Nigeria Property Centre Blog Please Rein In Omoniles and Corrupt, Overzealous Town Planning Authorities!

If we must move forward as a nation, we need to whittle down a penchant for raw use of power, coercion and extortion. A while ago it was reported that Soldiers were used to stop Ikoyi's 850 capacity car park project been carried out by the Lagos state government because of a dispute over ownership of the piece of land. Incidentally, the Lagos State government is not immuned from the use of bravado, force and fiat while ejecting folks whom they deem to have ran foul of the law. As they say, what goes around comes around. In our clime, it is common practice to see folks using their positions to intimidate or frustrate other people. It beggars belief that in a country that lacks an encouraging mortgage regime, it is a harrowing experience before people can build their own houses because some so-called omoniles and corrupt, over-zealous town planning authorities are bent on frustrating prospective home builders. For the uninitiated, "Omonile" is a Yoruba word for 'owners of the land or son of the soil'. The irony however is that in many cases those claiming to be 'sons of the soil' migrated from somewhere and are not true indigenes of that locality.