A United Nations (UN) rapporteur said on September 23 that Nigeria is facing a huge housing crisis that has left Africa's most populous country ill-affected to properly house its inhabitants. He also urged to stop the forced evictions of entire communities. According to a UN estimation, Nigeria's population is expected to double by 2050 to around 400 million people, which would make it the world’s third-largest nation, behind India and China. Leilani Farha, special rapporteur on adequate housing said, Nigeria has a lack of adequate housing where most of the inhabitants live on less than $2 a day despite the nation is known to be Africa's largest economy. She said that Nigeria's housing sector is in a complete crisis. She added that the existing programs will not be successful in addressing the ever-growing housing need. She addressed some journalists in the capital city of Abuja and revealed that the last census was conducted more than a decade ago in 2006. Farah said that there was no adequate government data to develop an effective housing policy.

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Farha: Thousands of Nigerians including women and children have been evicted from their homes

She said that the informal settlements are mushrooming where the conditions are miserable and are most severe she has ever seen in the worldwide during the end of her ten-day visit in Abuja. Northeast Nigeria has been affected for the last decade by the insurgency created by Islamist militant group Boko Haram which has forced over 2 million people to flee their homes which resulted in the housing crisis. She also criticized the use of force by state government authorities and property dealers to evict entire communities. This practice is very common in cities, most notably in the port city of Lagos, to create space for luxurious properties which is unaffordable for the majority of the inhabitants. Farha said thousands of Nigerians which include women and children had been evicted from their homes in the last few years by people using firearms, arson and arbitrary arrests.

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National Commission should be established: UN Rapporteur

Nigerian authorities have recently said shanty towns have been wrecked on the grounds that they were home to groups of criminal gangs, making them a security risk to rupturing structure guidelines. What's more, the state government in Lagos, which pulls in a great many individuals every day looking for work from crosswise over Nigeria and neighboring nations, has more than once prevented reports from claiming fierceness and potential infringement of human rights laws. The UN rapporteur said a national commission should be established to investigate human rights violations and it should have the capacity to provide compensation.

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