BY MICHAEL EBOH & ONOZURE DANIA
The Lagos State Government said it intends to undertake massive construction of houses for all strata and income levels of the society in 2012.

Speaking at the Commissioning of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation, LSDPC, Court Apapa GRA, christened H.A.B. Fashinro Court, Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said the government has included this mass housing project in the budget for the next fiscal year and will kick off the programme once the budget is passed.

Fashola said the state government is not only concerned with meeting the housing needs of the low and middle income earners of the state, saying, that its housing projects are designed to cater for the need of every strata of the society.

He said that the government is aware that it is not only low income segment of the society that is in need of housing, but also the middle and upper class.

According to him, the housing project in Apapa is an approach in which houses are built for the rich to earn profit to subside the poor.

He said, “As a government that is elected by both the votes of the rich and the votes of the poor, we remain mindful to the needs of those we represent. Furthermore, I was informed that all the units in this housing project have been fully subscribed and paid for.

“Now if there was no demand at that upper level in the society, the houses will not be available for sale. So we address these needs as called for. But what this means for us is that through this initiative, this government can earn some profit by serving the high income earners and using the funds to cater for the needs of other segments of the society.”

Fashola said that the commissioning of the LSDPC Court Apapa G.R.A, is the fourth housing project that has been completed and handed over.

He said the housing project is symbolic, for a number of reasons, the first that addresses the housing needs of the upper strata in our society.

Fashola noted that the approach used in the Apapa housing project is different from the strategy that was used in housing schemes in other areas of the state, which were schemed by direct government audit so as to subsidise the course of delivery of the houses.

He said, “It is also different from the approach that was used in the Eleganza court project in Ikota, where government only provided the land with a view to sharing profit from the sale by the private developer, through which government can again continue to meet social commitment and obligation.”

Furthermore, Fashola said that the Apapa projects was no  exception,  as it provided employment and empowerment for a vast majority of Nigerians.

“Along with the men who provided services like engineering, electrical, quantity survey, structural, architectural and project management, 40 people worked here to provide the water tank and the water supply, 20 people were employed to do all of the roofing.

“In addition, 50 people were employed for the greening and beautification while 20 people were employed to do all the painting.

“The external works and external revivification employed 150 people and 180 people respectively, while the main contractor itself had about 2,000 work men on the site throughout for convince. In all the effort on this quoted size just about 1.635 hectares of land, about 2,558 people earned a living here during the construction period.

“There is three years maintenance obligation here, some of the people who worked during the construction will still be kept behind to continue the project. For me this is a kind of public spending that the government must pursue at a time of economic difficulty.