Increase In House Rents: NANS Meets Delta’s Housing Commissioner, Calls For Intervention, States Demands

By Daniel Dafe

Following the increase of house rents across Delta State, especially in host communities for citadels of learning, H.E Gen. Dio Oghale-Emejoereda Emeka Rex, Deputy Coordinator, NANS, Southeast and Southsouth (Zone), led a seven man delegation to the Honorable Commissioner for Housing in the state, Chief Festus Ochonogor, in Asaba.

Oasis Magazine gathered that the deliberation which lasted for an hour thirty minutes was centered on how the government would come to the rescue of Nigerian students and the entire populace.

Dio, who spoke during the visit, said students understand that houses are owned by private individuals, but said that it is a known fact that the government collects tenancy levy from them, adding that “it is the government that develops the land and areas which also have led the landlords to increase the cost of rents.”

He said students were made to pay as high as #250,000 for just a hostel accommodation for a year, adding that the development had made life unbearable for the students and their parents as hostel accommodation provided by the institutions could not accommodate the teeming student population.

The NANS official said the student body across the state planned to stage a protest in this regard as some house owners “now collects rents per session, instead of yearly,” adding that “NANS thought it wise to embrace dialogue instead of being confrontational.”

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He continued: “In our quest as partners in progress and a responsive leadership saddled with the responsibility to protect the interests and welfare of the students, advocating for the voiceless Nigerians by giving them voice, the following became imperative for us as our demands to the government;

1. That the government through the state assembly should establish a law to peg an accommodating and convenient price payable by the common man and also ensure it enforcement.

2. That the government should also establish and enforce a law that rents should be paid monthly so to reduce the burden and heart attack of paying huge amounts of money by the ordinary citizens.

3. That the government should partner with private sectors or take full responsibilities in building hostels which should be subsidized in our higher institutions of learning as this will automatically reduce the hike in the rents by landlords.

4. That the Nigerian students who currently are battling with hostel fee increments wouldn’t love to come out enmass to the streets for a protest, but will be left with no other option than to take to the street mother of all protest if the government fails to address the issues swiftly.

In his response, Chief Ochonogor applauded the new leadership of NANS for the bold step taken in tackling and solving students related problems/ issues.

He said the government is aware of the suffering and exploitation of the masses by the landlords and the government is not quite or comfortable about it, and that his ministry and that of Urban Renewal and Ministry of Lands and Survey have resolved on modalities to curb this exploitation.

He noted that the government is very ready to partner with investors who are ready to develop the state by building houses and other projects.

He went further to state the commitment of the state government and how the government has embarked on a housing project of one hundred and seventy seven units of one bedroom, two bedrooms and three bedrooms across major cities in the state, saying that the first phase includes Asaba, Agbor, Kwale and Warri.

This, he said is in partnership with Fami Owns Ltd.