Mr. Bode Adediji is the Chief Executive Officer, Bode Adediji Partnership, a multidisciplinary property consultancy firm, and a former President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. In this interview with MAUREEN AZUH, he talks about the problems facing the housing and construction industry, among other issues
What prompted the establishment of your multidisciplinary firm in a country where professionals still find it difficult to work together?
The insight to form the first Nigerian multidisciplinary estate firm was through an inspiration I had when I was undergoing my MSc programme at the University of Reading, England way back in 1982. Having worked in the third largest company in Nigeria for about four years at that point in time, the idea was formed by the reality that real estate had challenges from time to time.
I considered that if you work as a team or a consortium, you are able to see all the problems from various perspectives; and so, when you agree to proffer a solution, it will be effective, cost-efficient and sustainable; you will be able to tackle the problem from a multidisciplinary perspective and you are better served in terms of value for money.
Today, a number of other firms in the built environment have towed the line. That is why within an architectural firm, you will find structural and even mechanical engineers in-house. You are able to work better, faster and cheaper than if you are operating solo and outsourcing all your needs and requirements.
How would you assess the impact of these partnerships on the built environment?
Despite all the progress we have made, Nigeria’s real estate profession is still at its basic infancy, which is the fact. The kind of real estate you see in operation in Malaysia, Taiwan, Dubai and South Africa are like a million years away. That is why you find that our entire urban landscape is still virtually barren. The entire Lagos of about 18 million people can only boast of two major shopping malls: The Palms in Lekki and Ikeja City Mall. The remaining shopping malls are just small-scale malls by all standards.
Today, Nigeria cannot boast of a single out-of-city dedicated shopping mall where you can go for shopping and recreation, none in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt or Kano. We will get there, but in terms of the template to drive the growth, we are still grossly deficient.
Housing deficit has been a major issue of discourse to the point of being over flogged, what policies do you think can be put in place to reduce it?
Even if we have to speak about housing deficit in Nigeria on an hourly basis, let us talk about it because a problem ignored may never be addressed. Here is a country that generates 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, yet, majority of our citizenry live in houses that are not worthy of occupation. Majority of workers that toil day and night cannot boast of houses of their own; majority of tenants spend a disproportionate part of their annual income on rent to landlords. For me, that is not a signal for progress or development.
Most of the challenges that Nigeria is now having in other sectors of our national lives namely: unemployment, insecurity and corruption, all have their root in the policy that we have on housing. How do you generate employment in a country of 160 million people if you don’t reengineer the housing and infrastructural sector? The focus is on oil, how many people can the oil sector employ?
The housing sector is one that government speaks about yearly but in terms of marshalling the political will to do the needful, we are always found wanting. I am not defending crime, but the devil finds job for idle hands, whether they now manifest in Boko Haram or kidnapping is another issue. But a nation that keeps a reasonable percentage of youths employed is already in tandem with peace, security and progress.
If we have a government that can address housing issue from the mundane part of putting roof over peoples’ heads to look at it in a more holistic manner that will see the youth becoming engineers, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, etc, things will begin to change.
What are the major problems hindering housing availability and how can they be solved?
Nigeria’s housing environment is sick. The sickness arises from the fact that we don’t have a body that can partner with government to take a comprehensive look at the housing sector and put an end to business as usual.
It is even within the housing sector where you have scarcity that you have a lot of wastage. Nigeria is saddled with the responsibility of witnessing on a daily basis thousands of empty houses and millions of homeless people.
In Lekki today, amidst thousands of people who have nowhere to sleep, thousands of houses are unoccupied, same in Asokoro, Maitama and Gwarimpa in Abuja; thousands of houses have remained vacant in the past years. Yet, millions of Nigerians roam about the streets. That calls for concerted efforts at the highest government and professional level to seek solution.
I’m not advocating that a young man who has no job should be put in a house in Asokoro simply because it is empty but let us look at structural deficiencies in what we are doing. If we find out that people now prefer two-bedroom houses, it is better to promote consciously, investors who will invest in that; government should also make land available to them and encourage them.
How Nigeria can reconcile that is another fact that should be added to the terrible deficit plaguing the country.
What is your take on public-private partnership in tackling the housing problem?
It is good to talk about PPP, it is probably the rule that now governs project implementation even in advanced countries, but have we taken care of the fundamental steps that can serve as infrastructure to midwife the PPP? The answer is no. Number one, access to land in this country is still as herculean as it used to be 20 years ago before the Land Use Act. With the entire proposal for amendment in the National Assembly what has become of it? Nothing.
Secondly, before talking about PPP, look at the cost of construction, especially from the perspective of the internal capacity. Today, 70 per cent of building materials in the country are still imported. So, even if you want to go on PPP, you must address it from the angle of competitiveness, implementation timeframe and cost efficiency, else there will be a problem; houses will be outside the purchasing power of the ordinary people of Nigeria, and so, PPP as we now clamour for, will be dead on arrival. So, there are so many problems that are hampering the acceptance of PPP in Nigeria.
Housing and infrastructure construction have been identified as major tools of development in developed and emerging economies. Is there hope that housing will develop the Nigeria economy?
Yes, there is hope but Nigeria has a problem, which is ‘over-endowment’. That is why an average Nigerian wants to be seen talking and not working. We have a country of almost one million square kilometres of land with about seven kilometres of coastline and billions in oil reserves, and by the time you go into agriculture-friendly nations, few countries can beat Nigeria.
Why is a country so endowed still dependent on imported food to feed the populace? Nigeria is peculiar in nature, it is the only country where all the problems are known, all the solutions and resources to be deployed to tackle the problems are available, but nothing is being done. That is the area where Nigeria presents what is called global dilemma.
The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers has been canvassing for bigger practising firms, what has been done in that direction?
The origin of that clamour lay in the fact that I, as the second vice-president then, took some professionals to a resort in Ada, Osun State, where the future of this profession was dissected by KPMG and other consultants, and they told us that until we can differentiate between different levels of consultancy practice, we would not be able to flow like other professions.
If a man wants to remain at the highest level, he has to remain at a bigger practice, which is partnership-driven. During my tenure as president I ensured the constitution of NIESV was overhauled to make provision for that so that professionals can practice with pseudonyms. In the next three years, look out for some big practice that will set the pace for others to follow.
The Lagos State Government has made attempts to regulate the agency aspect of your profession, what is your take on this?
I don’t see anything wrong in government trying to regulate the agency practice. In Europe and America, governments regulate any form of good and service that has significant impact on the populace.
The only thing I don’t like is that our members don’t position themselves at the driver’s seat of these regulatory agencies and fight against those elements of regulation that are counterproductive. When you do this, it means you are working with government for common good.
Are indigenous surveyors and valuers still involved in the valuation of government properties?
Yes, to a large extent; governments at all levels still use local estate surveyors; it is only in rare cases you see foreign companies bypassing local ones to import their own valuers. The only profession that doesn’t allow that is the legal profession, but Nigerian estate surveyors have not been perceived in a segmented manner that you see among lawyers, accountants and the medical professions. By the time you see that cadre and segregation, where you have SAN by merit, experience and exposure, certain categories of jobs will go to them. I see the future of estate surveying and valuation in Nigeria along that line where people will specialise in different areas. But where estate surveyors want to be jack of all trade is responsible for the element of retrogression we are witnessing now.