Adeyanju Condemns Surge In Rents, Demands Tenant Protection Law

Human Rights lawyer and activist, Deji Adeyanju has written an open letter to President Tinubu demanding that the Federal Government declare a state of emergency on housing and the rental market.

In the letter, Adeyanju said he was writing not only as a legal practitioner but as an activist who has watched “the silent, agonizing erosion of human dignity” across cities including Abuja, Lagos among others.

He argued that shelter has become a commodity reserved for the highest bidder rather than the basic right it ought to be, insisting that “shelter is not a luxury product” but a core responsibility of the government.

Citing the 1999 Constitution, Adeyanju noted that Section 14(2)(b) requires that the security and welfare of citizens be treated as government’s primary purpose, pointing to provisions under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy that directs the state to ensure adequate shelter for all citizens while preventing the concentration of wealth in a few hands.

He also invoked Nigeria’s obligations under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arguing that housing must be treated as a social good rather than a speculative financial asset.

Describing conditions on the ground, Adeyanju said the rental markets in Abuja and Lagos had become an “absolute wild west,” with landlords, speculators and unregulated agents extracting exploitative terms from tenants.

He detailed a pattern of tenants being forced to pay two to three years of rent upfront alongside agency fees running as high as 20%, “legal fees” of up to 15% charged for template documents no lawyer ever prepared, service charges that sometimes exceed the rent itself, and non-refundable “caution fees” he described as an effective illegal surcharge.

He argued that any development plan must still allow artisans, civil servants and ordinary workers to live near their livelihoods.

He cited Ghana’s Rent Act, which imposes statutory limits on advance rent and is backed by an active enforcement body, as a model Nigeria should draw from.

Adeyanju’s letter set out six specific demands. He called on the president to formally declare a state of emergency on housing and urban tenancy, and to constitute a presidential taskforce – led by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development – with a 90-day mandate to draft a national housing and tenancy policy and, if necessary, send an executive bill on fair rent standards to the National Assembly.

He further demanded that advance rent be limited to a maximum of one year, moving progressively toward monthly rent payment models, and that caution fees be banned outright, with any unrefunded deposit lacking audited proof of damage treated as a legal offence.

On enforcement, he called for a digital tenant reporting platform backed by an ombudsman and rapid-response desk, alongside civil fines, criminal sanctions and professional disqualification for landlords and agents found in violation.

He also demanded for an expansion of low-cost public housing through social investment, tax credits and public-private partnerships, with affordability measured against the real minimum wage rather than nominal market benchmarks.

Garry Ochigbo