CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Residential estates provide housing to the members of the society and this makes it very important as it contributes to the infrastructural and economic development. The increasing population growth rate, urbanization, and increasing need to provide man with a conducive environment for habitation in cities have affirmed the global concern for sustainable development with the attendant problem of ensuring developmental planning, coordination and control (Alabi, 2010; Ahmed and Dinye, 2011). According to Ujene and Atser (2016) the development plan of a city or town tries to advance scientific and coherent policies to meet the functional needs of the city and aspirations of its citizens. Planning of land use and construction activities require control on it by some regulations, which are General Development Control Regulations. These regulations affect many parameters of urban development like housing, population density, infrastructure requirement, environment and others. This impact directly depends upon the development control regulations for the city (Vaghani, Shah and Chauhan, 2010).

Ahmed and Dinye (2011) however, observed that sustainable development in developing countries has been hindered by deficient land resources use and planning failures coupled with overall inappropriate and weak enforcement of development controls. Okekeogbu (2011) similarly observed a gross manifestation of impropriety and inefficiency as evidenced in the spate of uncoordinated physical and infrastructural development in most Nigerian cities.

The Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Degree No. 88 of 1992 describes development as the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining, or other operations in, on, over or under any land, or the making of any environmentally significant change in the use of any land or demolition of buildings including the felling of trees (Nduthu, 2010). Some developmental activities of the construction industry include construction of hospitals, schools, townships, offices, houses and other buildings; urban infrastructure (including water supply, sewerage, drainage); highways, roads, ports, railways, airports; power systems; irrigation and agriculture systems; telecommunications and so on(Khan, 2008). Building of residential estates is also part of development as it encourages economic growth and promotes societal development. People will naturally be attracted to areas with good residential estates and may be encouraged to also invest in it.

The government of every state has a critical role to play in the development of residential estates. The right to adequate housing as clearly affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, is acknowledged in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), which enjoins the Nigerian State ‘that suitable and adequate shelter …are provided for all citizens.’ Hence, the government has a role in regulating this market since a well-functioning housing market requires a menu of both housing and housing finance products that increase the supply of housing to meet the demand for all income segments as well as a policy that focuses the government’s limited resources on the neediest population groups.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

There are very few residential estates in Uyo metropolis, thus, Akwa Ibom Property Investment Company Limited (APICO), saddled with the responsibility to provide residential estate is faced with several challenges. With few residential estates, the housing challenge continues to exist and this affects the development of the region. It is also currently evident that the development law has failed in some developing countries to provide an orderly and sustainable urban development, as many urban areas continued to experience a myriad of problems including; lack of residential estates, dilapidated residential estates, squatter settlements and informal sector developments, congestions and overcrowding, pollution, inadequate provision of social amenities and disasters such as collapsed buildings. One of the major problems of urban development in Akwa Ibom and Nigeria at large is ineffective development control enforcement, due to rapid urbanization taking place in all Nigerian cities. This problem has led to urban problems of housing, transportation, drainage, sanitation and general inadequacies of social services which have significant influence on economic growth because of the link of construction industry with other economic sectors. Also, limited funding also affects the development of residential estates in Akwa Ibom state. Another problem is embezzlement of funds meant for residential estate development by corrupt government officials. In addition, there is the problem of slow implementation and ineffective urban and housing policies. These problems linger and need to be addressed by APICO. It is in view of these that this research is set to the role of the state government in the development of residential estates in Akwa Ibom state using APICO as a case study, in other to provide recommendations to improve the development of residential estates in Akwa Ibom State.

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