For tenants in Nigeria, it is a daily tale of woes in the hands of their landlords, especially for those landlords whose rented houses are their only sources of livelihood. All these are to be expected, though, in a country where about 80 percent of the population live in rented accommodation on account of high level poverty, high house prices and challenging economy.
Nigeria’s status as global poverty headquarters is no news, but the country really faces daunting task to lift about 93 million persons out of extreme poverty, as income per capita has been falling in the last four years.
The growth in the broader economy has been lagging population growth for over three years. The same trend persisted in the first quarter of the current year when 2 percent rise in growth failed to keep pace with 2.7 percent rise in the number of Nigerians, an indication that things are yet to get better and Nigerians are getting poorer. It means too that Nigeria is producing less than it is growing.
But the average Nigerian, the low-income earners, the common man on the street, are the ones feeling the pains of a tough economy even as they struggle to meet the basic necessities of life.
With their disposable income stifled, the poor struggle to cater for their families, pay their children’s school fees, pay rent and other bills, and most times face intense pressure from their landlords and landladies.
BusinessDay’s survey on the plight of tenants resident in the mainland part of Lagos revealed that their woes range from unjustifiable rent increases, outrageous service charge particularly on power supply, disturbance from landlords as a number of them snub existing tenancy law.
Muyiwa Adebowale, a teacher in a Lagos private school, told Business Day correspondent that he and his family rented a new apartment in the Ifako-Ijaye area of the state, but his three year-stay was a tug of war with his landlord.
“I secured a 2-bedroom flat in Ifako-Ijaye in early 2015 so that I can spend less on transport fare as the house is close to my place of work. The landlord collected a year rent along with agreement and commission”.
“My experience there was not rosy. He (the landlord) made us (the tenants) pay for almost every damage/renovation of the house,” he revealed.
“One thing that got me irritated was the landlord’s habit of reminding me that my rent would soon be due as if I didn’t know my responsibility. At the third year in 2018, he increased my rent by 30 percent. I couldn’t cope because my salary could not cope. I eventually left the place,” he said.
Another tenant resident in Orile-Agege, Tunji Sulaimon, faces similar challenge. Sulaimon noted that landlords seemed not to be considerate about their tenants’ challenges, saying they were after their own interests.
“I work in a small private firm as an accounts officer. My take-home pay is not taking me home. To provide for my wife and three kids, and pay house rent is no joke.”
“Property owners need to understand what we are going through, which is obvious to them. Frustrating their tenants is not the way out, he said.”
From the survey, it was also gathered that most property owners exploit and frustrate tenants by compelling them to pay crazy sums for service charge.
Adaobi Benedict, who resides in Ojokoro area of Lagos, poured out her frustration on her landlord’s habit of hiding power bill from tenants in order to make them pay for energy they did not consume.
“The landlord lives with the tenants. We (the tenants) are five in number. We hardly see power bill, yet we would be asked to pay as high as N20, 0000, to be shared between five of us. We have complained to him (the landlord) on several occasions, but he is adamant; he often tells us to leave his house if we are not pleased with the rules,” he lamented.
Commenting on why most property owners frustrate their tenants, Damilola Ijalade, broker with PWAN Homes, positioned that most of them are retirees, elderly individuals, who rely wholly on rent to eke out a living.
Corroborating Ijalade’s stance, Titus Kolawole, property owner in the Abule-Taylor area of Lagos, said, “if you take a survey on the employment status of landlords in Nigeria, you will realize that about 60 percent are retirees or out of job, who, rely on their lifelong assets (the property) to survive; so landlords’ frustrating behaviour is not intentional”.
An average tenant is going through a lot in Nigeria’s rough economic terrain reflected double digit inflation which continues to weigh down on cost of living.
The fact that income per capita has been trending downwards in recent years signifies that government’s poverty alleviation strategies has not been effective to reduce the incidence of poverty in the land.
Extreme poverty figure grew 4 percent from 87 million to 91 million in just eight months between June 2018 and February 2019.
This therefore beholves the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to devise strategies to reduce extreme poverty in Nigeria to the barest minimum. Hopefully, the President has assured that with leadership and sense of purpose, 100 million Nigerians could be lifted out of poverty within a decade.
Israel Odubola
