By Dan Amor
In
what appears to be one of the most salutary pronouncements by a functionary of
the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2009, the then
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael
Aondoakaa (SAN), challenged the Body of Attorney Generals of Nigeria, to
initiate laws in their respective states to criminalise the demand for advance
rent payments by landlords and landladies across the country. Aondoakaa who
said this in a keynote address he presented at the opening of the Second Body
of Attorney Generals Conference in Makurdi, Benue
state, attributed the rising incidence of corruption in the country to the
demand of between one and five year advance rent payment from tenants by greedy
Nigerian landlords and landladies.
Similarly,
the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad
Musa Bello, recently frowned at the high cost of accommodation in Abuja and promised to
urgently address the ugly situation. Indeed, a situation in which a 2-bedroom
flat, even on the outskirts of Abuja metropolis goes for at least N500,000 per
annum and the tenant is expected to renew the rent at the same rate annually,
is unacceptable. Where will he or she get the money from? If a man who has
three or more children in school should pay N500,000 yearly as rent in addition
to other variable costs, how much is his annual salary or income? Like
Aondoakaa rightly pointed out, if in countries like Ghana,
Gambia and Benin Republic,
rents are paid on monthly basis, why should Nigeria be an exception?
Despite
its inelegant implications such as corruption or outright stealing, harassment,
psychological torture and such other vice crimes as murder and prostitution,
this evil practice, which is the highest form of feudalism, is thriving in Nigeria
because of the high degree of insensitivity of government towards the plight of
the suffering masses. These landlords or landladies work in connivance with
those who call themselves estate agents and some dubious lawyers to manipulate
the law and hoodwink unsuspecting and hapless tenants using some local
customary courts presided by local criminals who are not even lawyers. You
would rent an apartment for, say N700,000 per annum probably with a loan
secured from your organisation or through savings. At the end of the year, that
is, when it expires and you don't have money to renew the rent immediately with
another N700,000, you are given a quit notice in which you are expected to park
out of the apartment within a stipulated period of one week (seven days). At
the end of the seven day notice, thugs ostensibly from a court invade your home
with a fake warrant to forcefully eject you.
