Mr Charles Majoroh, a former President of Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), on Thursday urged Federal and State Governments to build houses for the middle class.
Majoroh told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that satisfying the housing needs of the middle class would make for a thriving lower class.
“The middle class is the interface between the higher and lower class, but the middle class is not being taken care of.
“Any society where the middle class is not provided for, that society will not succeed,” he said. According to him, middle class is the engine room of any country.
“The ability to satisfy their housing needs will rub off on the small and medium enterprises and result in massive employment opportunities,” he said.
The former president of NIA said that states should have a mathematical basis for predicting the housing needs of various classes of the society.
He said that this would give states the idea of the total housing requirements for the various classes so that they could plan projects within their incomes.
According to Majoroh, this should be done even if there is no money yet to start actual construction. “In developed economies, those in the upper class have houses in suburbs, while the middle class lives in the city, but in Nigeria it is in the reverse order.
“There is the need to promote research and development as means to solve the various housing problems facing the nation,” he said.
According to him, experience counts in trying to solve the nation’s problems.