Mr. Festus Adebayo, a lawyer, is the Executive Director, Housing Development Advocacy Network. In this interview on Housing TV monitored by DAYO AYEYEMI, the affordable housing advocate spoke on activities of real estate criminals and the need for all stakeholders including the government and lawmakers to join hands in ensuring that the sector is regulated and safe for investments.

Let’s look into the issues of criminals that are joining the real estate business. What is your take on this?

I want to say it clearly that every sector has its own black sheep. There’s no sector that does not see criminals. I would not want to accept this from anybody that the sector I have been promoting for the past 23 years is now full of criminals. It is not correct. It is wrong. That’s the fallacy of easy generalization.

We have some bad eggs, there’s no doubt about this. But let me tell you, we also have some good ones who are estate developers in this country. And I must make it clear to you; the major problem that the sector is facing is the challenge of regulation. If you go to Dubai, you will see what is going on there.

You want to do real estate as an estate developer, there’s an amount of money that you are dropping into the account that is meant for that project under the management of the government. And when people are paying for the project, there’s an account that goes with the government that they are paying to.

So what it means is if your project cannot be delivered at the agreed one year or two years that they told you at the beginning, you have the right to request for your money. Your money is there, it goes back to you, and another person will buy the property. But the system here is porous.

When they collect your money, the bad ones we are talking about, they start going around with three, four policemen. I remember somebody told me how he wanted to pay for a particular property and they said he should wait in the Managing Director’s office. Not more than five minutes, the managing director came in the company of five policemen.

So, he asked himself, if I should drop my money here, me that came here with no police, then if I want to get my money back, would I be able to get my money because this man already has policemen guiding him and I don’t have one. So who’s going to help me? That was how he told someone that he wanted to pick something in his car, and that was how he left. So there’s no protection for consumers of real estate.

How can protection be guaranteed for real estate consumers?

What we need and what we are striving to achieve now is getting these consumers of real estate to be protected. I want to use this opportunity to call on the FCT Administration to do what Dubai is doing. Abuja is so sensitive that we need to have a department whose responsibility will be to guarantee the protection of real estate consumers. It can’t be development control. It can’t be Urban and Regional Development, it can’t be.

I want to also use the opportunity to call on the National Assembly. They must be interested. I think they must be interested because a good number of them are also victims.

The so-called criminals we are talking about in this sector don’t have respect. They don’t care whether you are even police. You don’t even care whether you are EFCC. I’m aware of some people who say they are doing cooperative from all those agencies you are talking about. And these guys have gone to them to say that, we are developers, we want to build houses for your cooperative. And they are not. So the situation is bad.

But, I don’t want anybody to conclude that everybody in the real estate sector in Nigeria is a criminal. Not so. Let our friends in diaspora get to understand. I appreciate Madam Abike Dabiri. We are trying to see how we can work with her, collaborate, so that our diaspora people can be protected. Enough of all those criminalities or victims. A lot of them have been falling victim here and there. Enough of all these activities. They won’t protect them.

What is expected of government?

So the government needs to support the efforts of our advocacy group that is promoting transparency, that is promoting honesty, and that is promoting credibility in this sector. And the poor people after working for 20 years. Imagine this bad one taking away their money. We will not take it.

We will do everything we can do to ensure that this sector is regulated. Not only regulated. I remember the vision of Professor Akin Mabogunje, of blessed memory, when the idea of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria came up. He said there was a need to improve on the supply side because the demand is very high. And if we are going to do that, not that we are going to establish the association, but we are also going to professionalize real estate business.

What it means is that when Festus is a member of REDAN, he can now address himself as Estate Developer Festus Adebayo. (Nigerian Tribune)