now. We should practice a system that takes care of everyone including the vulnerable.

“Although government said it is doing something about it but we believe whatever they are doing is not enough. We have enormous resources in this country that could take care of the need of everybody.

“One thing that consumes the income of a worker is rent. If you save your rent for 35 years, it can build a house for you,” he concluded.