Obi told the architects that Nigeria has high and severe housing deficit to the point that the country needs 28 million houses to be built to meet the national needs.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said that extraordinary commitment from the people and their leaders is what is needed to get Nigeria working again.
Obi stated this at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) in Calabar, Cross River State held over the weekend.
At the event themed “Housing and Design Excellence for National Development,” the LP standard bearer listed what he called 4Cs: competence, capacity, credibility and commitment as critical requirements to turn the country around.
“We must aspire to put in place a leadership that is imbued with competence, capacity, credibility and commitment. These 4 Cs are leadership competencies required to turn Nigeria around,” said Obi.
He noted that, “What is grossly missing in Nigeria’s leadership, governance and economic realm is the lack of efficiency. Good governance and a prosperous and stable economy are routinely anchored on sectoral and holistic pursuit of efficiency.”
Obi told the architects that Nigeria has high and severe housing deficit to the point that the country needs 28 million houses to be built to meet the national needs and by estimation this will cost about N60 trillion.
He said that what his Presidency would do if given the mandate is to partner with a professional body like the NIA and create the enabling environment via the right of making laws; regulating and preserving of property; employing the force of the community, and public good.
According to him, “If I and Datti are hired by Nigerians on February 25th, 2023, we will pursue intangible assets of good governance, rule of law, security of lives and properties but for this to happen there must be elite consensus on critical national interest questions.
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“We are also aware that our existing national infrastructures are decrepit and crumbling. We are housing challenged. We have as a nation been inconsistent in our infrastructural planning and funding. This is an area we must tackle urgently.”
Obi further remarked that as a first step his administration must start with rethinking the fundamentals of our nationhood and how to collectively unite and secure Nigeria and move it from good to great.
He said, “Good governance simply translates to eight critical governance values, namely; a government being accountable, transparent, responsive, equitable and inclusive, effective and efficient; and adherence to the rule of law, as well as participatory and consensus-oriented governance.
“With the mandate of Nigerians the Obi-Datti administration, from its inception, will continue to encourage investment in infrastructure—housing, energy, transport, irrigation, and telecoms—to grow these and other sectors.
“We are eager to quickly close the infrastructure gap between now and 2030. That is the Nigeria we want in place by the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target year.”
Obi also charged the architects to bear in mind some fundamental requirements of their profession in contemplating on “Housing and Design Excellence for National Development” which includes design for the future and economic and social well-being; to think of demographic in our designs; design and build for public good.
“Our buildings must be accessible to people with disabilities. Our buildings must reflect our culture and heritage. We must manage funding for building, give primacy to maintenance culture, and finally NIA must protect its institutional integrity,” Obi said.