MY LONG, TEDIOUS JOURNEY TO HOUSE OWNERSHIP

“Growing up in my small, beautiful village of Ubaha in the eastern part of the country and seeing how my uncles and other kinsmen in the hood used to build houses of their own with ease, I developed an early passion for house ownership. “One day, I will buy a bottle of dry gin and some kola nuts and present to the oldest man in our compound and he will show me the plot on which to build my own house”, I would always tell myself.

Little did I know that I could ever change the idea of building my first house in the village with that of building it in the city, neither did I know that acquiring a plot of land could be such an onerous task, until I graduated, did my National Youth Service and came to Lagos in search of greener pasture. I got a job in a private firm and rented a self contain apartment at Idimu, Egbeda. This achievement gratified me a lot because I cherish privacy. But alas, my landlord never allowed my joy to last! The first signal he gave that jolted me was that prior to the expiration of my two years’ rent, he approached me and demanded that I should top up my rent with at least six months as he was in dire need of money. I struggled and gave him three months, in addition to the nine months that was remaining of my two years rent. That did not go down well with him and from then, he began to harass me at the slightest opportunity. Anytime he heard any sound of music from my apartment, he would shout that it was too loud and whenever I shut my door, he would ask me whether I wanted to break down his house.

One day, I narrated my ordeal to one of my colleagues and he advised me to aim at building a house of my own; disclosing that himself had bought a plot of land and was already saving towards developing it. I told him that I had some savings but that I was actually saving towards building in my village. The first question he asked me was whether we didn’t have a family house in the village and when I answered in the affirmative, he advised me to jettison the emotion of building in the village first, if I wanted to settle down and form a solid financial foundation that would enable me build even a better house in the village in future. “How many days do you spend at home when you travel? Lagos is where you live and work and unless you have your own roof, you will apparently be working for others”, he concluded.

While I was still pondering over the words of my colleague, my landlord increased my house rent from three thousand naira a month to five thousand and that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The following weekend, I set out to look for land. The man I was directed to meet took me to another man who volunteered to drive us in his car to the site. As soon as we drove to the main road, he veered into a petrol station and demanded a thousand naira from me for fuel. I gave him and he bought and we drove off. On getting to our destination at Badagry, he stopped over at the house of the agent he said was directly in charge of the land but he was not at home. His wife directed us to a certain bar where we met him guzzling some beer. He was already drunk and that nearly put me off. To add salt to injury, the man asked me to pay for his drinks before he could take us to site. Reluctantly, I paid for the four bottles of beer he had taken and we proceeded to site somewhere around Igbesa.

As we were entering the site, I saw a wide and neatly cleared path with the inscription; “Warning, natural gas pipeline. Keep off!” I quickly drew the attention of the men to the gas pipeline but they dismissed it, saying that it didn’t matter but I knew that it did. They showed me a plot of land and told me that the last price was N200,000. The land was good – upland and the price was okay, but I couldn’t pay because of the gas pipeline. On our way home, the men demanded their consultancy money and I paid them N1,000 each and they promised to continue with the search.

Sometimes, they would call me that there was a land somewhere but on getting there, it would be a swamp or an area very close to a canal. At a time, I began to feel that Lagos land was exhausted. To add to my frustration, each fruitless search meant some money out of my pocket as the agents were ever demanding. Then one day, they took me to a certain plot of land at Sango Otta. The plot was okay, though a wet land, it wasn’t swampy and the size was standard too. They said that the last price was N 300,000. I didn’t have up to that amount in my account so I begged the owner to collect the money in two installments which he accepted. The following day, I paid N200,000 to him in the presence of some witnesses and he issued me a receipt. By the end of the month, July 2007, I completed the payment and set out to clear the site.

Suddenly, some stern looking men emerged from nowhere and started asking me questions on how I managed to enter the land which they said was their family land. I told them that I bought the land from Mr. Dele whom they said was their younger brother. They even disclosed that they authorized him to sell the land on behalf of the family but that he never remitted any money to them. When I tried to contact Dele, I discovered to my chagrin that he had bolted away. Later, one of the men told me that the family empathized with me and decided that if I was interested in a peaceful resolution of the matter, I should pay them N200,000 and go ahead with the development of the property. After much persuasion, they agreed to accept N100,000 which I rallied round to pay. By then, my account had gone red and I could not do anything on the land until after two months. Then gradually, I started the clearing and fencing of the property. The first day I took men to the site, nothing happened but on the second day, the dreadful omo-oniles came calling; threatening fire and brimstone. It was then I learnt that they went for the burial of one of their colleagues the previous day. After much negotiation, I paid them N20,000 and they left and work continued. By the time we were through with the fencing, the building plan and building approval were ready.

However, my architect advised me to fill the plot before building so as to avoid flooding. I bought ten tipper loads of laterite, at six thousand naira per tipper load and with that, the ground level of the entire plot was raised to a reasonable level. We did the foundation and I went back for what I call; financial hibernation for three months. By the time I came back to continue building, prices of building materials had increased tremendously. A bag of cement that was hitherto sold for N1,300 had gone up to N1,500; sharp sand had moved from N11,000 per tipper load to N12,000 etc. The building contractor advised me to buy cement in tones so that I could get it cheaper, about N1,485. That I did and the advice paid off. At the advice of the contractor also, I bought roofing sheets long before the building got to the roofing stage. By then, aluminum roofing sheet, Stuco mill – white, 0.05 was N800. By the time we were roofing, it was N950 per sheet. Immediately the omo-oniles heard the sound of hammer, they came rushing. That day, I pacified them with yet another N20,000 and some drinks and they left. Having roofed the house, I went for another financial hibernation until 2008 when I put finishing touches to the three bedroom bungalow and moved in. It was not an easy task but I thank God for everything because, just as my colleague said, I am now in a better position to build a befitting house in my village. You are never settled, until you are in your own house.”

I trust you have been extracting and learning all you can from the true life stories and experiences of young first time landlords I have been sharing since in this column? I urge you to make good effort in applying the lessons from these stories toward owning your own house.

To your success!