Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat

Lagos is becoming a city where getting a job is no longer enough to guarantee a decent life. You can spend four years in university, complete your National Youth Service, search endlessly for employment, finally land a job and receive your first salary, only to discover that the next battle is not how to grow your career, but how to find somewhere decent to sleep.

That is why the recent advice from Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat that young workers should consider living with their parents, cousins or sharing accommodation deserves more than social media reactions. It deserves serious questioning.

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Hamzat was responding to concerns about how a young worker earning ₦100,000 monthly could afford a self-contained apartment or mini flat reportedly costing about ₦1 million a year. His response was that young people should live within their means, consider staying with relatives and avoid spending more than 40 percent of their income on rent.

On the surface, the 40 percent argument sounds financially responsible. But there is a problem. The question was not really about whether young Nigerians know how to manage their money. The question was about why decent accommodation has become so expensive that a person earning ₦100,000 cannot reasonably afford to live independently.

And that is where the conversation should have gone.

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The government cannot solve a housing crisis by telling citizens to adjust to it

Imagine a young Lagosian who has just secured a job after years of education. He earns ₦100,000 every month. According to the Deputy Governor’s 40 percent benchmark, that person should spend no more than ₦40,000 on rent each month. That sounds reasonable until you remember that Lagos landlords do not generally collect rent monthly.

The same government that is asking people to keep rent below 40 percent of income is operating in an environment where tenants are routinely expected to raise large sums up front.

So the real question becomes simple. Where exactly is the affordable housing that allows this young worker to follow the 40 percent rule? That is the part of the conversation that citizens deserve to hear.

Lagos is not suffering from a shortage of advice. Lagos is suffering from a shortage of affordable homes. A World Bank assessment of Lagos identified a housing deficit running into millions of units, with the overwhelming majority of the need concentrated among low and very low income households. It also noted that housing costs have risen while wages have remained stagnant or only marginally improved.

That is not a personal budgeting problem. That is a structural problem.

Living with your parents does not make rent disappear

Perhaps the most troubling part of the advice is the suggestion that young people can simply return to their parents or live with relatives. Yes, some families can accommodate this. But Lagos has millions of families who are themselves struggling with the cost of housing. The parents have rent to pay. They have food to buy. They have electricity bills. They have school fees. They have medical expenses. They have transportation costs. They have extended family responsibilities. Some are already living in overcrowded accommodation because they cannot afford anything better.

So when a young adult returns home, the housing cost does not magically disappear. It simply moves from one household member to another.

A parent living in a one-bedroom apartment cannot suddenly create another bedroom because the government has advised their adult child to move back home. A family paying ₦500,000, ₦700,000 or ₦1 million in annual rent does not become wealthier because another mouth has joined the household.

And there is another question we should be asking. Is wanting to leave home and live in a decent apartment after securing a job really an unreasonable ambition?

Is independence now a luxury? Is comfort now something only the wealthy should aspire to?

Should a young Nigerian who has spent years studying and finally found employment be told that the reward for working is to remain indefinitely in an overcrowded family home because housing has become unaffordable?

That cannot be the vision of a prosperous Lagos.

What happens when parents are struggling too?

This is where the advice becomes even more complicated. The average parent is not sitting on an unlimited income. Many parents are workers themselves. Many are traders, many are retirees, many are paying school fees for younger children. Many are supporting relatives, many are servicing loans. Many are dealing with rising food, electricity and transportation costs. And some are already living in poor housing conditions.

The World Bank has previously highlighted overcrowding and the lack of well located affordable housing as major problems in Lagos. So telling young people to go back to their parents without addressing the housing conditions of those parents is not really a housing solution.

It is household redistribution of hardship.

Government already knows rent is a problem

Perhaps the strongest contradiction is that Lagos State itself has acknowledged the problem. In April 2025, the Lagos State Government said it was committed to monthly, quarterly and yearly rent payment systems and expressed concern about incessant rent increases and unnecessary charges by real estate practitioners.

In May 2025, the state also said it would take action against landlords and agents involved in unjustified rent increases. LASRERA also announced collaboration with local governments and local council development areas to reduce agency and legal fees in the real estate sector.

And in May 2026, the state government said it was finalizing plans for monthly and quarterly rent payments as part of efforts to reduce the burden of annual rent payments. So, Lagos Government knows that residents are hurting. The government has acknowledged that rent is becoming unaffordable. The government has acknowledged arbitrary increases. The government has acknowledged excessive charges. The government has talked about alternative payment systems.

The question therefore becomes: What more can the government do to actually reduce the cost of housing itself?

Why not attack the cost of building?

This is another part of the conversation that deserves much more attention. When people talk about expensive rent, they often focus entirely on landlords.

But the economics behind housing is much bigger than the landlord. Building materials cost money. Land costs money. Labor, transportation, planning approvals cost money, infrastructure, financing costs money. Taxes, levies and regulatory charges can add to development costs.

A recent Guardian investigation into Lagos’s housing sector highlighted the multiple permits, levies and charges involved in construction, while also pointing to inflation, expensive materials and rising labour costs as pressures on housing delivery.

Lagos State’s own first quarter 2026 building material data paints a picture of a difficult construction environment. A 50kg bag of cement was listed at ₦12,500. 30 tonne load of granite was ₦600,000. A tonne of some reinforcement rods was above ₦1 million.

Several electrical cables and other construction inputs also recorded significant prices. If the cost of building keeps rising, developers will eventually pass some of that cost into the price of housing.

That does not excuse exploitation. But it means government needs to attack the entire housing cost chain rather than simply telling citizens to find cheaper accommodation.

Transport is part of the housing crisis too

There is another issue that is often ignored. When housing close to employment centres becomes unaffordable, workers move further away. Then they pay the difference through transportation. A worker may save ₦200,000 on annual rent by moving far away from work, only to spend much more on transportation every month.

NBS data showed that the average fare for intra city bus journeys rose from ₦1,195.75 in February 2026 to ₦1,373.49 in March, representing a 14.86 percent monthly increase.

So what happens? The government tells the worker to live somewhere cheaper. The worker moves farther away. The worker spends hours commuting. Transportation costs rise. Food prices rise because distribution costs rise. The landlord faces higher operating costs. The landlord increases rent. The worker’s salary remains largely the same. And the cycle continues. Housing, transportation, food and income are connected. You cannot solve one while ignoring the others.

Lagos cannot become a city where only the rich can live comfortably

This is the bigger danger. Lagos is Nigeria’s economic engine. People come here because there are jobs, businesses, entertainment, education and opportunities.

But what happens when the people who power that economy can no longer afford to live in the city? Teachers live far away. Nurses, junior bankers, civil servants, factory workers, media workers, security personnel, young professionals, al live far away.

And every morning, millions of people spend hours travelling into the city because they cannot afford to live close to where they work. That is not simply an inconvenience. It affects productivity, family life, mental wellbeing, transportation costs and the overall quality of life.

Recent reporting on Lagos’s housing crisis has documented workers enduring extremely long commutes because rents close to employment centres have become unaffordable.

But Lagos has resources. So what should government be doing?

This is where the conversation should become practical. If the government wants citizens to spend less on rent, then government should help create more homes that citizens can actually afford. And there is already evidence that Lagos recognizes this responsibility.

The state’s 2026 budget contains allocations for housing development across several locations, including Sangotedo, Ajara Badagry, Epe, Ibeshe, Ikorodu and the Egan Mixed Housing Scheme. The Citizens’ Budget specifically identifies low and middle income households as beneficiaries of these housing interventions.

The budget also includes ₦5 billion for construction of LAGOSHOMS housing units at Sangotedo Phase II and ₦4 billion for the Epe Housing Scheme, among other housing allocations.

That is precisely why the public conversation should move beyond telling citizens to manage their hardship. Build more affordable homes. Reduce the cost of development. Make land more accessible for affordable housing projects. Reduce unnecessary regulatory charges. Expand rent to own programmes. Make monthly rent payment systems practical. Regulate excessive agency charges. Create incentives for developers who build genuinely affordable homes. Improve transportation so affordable housing on the outskirts does not become a transportation nightmare.

These are government level interventions.

The mortgage conversation is important, but it cannot be the only answer

Hamzat is also right about one thing. Nigeria needs a stronger mortgage system. Government cannot expect everyone to pay the full cost of a house upfront.

The Federal Government’s current housing initiatives recognize this, with programmes offering mortgage and rent to own options, including NHF loans advertised at 6 percent interest. Lagos also has its own rent to own housing model. But mortgage financing primarily helps people who have enough income and financial stability to qualify.

What about the young worker earning ₦100,000? What about the trader? What about the artisan? What about the security guard? What about the teacher? What about the graduate earning ₦150,000? What about the family whose entire income is already being consumed by food, transport, school fees and rent?

For these people, the first problem is not simply access to a mortgage. The first problem is affordability. You cannot mortgage your way out of a housing market where the underlying cost of housing is already beyond the income of the people who need it.

We should stop normalizing hardship as culture

Perhaps this is the most important point. There is nothing wrong with Nigerian culture encouraging family support. There is nothing wrong with living with your parents while saving money. There is also nothing wrong with sharing accommodation if people voluntarily choose it. But government should be careful not to turn temporary survival strategies into permanent solutions to structural problems. Because once we begin saying, “That is how we used to live,” we risk normalizing conditions that should actually be improved.

Nigeria has changed. Lagos has changed. The cost of living has changed. So has population,  labour market and housing market. A young person today cannot necessarily follow the same path their parents followed decades ago.

The question should therefore not be whether young Lagosians can endure more hardship. The question should rather be, how government can make decent living possible for ordinary Lagosians.

The 40 percent advice should be directed upward too

If spending more than 40 percent of one’s income on rent is financially unhealthy, then perhaps that principle should become part of the government’s housing policy thinking too.

If a worker earning ₦100,000 cannot afford housing within the 40 percent threshold, government should ask why. If a family earning ₦300,000 cannot find decent accommodation within that threshold, government should ask why. If teachers, nurses, artisans and young professionals are being pushed to the outskirts because of rent, government should ask why. If parents who are already struggling are being forced to accommodate adult children because those children cannot afford rent, government should ask why.

The citizen should not always be the one adjusting. Sometimes the system needs to adjust.

Lagosians are not asking for luxury

This is perhaps what policymakers need to understand. Most young Lagosians are not asking government to give them a mansion in Ikoyi. They are not demanding a duplex in Lekki. They are not asking for a penthouse. They simply want a decent, safe and comfortable place to live. A place with electricity, water, security. A place where they can sleep after working all day. A place they can afford without sacrificing food, transportation and every other basic need.

Is that really too much to ask? The young Nigerian who finally gets a job should not be made to feel guilty for wanting independence. The parent who cannot accommodate another adult child should not be blamed. The landlord struggling with rising construction and operating costs should not automatically be treated as the entire problem.

And government should not position itself merely as an adviser telling everyone how to survive the consequences. Government has something ordinary citizens do not have. Policy power. It controls land, planning regulations, infrastructure investment. It influences transportation, regulates parts of the real estate sector. It controls public housing investment. It can provide incentives. It can partner with developers. It can expand affordable housing. It can enforce existing regulations. It can create policies that reduce the cost of development. And Lagos’s own 2026 budget demonstrates that housing is already within the state’s policy and spending responsibilities.

So yes, young people should learn to manage their money. Yes, people should avoid living beyond their means. Yes, sharing accommodation can sometimes be sensible. Yes, living with parents while saving can be a perfectly reasonable personal decision. But those are personal survival strategies, not a substitute for public policy.

The Deputy Governor’s advice may help one young person balance his monthly salary. It does not solve Lagos’s housing crisis. And that is precisely why the bigger question must now be asked.

Instead of teaching Lagosians how to endure expensive rent, when will government do more to make decent housing affordable in the first place?