Corruption and Politics of Land Administration, Housing Provision and Homelessness among the Urban Poor in Abuja

ABSTRACTRapid urbanization has continued to occur in many post independent capital cities in Africa with serious competition for land and housing among urban dwellers thereby posing challenges to governments. Consequently, this paper examines how corruption and politics have constituted hindrances to efficient land administration and housing provision as homelessness among the urban poor is on the increase as against the provisions of the Abuja Master Plan (AMP). The locale of this study is the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The study adopted a survey method of data elicitation with questionnaire and interview schedule as instruments. A sample size of 271 was generated via Raosoft sample size calculator to represent the city’s estimated population i.e. 3,095,118. The generated data were analyzed using Microsoft Word graphs and simple statistical percentage tables. The findings reveal that the government is yet to meet up with the development phases of the AMP as demands for land and housing by the ever-increasing population of the city, particularly the downtrodden, are huge. This was due largely to corruption and politicization of land administration as well as controversial provisions of the Land Use Act (LAU) and the AMP. Consequently, this paper recommends among other things that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) should collaborate with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in establishing Anti-Corruption Units at various strategic directorates of the FCTA and her agencies to curb sharp practices in land administration. Furthermore, FCTA should synergize with the Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing (FMPWH), Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Federal Mortgage Bank (FMB), and UN-Habitat to declare state of emergency on housing; and construct of more affordable, accessible and quality mass housing across the FCT toward addressing the lack of access to land and homelessness among the urban poor in Abuja.