If you check 2,000 years of global GDPs, you will see an inflection point for all developed nations. Yes, once any nation has a functional system that protects property rights, the nation begins to develop. No country has become developed without a strong property rights regime. Property rights (physical, intellectual, etc) is the most fundamental element in the rise of nations.
I call all politicians in Nigeria to show compassion and work with their citizens on this house demolition thing. While there could be safety reasons for some demolitions, that must also be put within the context of the law. In most countries, if a house is considered unlivable, the city regulator will send it a notice, and depending on the gravity, the sheriff (the police) will go and seal the property and evict the residents. Once that is done, the landlord is provided a remediation plan to fix whatever has to be fixed.
But rarely do you see a government moving into bulldozing houses without going through the law even if the government had sent a letter. Imo state did that and Lagos is doing the same, leaving behind its excellence of following due process which has made it the nation’s finest opportunity place.
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Kano has something I do not understand. Even if the previous government sold state land, bulldozing those houses by fiat does not seem fair to the citizens as some paid for the land, and followed what they thought was a fair and transparent process, executed by the previous state government. Nigeria needs to excel on building, over tearing down without compassion!
If residents of Salanta Quarters in Kano followed due process for these lands, as stated by a previous government, it is just bluntly unfair to punish them this way. Why not go to the Court and give them the space to defend their rights? It is either Nigeria wants to advance or move backwards. But one thing is clear: jungle destruction will bring more hatred and animosity.
In Uwadiegwu, an Igbo novel, a man said that he borrowed only from his kinsmen because that insured his family. Why? If you borrow from your kinsman and the loan goes bad, he can lock you up, but at the same time, he will be responsible for the wellbeing of your family. (The Igbos name “Nwaoha” meaning a child belongs to the community, not just the parents.) But what happens when your government is the one kicking you out, is the government responsible for your wellbeing? We need compassion please.
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Compassion is alien to Nigeria’s political leadership, even when you hear things like palliative or welfare, they are not done from the standpoint of care or compassion, rather to enslave and subjugate the recipients, showing them that you are their lord and master. Take a deep dive into anything government has done for the people, and you will see that they rarely come from a pure or compassionate dimension, a demon is always a demon.
Again, the construct called Nigeria was built on wastage, so when political actors go about demolishing properties built with money, it doesn’t bother them, because you cannot separate Nigeria from imprudence, both are largely one and the same. We have never been a paragon of virtue when it comes to prudence, so it’s always acting before thinking, if there’s even a motivation to do the latter anyway.
It is illegal to act legally in a lawless state, so it feels like oxymoron to mention Nigeria and rule of law in the same breath. It then raises the question, what exactly constitutes illegal structures in environment where every facet of it screams illegality? The concept of just ordering of the society is alien to us, but at intervals we choose what to either destroy or spare.
A strange place.