THEORITICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 3.1Global Nature of HDS
3.4.1.2 The State and Power relations in Housing Delivery systems
Through the emergence of the state, colonization became the tool of governance as seen in Lagos. This tool became an adaptive instrument for social and physical change in colonies uniquely; territorial delineation, living habits, and styles were drastically changed.
In Nigeria, the first indicator to this change was the acquisition of Lagos as Crown colony in 1862. Then, the Niger Delta region in 1885 and expanded in-land and renamed the Niger coast protectorate in 1893; by 1899 the Royal Niger Company was granted a royal charter to
administer these territories and by January 1st 1900 Britain assumed authority over Nigeria and structured it into three separate units of northern, southern, and Lagos colony (FRN,2008).
The transformation of Nigeria under British imperial domination took effect by 1914, through the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorate under a Governor General. This marked the origins of the ‘Nigerian nation-state’. During these periods modern housing based on the single-family model was entrenched by the colonial masters and the key beneficiaries were the expatriate colonial workers who served and protected British interest and a few indigenes that formed the social focus group and served the interest of the British (Aradeon, 1978). While the building technique and construction material content was emulated by a few indigenous merchants and Kings who could afford it, the process of adaptation by the larger society had started by the use of imported corrugated iron roofing sheets(locally called zinc) as against the use of thatch. The emergence of the colonial style housing surnamed ‘tropical architecture’ (by modernists in the Academy of Architecture) became a state driven architectural style for public projects. This style won the admiration of emerging elite who benefited from coalitions with the colonialists (Uduku, 2006; Alabi, 2000). The defining moments for architectures’ input in colonial Nigeria continued for over a hundred years with very little input from the indigenes. It was on this premise that the future federation (in 1954) emerged. Nigeria obtained independence on October 1, 1960 and subsequently becoming a Republic by October 1963. These events, which led to self-rule and a government of national unity, have greatly changed the directional outlay in the housing delivery systems. Since emerging governments in response to the need for ‘nationalism’ tailored housing objectives and projects, along these lines (Guggler, 1982; Aradeon, 2000).
Common to this historical antecedents, is that the ‘state’ in this context remains a promoter of heterogeneous social groups (which this research calls social focus groups), that are perceived to be relevant to the stability of the nation-state. As the years went by, emerging groups upon realizing their personal weaknesses towards benefiting from the nation-state simply reinforced themselves towards obtaining their target objectives and improving their lot within perceived lines of state weaknesses as well. This evidenced in the housing delivery systems; whereby, social focused groups build their communes independent of state based regulation and were tacitly able to resist the state from expanding its housing programmes until the introduction of the Land Use-Decree of 1978. The benefits of this decree were short-lived and only fulfilled governments’ ability to excise land for its use known to law as ‘common good of all’. The majority of social focus groups and individuals simply applied for land and speculated on the value over time with no real intent for housing development. Even then, the enforcement of
nationalism comes with identity issues in the midst of ethnicity based power relations and access to Land becomes a melting pot for reshaping society. Since land is a vital element of the housing delivery system.
The emerging human settlement patterns in relation to power, allocation, and access to land logically defined the coalitions and those that ultimately give form to dwelling units. Hence, these outcomes are evident in the physical qualities of various housing schemes borne out of the needs of various social focus groups (such as railways, police, army, University lecturers, cooperatives, friends, families etc.). The promulgation of the land use decree was two pronged in effect; while it made formal land more accessible to the elite class, it also allowed them to acquire land and accumulate surplus value by speculating with land value.
The proliferation of land ownership by legislation resulted in the use of housing estate vehicles to redefine lifestyle among urban dwellers (Aradeon, 2009). Lagos continues to pioneer this drift as the effect of state and power relations in the evolution of the city is evident. While in industrial Europe, the state and power relations were the agitations of the labour force and unions, which sustained the industrial era and hence their implicit social focus group that was by nature, socio-culturally homogenous. The colonized territories/countries like Nigeria, unfortunately expressed similar attributes in two different ways through a heterogeneous social focus group (emanating from the public and the private sector of an emerging economy).
Firstly, through the elite class, that was the original public sector generated social focus groups. Housing for the indigenous public sector workers was based on the provider paradigm.
In this case, the provider was the colonial government. In this group, housing needs were a pre- determined single-family itemized space-function relation by the colonialist. This is evident in the housing schemes implemented to serve the working class in the various sectors of the economy. The taxonomy of colonial housing discussed latter shows this direction. Spatial allocation was in relation to class delineation and not housing needs. The colonialist concentrated in providing target housing for its expatriate staffs and a few indigenous staffs in sectors like, public administration, defense, railways, health, Police, etc.(Aradeon,1982;
Baradat,1997; Harpham, Boateng,1997).
Secondly, through the emerging private sector, affluent and middle-income indigenes (who obtained contracts from government and maybe sole agents of foreign companies, in wanting to enjoy a lifestyle of syncretism acquires land, and) tries to create his environment within an
affordable social context that is considered adequate along regulatory support if any existed in that environment setting.
Another dimension of housing to the power relation apart from government influence on overall outlook and outcome is the internalized relationship in formulating and dispensing regulatory framework. This is yet another determinant of power relations. The outcome is contributory to the physical form and the quality of the built environment. This is evident in the real estate development of most cities in Nigeria. There is a tacit approach to project impact studies and an unwritten code that very few developments will be discouraged on technical grounds of legitimate planning regulations. In Lagos state (which is the case study for this research), a consultants connectedness to state power (approving officers, commissioners and the governor) is required to access planning approvals. Where the state powers are too much of a deprivation for such projects, then, soliciting powers from above (wielding national powers) to achieve the housing objective of actors/partners become inevitable. Therefore, the nucleated development of housing and its delivery systems remain subject largely to state power relation implicitly, given its antecedents over the period under study in this research (Aradeon, 1980;
Abiodun, 1974, 1980; Adeniyi, 1980; Akinsemoyin, Vaughan-Richards, 1976; Braimoh, Onishi, 2007).
3.4.1.3 Social Arrangements toward Adequate Housing Delivery
The housing estate vehicle for housing delivery remains a product of social arrangements among social focus groups around the world. The need to agglomerate interests in the choice of housing type, location and the factor of affordability remains a valid approach (Nubi, 2009).
The agglomerations of interests are often in relation to surplus value accumulation over time by way of speculation or an outright socio-cultural need to connect with the lifestyle trends of ownership within settings. Housing need as a criterion is not the justification for most housing objectives among the middle to upper income groups who share power relations and hence upon whom the social arrangements for national self-determination rest upon.
Therefore, the social difficulties in delineating stakeholders alongside increasing urban population matched against cost of infrastructure development continues to direct the outlay of actors/partners decisions to favour the housing estate approach. The housing estate development approach is lifestyle based and isolates other citywide related problems from the housing estate or keeps it within manageable scale; households agglomerate in terms of affordability and access to land essentially.
Today’s duality in housing delivery (public or private) has evolved over years. The adequacy of both the public and private initiatives remains disparate on several grounds of quality across the world (developed or developing). However, the need to meet the housing demand is common to both efforts. Social arrangements among actors/partners take its origins from the understanding of the housing settings, state and power relations.
Moreover, in Lagos, the need to operate in a typical urban capitalist economy remains the driving force for inhabitants. Since over the years the seemingly accumulated surplus value obtained by allocation of land from the public sector to beneficiaries have become memorable in terms of current value that they stand to benefit. By belonging to a social focus group implies access to benefiting from the enablement granted by the public sector such as the allocation of land or housing. In retrospect, stakeholders’ coalitions tend to respond to future needs by way of ‘speculation’ on all fronts of housing development even where a lack of capacity to deliver such housing in real economic terms is evident. A good example is the Eko Atlantic City, a new area of Lagos, which would be fully sand filled in ten years time. This would entail sand filling the Atlantic Ocean inwards by two kilometers. The entire development is sold-out at an average cost of $250USD per square meter of land and a minimum of 1000sqm to first hand buyers as at 2010.
Currently on the Lekki axis, which is the emerging Lagos Business district it is observed that most of the land within the economic promotion zone (EPZ) is sold out to speculators whose estates are unable to be actualized (field survey, 2010). This further compounds the nucleated nature of housing development in the city with weak circulatory linkages and several commuting bottlenecks, which requires huge capital investments in infrastructure development that is avoidable by proper planning, and partnership arrangements with civil society.