Nigeria needs rental protection board

WHAT sort of economic utopia generates the practice of demanding two years’ rent in advance? You may be shocked to know that in some private companies wages are owed for up to ten months. I had to resign from a job where I didn’t know when I would be paid and worse where upper management never broached the topic as to when they would pay nor apologise for defaulting. I have to ask again, how many Nigerians are paid wages two years in advance?

There are no rental protection boards in Nigeria and people suffer from uncontrolled abrasive increases by landlords. Painfully, these same landlords who do not pay state taxes flout state laws to build homes on green areas. They build unsafe houses, ignoring building codes, close to high-tension power lines that, by law, should be 10 meters away

Then they take their pound of flesh from rent seekers and leaseholders. The level of entitlement by landlords is abysmal. Lola was desperately in need of a house, an agent showed her one, a two bedroom bungalow, in a serene environment which she liked. Then came the caveat, “pay two years rent.” She barely managed to save the money for one year’s rent now she was asked to pay two years’ rent in advance.

I cannot believe the discrimination against the rent-seeking community and against hard working, responsible individuals in particular, that still exists in this modern day and age. It makes no sense to me whatever.

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Many landlords remain unfazed by arguments for commonsense based on love and humanity. They give you that look of askance, suggesting that there will always be those who prefer to subjugate people. Their reasons to justify sky-rocketing rentals and demands for two years’ rent in advance fly in the face of the harsh economic reality. While arguments may flow politically correctly, the route they travel leads towards “ugly degeneracy.”

The meagre wages people earn in Nigeria barely covers living expenses; meeting the needs of family is a herculean task and unless you earn money that is within and above the threshold, saving for homes and sundries is not achievable. That being said, people scrape all they have to pay for essentials. It appears the lucky ones in Nigeria are politicians; they are given free money to take care of their needs while many among them who are landlords also ask for two years’ rent. Shouldn’t we be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this situation to develop unchallenged?

To think that there are no enforceable laws to checkmate this philistinism in Nigeria is worrying. The state does not have the will to act retrospectively, even in the light of blatant discrimination, housing shortages, homelessness and most of all, in the absence of common decency among home owners.

• Simon Abah,

 Abuja