TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Over the past few decades in N"1g90a. society's lifestyles WMI environmentally and politicaly tnlt.etainable. Any tnt tin1e visitor to most of N"tgerian cities can clearly see the dispanty ~ the lifestyle o( the affluent citizens which negate the ,_...raJ degraded residential nAinhtv\o •moods in terms of the sh.m appearance of the environment, type of build~-and their conditions in &ddffionlo the bad road network within each of the two contrasting nei{tlbourhoods occupied by the affluent and less fortunate ones. Although there have been recent successes in many areas of environmental policy by the current administrations of the central and state oo-nments in tenns of road upgrading and cleanliness of the major roads through dajy s~. however, the same degree of progress has not been recorded by many of the State govemments in respect of residential development across the country. This study examines how far the two tiers of governments in the COIEitry have performed based on their vision, mission and capacity by comparing the achievements of various regimes in the areas of residential housing provision and sustenance of the environment. The method employed for study involved comprehensive and detail review of the past policies and efforts of the of Nigerian government at solving the country's housing problems. The study found out that there is the need for the society at large to stop threatening its own life support systems as well as the lives and livelihoods of its members. The study recommended that policy makers need to carry out and publish achievements as well as outstanding environmental challenges of each government regime Immediately the regime leaves office so that incoming administration can have basis of measuring their performances with a view to improving on the achievements of earlier governments