The Audacious Act of the Lagos State Government
The Audacious Act of the Lagos State Government
On Monday August 4, 2025 news broke out that the Lagos Government declared about 174 estates in the State illegal and gave the owners 21 days to come forth and regularise their papers.
On the surface, this will appear as an audacious move from the government to demonstrate her commitment to public sanity in the area of housing and property development in the State.
But on the flip side, it is a clear demonstration of the government’s lack of responsibility, inadequate monitoring, and lack of coordination.
Where have the officials of the Lagos Ministry responsible for housing and property development, been all these while? Estates are not mere buildings. They are a whole array of structures constructed over a period of time, with building approvals possibly granted by the government authorities.
Who granted the building permits? Where are officials that did that? How come they granted approvals to buildings to be constructed on plots of land not approved by the same government? How come the government has been docile over these years while these estates sprang up?
How can a government demonstrate such a level of docility and lack of responsibility, yet has the boldness to come and declare the estates illegal? Who will hold the government itself accountable for not acting when it was supposed to act?
We consider this act as a brazen move to shift blame. The government neglected it’s duty and now asking the owners of those estates to pay for the negligence. This is the unfortunate practice in Nigeria public space. Governments fail to do what they are supposed to do, but they transfer consequences of their inaction or failure to the powerless citizens.
We do not support illegal construction of estates in any part of the country, but we take exception to the act of shifting blame. The Lagos State and any other Government must learn to respond timeously to issues such as this, and not wait until such a time they can show their overbearing power.
We consider that it high time Nigerian citizens began to hold their Governments responsible for the consequences of not acting on time to deal with critical public issues. This could be the starting point.
The declaration of 174 estates in Lagos State as illegal, after they have exited for years, is a clear case of irresponsiveness by the government.
Future World Magazine Editorial
Tuesday August 5, 2025
