Two federal government estates in Ungwar Rere and Kwandere, Lafia, Nasarawa State, have deteriorated even though they were pronounced “completed” and “inaugurated.”.
The projects were under the National Housing Programme (NHP), which was carried out in partnership with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), under a ₦500 billion social housing initiative launched under the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The scheme was launched in 2016 with a focus on offering affordable homes to poor Nigerians. In Lafia, 76 units were to be constructed in Ungwar Rere, and 100 units were to be constructed in Kwandere. The ground breaking was done in 2018, and in 2021–2022, the estates were commissioned and handed over as fulfilled promises.
But a visit by LEADERSHIP found a bitter truth: none of the houses are inhabited. While some of the buildings look complete, others are incomplete from foundation levels to plastered and roofed houses left to ruin. Contractors are reported to have abandoned the projects mid-course for being unpaid, while vandalism has stripped cables, windows, and even roofs off complete homes.
We had to pull out after funds stopped flowing. Some of our gear was pilfered, and we had to break what we could,” revealed one contractor.
The Ungwar Rere village chief, Mallam Shugaba Sale, lamented the abandonment, appealing to the government to put the houses to use. In Kwandere, however, the locals have turned the abandoned estate into a cassava-drying ground. “It’s safer here than by the roadside,” said cassava dealer Jummai Garba.
In spite of all these failures, last year the federal government commissioned another 250-unit “Renewed Hope Housing Estate” in Azuba, Lafia, under the housing vision of President Bola Tinubu.
When asked, Nasarawa’s housing controller, Garba Bashir, insisted that the schemes were not abandoned but in wait for completion and allocation. FMBN Lafia branch manager Hilda Odiachi, however, blamed the problem on affordability:
“Most applicants are below the repayment cut-off. We’ve looked at pricing and will soon start allocations,” she said.
For now, the estates remain overgrown with weeds, vandalised, and empty symbols of failed promises in Nigeria’s housing push.
