INTRODUCTION

Among the basic needs of life is housing which is an essential component of human existence and survival. The ideal thing is for every individual to have a place of rest, called a home. The United Nations defines the right to adequate housing as the right to live somewhere in security, peace, and dignity, as part of an adequate standard of living. It requires housing to be affordable, habitable, accessible, properly located, and culturally adequate, with legal security of tenure. This also includes and extends to legal security of tenure, protection against forced evictions, harassment, and other threats, adequate space, availability of safe drinking water, sanitation and energy. For this to be meaningful, housing must be affordable and the cost should not compromise the occupant’s ability to satisfy other basic human rights or needs. Finally, the location must be such that it affords access to employment, healthcare, schools and childcare. Under the UN-Habitat, states are enjoined to ensure the existence of these conditions and promote inclusive, sustainable urban development. Not long ago, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights interpreted several articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to include a right to shelter, in the case of Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAP), ruled that the combination of Articles 14, 16, and 18(1) to affirm and protect the right to affordable shelter. Successive governments in Nigeria have not been able to fashion out an enduring housing policy to comply with the United Nations and African Union templates, resulting in housing crisis. Literally speaking, the people have been abandoned by the government that they voted into office to reduce their stress and worries, largely due to lack of focus and the presence of mind to act. This has in consequence turned the housing sector to an ungoverned space, where shylock developers feed fat on the hapless investors and tenants rob owners of their hard-earned investments. There are no rules to guide any but rather a porous system that offers little or no remedy to anyone, leaving all stakeholders dissatisfied with the regulators. For the investor, the government should not determine the mode or rate of profit if it cannot guarantee an affordable and friendly financing regime while the tenant is miffed at being left at the mercy of the landlord due to failure by the government.

THE HOUSING DEFICIT

Nigeria's housing deficit is a massive, growing crisis, estimated between 20 to 28 million units, driven by rapid urbanization, population growth, poverty, and inadequate funding, requiring hundreds of thousands of new homes annually, with figures often needing trillions of Naira to address, necessitating public-private partnerships, innovation, and improved infrastructure. Taking Lagos State with an estimated population of about 30 million people as a case study, this critical infrastructure gap has left the main city overcrowded and unable to hold together thousands of its daily migrants. With the unplanned expansions, the city begs for durable amenities like water, controlled sewage and waste disposal, efficient traffic management, decreasing crime rate and stable electricity supply. The projections are that the housing deficit in Nigeria ranges from 20 million to 28 million units, while it is suggested that the annual need should be around 550,000 to 700,000 new homes annually for the next decade or two to keep pace. The housing gap requires huge investments, with figures reaching N21 trillion or more. As more people are moving to the cities, a notable strain on the existing housing stock is inevitable, partly due to increasing population growth which outpaces housing supply, neglect of the rural communities left without basic amenities like water, electricity, roads, etc, driving rising urban migration. Other factors include poverty and inequality, whereby there is limited affordability for a large segment of the population, financial constraints of high costs, limited developer funding, and investor caution. To cap it all is weak regulation, poor enforcement of housing standards and tenancy laws. The unfortunate impact of this is that the deficit leads to overcrowding, proliferation of slums, homelessness, and puts a strain on social stability and economic growth, making it a critical concern for Nigeria's development. A government that is unable to manage its housing schemes will most likely be handicapped to regulate private developers, leaving its citizens as victims of government inefficiency and private sector profiteering. The absence of long-term friendly financing makes short-term tenancy unattractive to the investing landlord or developer, while inflation and stagnant wages make it impossible for an unwilling tenant or lessee to keep pace with the growing demands and expectations of his landlord, occasioning the perpetual state of conflict. This brings us to the case at hand.

THE FACTS OF THE CASE

The facts of this case as reported in Ndubuisi v Shobande (2025) 20 NWLR (Pt.2022) 177 are that the respondent instituted an action before the Magistrate Court of Lagos State, Yaba Magisterial District, on 8 July 2008 against the appellant for the recovery of possession of a 3-Bedroom duplex with a two-room boys’ quarters situated at No. 54, Commonwealth Avenue, Palmgrove Estate, Ilupeju, Lagos. The appellant was a yearly tenant paying N400,000 as rent annually on the property. The appellant challenged the competence of the action on the simple ground that the notice to quit was not validly served on him by the respondent. The trial Magistrate, after hearing evidence from both parties, gave judgment in favour of the respondent. The appellant was dissatisfied and he appealed to the High Court. The High Court affirmed the decision of the Magistrate’s Court, held that the notice to quit was validly served on the appellant and accordingly his tenancy was validly determined. It then made an order of possession. The appellant appealed further to the Court of Appeal which court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit. Still dissatisfied, the appellant appealed to the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal. The respondent raised a notice of preliminary objection in his brief of argument challenging the competence of the appeal on the ground that leave was required to file the notice of appeal but was not obtained.

JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT

The Nature of Appellate Jurisdiction of Supreme Court:

By virtue of section 233 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction on matters on appeal to it is to ensure that only matters of significant legal importance reach the apex court. Appeals can be categorized based on whether they lie as of right or require prior leave from the court before filing. The duty of the court is to examine the grounds of appeal filed to find out whether they are grounds of law, or of mixed law and facts or of facts simpliciter. The court must do a proper evaluation of the grounds of appeal and their particulars of errors to unveil the status of the grounds of appeal.

The Essence of Requirement of Leave to Appeal from Decision of Court of Appeal to Supreme Court:

The requirement for an appellant to seek leave under section 233 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) before appealing to the Supreme Court is a deliberate constitutional design. It balances the need to manage the court’s workload with the imperative to provide a legal avenue for significant issues that merit the Supreme Court’s consideration, thereby maintaining the integrity and functionality of the judicial system. The grant of leave to appeal is not automatic but discretionary, and it must be exercised judiciously to ensure that only deserving cases are heard. Obtaining the requisite leave of court before filing certain appeals is a fundamental procedural requirement, and failure to obtain leave renders the notice of appeal incompetent, thereby depriving the appellate court of jurisdiction to entertain the matter. In the instant case, grounds 1 and 2 in the Notice of Appeal were of mixed law and facts, while ground 3 was a ground of fact. Therefore, the appellant was duty-bound to first obtain the leave of the court to appeal. His grounds of appeal, as formulated, were deficient, incompetent and therefore invalid, which make them incapable of activating the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The Effect of Failure to Obtain Leave to Appeal Where Necessary:

Where leave first is required to be sought and obtained under section 233(2) and of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) for a valid or competent appeal, unless the leave is first sought and granted to the appellant to appeal, any appeal lodged or filed would be void and a nullity ab initio. It is therefore clear that the court has no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal on a ground of fact or of mixed law and fact, unless leave has been obtained.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

Given the huge amount involved in this venture, there is a need for collaboration between government and private developers. Added to that is the deployment of innovation and technology, using cost-effective, modern building materials (like prefabrication) and designs, improved infrastructure for the development of new areas with essential services to attract investment, easy and better access to affordable housing finance for developers and buyers. Stronger policies for better enforcement of regulations and land management are needed, whilst the tenancy laws should be reviewed to create timelines for court actions. Good enough, Lagos State has a draft Tenancy Law that seems to promise a lot of reforms and solutions.

CONCLUSION

The case of Ndubuisi v Shobande highlights the challenges associated with the housing sector in Lagos State and Nigeria at large. The dispute between the appellant and the respondent started at the Yaba Magistrate’s Court in 2008, leading to an appeal by the appellant/tenant to the High Court, which delivered its judgment on September 30, 2011, affirming the decision of the Magistrate’s Court. The appellant/tenant further appealed to the Court of Appeal, which Court on December 17, 2013 dismissed the appeal, leading to a further appeal to the Supreme Court and the final judgment of May 16, 2025. It is not so very clear from the published report how long the case remained in the Magistrate’s Court or the state of the tenancy at the time of the Supreme Court judgment but suffice it to state that the case traveled from the Magistrate’s Court to the Supreme Court for a period of seventeen years. There is no reason why a tenancy dispute of the value of N400,000 on a three-bedroom apartment in Palmgrove Estate in Lagos should get to the Supreme Court.

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