Periscoping NULGE’s Housing Scheme

Rivers State NULGE President, Comrade Franklin AjUNWO

The idea for housing is
actually divine; this divine ideology runs through the glowing and inspirational pages of the Holy Writ – The Bible. In the first book – Genesis, for instance, Noah received divine instruction to build an Ark – an
Ark that will provide not just comfort, but a roof over the heads of its occupants – to escape the Great Deluge; to provide refuge while the catastrophic deluge lasts.
Although the earth man since from Eden has always had a place of abode -with roof over his head, but the first man credited in Bible history as having erected an habitable structure with a roof is Noah (Gen. 6).
From what the divine Book tags the days of Noah’ till now, the story has not changed. Infact in Isaiah, chapter 65, verse 21, the Bible is so definite and emphatic on this : “And they shall build houses and inhabit them”, it screemed ! So the earthman is under compelation to “build houses and inhabit them”!
Over time, man has headed to this divine injunction by his creator and even discovered the need to build houses for others to inhabit. Human history is replete with this superfluous truism. And this has grown beyond the reigns of individuals to families, groups of individuals that operate under the aegis of associations with various appellations, corporate bodies, governments and International organizations. They are all driven by a common goal – to meet the housing needs and aspirations of humanity.
In Nigeria, it is on record that such groups, associations and governments at the federal. state and local levels have made in-road in this area. In the 1990s for example, Nigerians were treated to a policy on housing, tagged: ‘Housing For All by the Year 2000′ by the government at the centre. Although it never really achieved its set objective of providing ‘Housing For All’, the efforts of government was however applauded.
Also, way back in the late 1970s, to underscore the importance of housing, one of the political parties that came on stream at the time – the National Party of Nigeria, NPN – used ‘house’ as one of its symbols and include it in its manifesto as a cardinal principle of the party. Its 1979 electioneering campaigns which produced Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president was based essentially on welfarist . programmes like provision of housing for the masses.
Years later, the incumbent administration in Rvers state, from inception in 2007 left no one in doubt about the direction it has chosen in Housing delivery, as it made housing one of the cardinal points and pillars of the administration- thus consolidating on the gains of successive administrations in the state on housing.
Underlying its resolve on Housing, the government says explicitly: “Our vision is to provide indigenes and residents of Rivers state access to decent and affordable housing accommodation “, adding “Our mission is to ensure the deliivery/provision of decent and affordable housing for all in Rivers State in partnership with the private sector”, explaining further that their “mandate is to provide a minimum of 4,000 units of social housing annually, sites and services scheme, and create an enabling environment for private sector participation in housing delivery in Rives state”.
The Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi administration vigorously pursued this vision on housing and successfully provided permanent abode for some of its teeming residents in Port Harcourt. On this, the Iriebe housing estate easily comes to mind.
With the same conviction that the importance of housing cannot be over emphasized, the umbrella organization of local government workers in the state – the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), under its present leadership recently took concrete steps at providing accommodation for its teeming members across the 23 local government areas in the state.
The Sir Barr. Franklin Ajunwo-Ied union told its members recently in Port Harcourt that it is driven by vision and burden to toe that path.
Ajunwo said, on assumption of office as state president, a major problem plaguing their members is accommodation inspite of effort at the state level to meet the yawning aspiration of the citizenry in this regard. His words: “ On assumption of office, I discovered that our members lacked good accommodation so I resolved there and then to work assiduously towards tackling this problem: I discovered that the efforts of the state government in providing accommodation, as commendable as it is, is not enough to meet our members’ housing needs so I resolved to tackle the lack of accommodation frontally”.
“The result is what we have now – a well-thought-out plan on housing strictly for NULGE members; the land acquired for the purpose is big enough to accommodate as many members as possible, on completion of the project”, he added.
Answering questions from the Tide on this all-important project, Ajunwo expressed a sense of satisfaction over the successful acquisition of a large expanse of land in the state capital. With the C of 0 in the kitty of the association, The TIDE learnt that the stage is now virtually set for the foundation-laying ceremony of the estate, which will be performed before the year runs out and that all hands in NULGE will be on deck before the completion of Ajunwo’s current second term.
Strategically located few kilometres from the University of Port Harcourt, along the popular East-West road, the land is sandwitched between the serene environment of Alakahia and the burstling Choba community, the choice of location makes it accessible to would-be owners of houses in the estate and the general public at large, and good enough for residential and business purposes.
At a time that ‘housing’, like power remains a protracted problem in the country, with not a few Nigerians living in unhygienic conditions in ghettos where houses are predominantly sub-standard with some comparable to where animals dwell – without toilet and bath facilities, many see this latest move by NULGE as a welcome development, a respite to the large population that are under the debilitating crunch of housing malaise or outrightly living without accommodation.
From feelers, not a few have expressed satisfaction with this innovation of the Barr. Ajunwo leadership in NULGE.
Currently, the generality of NULGE members are ecstatic about the move. At a time that many in public offices and positions of authority generally are busy amazing stupendous wealth for themselves; with their cronies carting away even the crunches and denying the masses their constitutionally-enshrined and well-deserved right to good governance. Even outside the precincts of NULGE, this move by NULGE leadership has become a swan-song in some quarters.
The Tide learnt that the foundation-laying ceremony would be performed any moment. With determination on the part of the Franklin Ajunwo-Ied leadership to vigorously implement this policy and ensure its completion in record time – before the expiration of his present second term in office (as NULGE state president), a new chapter has indeed been opened in the annals of the union and Local Government administration in the state – for unmistakably, it is the first time in the history of NULGE for an housing estate to be planned and being executed. (NULGE is as old as the Local Government system in the country). Therefore for NULGE, history is being made.
Curiously, The Tide sought to know from Barr. Ajunwo why it has taken NULGE such a long time to conceive an housing estate for its members, considering the fact that the establishment of Local Government administration in the country has spanned across decades, and he was swift in his reply.
“It’s not that previous administration of the union were not doing any thing to move the union forward, it’s just that each administration has its focus on what it considers its priority and delivered such to the union. For us, it is the Housing estate that is our top-most priority in this my second term as president”, he told The Tide, adding, “In my first term, we recorded meaningful achievements – we placed emphasis on staff welfare and ensured that the backlog of salaries we inherited were cleared; that staff received their salaries and allowances as at when due; we’re up-to-date in the payment of salaries and allowances, and no staff is being owed.
While we continue to lay emphasis on staff welfare, we decided to take up housing, seeing that most of our members don’t have houses of their own, and those who have, live in sub standard houses so we decided to come to their rescue and put smiles on their faces”.
Responding to a question by The Tide on how affordable the houses would be, against the backdrop that most housing schemes across the country are beyond the reach of low income earners, as their prices shot up beyond the roof top. Ajunwo snapped, very affordable”, adding “The houses are envisioned for those at the grassroots and as you well know, our members are those at the grassroots. The union will subsidize the prices as much as possible to make it affordable for our members”.
The estate, Ajunwo said, is designed to provide amenities required in estates of such magnitude to make life comfortable for the occupants, assuring that the contract for the construction of the estate will be handled by a responsible construction company and NULGE was not leaving anything to chance. Thus, facilities like transformers, water treatment plant, borehole, interlocking stone, road network, drainages, landscaping, flowers, swimming pool, cre’che as well as security through corporate guards, would be a common sight as fully- detached houses on the wide expanse of land hold sway.
With the feat achieved, many believe that it will go down in history that Ajinwo has scored another (first’ in Local’Government unionism and administration in the country, with the Rivers State Nulge setting the pace for others to follow.
On completion of his tenure therefore, he would have succeeded in writing his name in gold in the hearts of the beneficiaries and others.
Coming at a time that Local Government allocations are being reportedly shared with reckless abandon between some chairmen and their cronies, after the payment of staff salaries in some cases, many see this giant people- oriented step and selfless contribution to human and societal development as commendable and a big relief.
With new leaders warming up to take the mantle of leadership at various levels in 2015, borrowing a leaf from Sir Dr Franklin Ajinwo-Ied NULGE to deliver dividends of democracy to the suffering and highly impoverished masses, which is what they (masses] crave for, will certainly not amount to asking for too much!

Justus Unye-Awaji