Former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, advocated for a reconsideration of tenancy laws at the state level to enforce monthly rent payments by landlords.
Fashola made this suggestion during the unveiling of his book in Lagos titled “Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole”. He expressed concerns about the burden placed on tenants by the requirement for advance rent payments, sometimes spanning three years or longer.
According to him: “I think as I’ve argued that we can look at housing not only from ownership and construction but also rental. How many houses are empty and unoccupied? Why are they empty? Why are they not occupied? Some of the reason is because of the way we collect rent. That is not the only reason.
“But if you do not understand how dramatic and painful that three-, four, or five-year rent has become to our nation, we have not consciously done anything to it except perhaps in Lagos by passing rent control law. And I think that instead of just complaining about housing every state House of Assembly did something that brought down that pain.
“Can we bring it down from three years to one year? Can we hopefully bring it down to six months? Can we let it coincide with when people get paid at the end of the month,” he stated.
