My salary was not more than N20,000 when I decided to build my house

NREH correspondent, Rianat Sanni was in an interview with Mr. Bolaji Adejana who works in the internal control unit of Realty point limited. Mr. Bolaji Adejana said, “My salary was not more than 20,000 naira when I decided to build my house”.

Let’s find out from our sack your landlord series how he managed to pull this through.

NREH: You are welcome Mr. Bolaji Adejana

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: Thank you for having me

NREH: We learnt that you just sacked your landlord and you now have a house to your name. How does that really feel?

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: Looking at the fact that tenants are not being treated fairly and all the issues from landlords, I decided that I was going to put up a structure of my own.

When I started gradually it was a difficult task and I had issues with resources. What I was earning was not anywhere near where I could have imagined I can achieve something. Starting off was not so easy at all.

So, I decided to get a property around. I spoke with someone and we started the search. We finally saw a plot of land valued at one million naira. Looking at my bank account all together I’m not sure I had up to 100 thousand naira. I just smiled and said to myself that the idea was not going to be possible.

I got back home and started thinking about it. I decided to talk to one or two friends. When I told one of them, he said the location was too far from town.

I didn’t want to lose the land so I spoke to another friend and he was interested. Unfortunately, he could not also raise the sum of 1 million naira. We agreed to talk to the owner about reduction. We eventually got a reduction of 300,000 naira and we agreed to share the money and the plot of land.

After the reduction, coming up with 350,000 naira became another problem we were faced with. We pleaded with the owner to give us a month to come up with something.
We eventually came up with 500,000 naira and the owner collected it reluctantly. The land was allocated to us even though we had not finished payment. We could not do anything on it until after 3 months when we balanced the payment.

After making payment, people started advising us to start up something on the land because land grabbers a.k.a Omo onile are all around the place. This is someone that just finished making payment of 350,000 from borrowed funds. How do we start up construction just to avoid land grabbers trouble? That became another challenge for us.

About a month later, I got another job and that gave me the opportunity to be able to save a bit to build my house. I didn’t use any cooperative funds for my project. The whole thing was as a result of my savings. I made sure I save a certain percentage every month which I made non-negotiable and a must. It was a lot of sacrifice.

I considered building a house was more important for me than buying a car so I was putting up every resource I had into savings. Whenever the money gets to a particle threshold, we move to site to do something and accomplish a milestone then go back again to look for funds. We started 2011 and we completed it in 2015.

It’s a block of 2 self-contain and we are currently working on the front part of the plot.

NREH: What percentage of your salary did you save?

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: I saved nothing less than 50%.

NREH: That must have been very tasking

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: Yes it was

read also: Landowners cry out over demolition of structures by suspected land grabbers

NREH: While the project was going on, what were the challenges you encountered?

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: The challenges were enormous. We had challenges particularly with the land grabbers. Immediately we got to site, land grabbers just started coming from different angles. They stalled our work, beat up our site workers and chased them out of site. Eventually, we had to part with 80,000 naira as foundation fee before we could be allowed to continue construction.

NREH: Any embarrassing moment you can remember?

Mr. Bolaji Adejana:  Yes. There was a particular guy from Benin Republic. He was a bricklayer we engaged. He has this kind of cunning attitude of asking for money for everything. He brings up cost from nowhere after we must have budgeted funds for what we wanted to do. Sometimes we avoid going to site because of his unnecessary demands.

There was a particular day we went to site and when the guy saw me from afar, he ran after me. What I had on me was not up to 2,000 naira and this guy was requesting 15,000naira. A lot of people were around and they were looking at us like unserious fellows. They said how can we have such a big project and not have as little as 15,000 naira to sort things out?
This is just one of the things we had to face.

The success of the project has a lot to do with sacrifice and possibility mentality that you can do it. If you want to achieve a goal, you have to give all it takes.

              

 

NREH: With all the challenges you encountered, what advice do you have for someone who is reluctant to start based on things like this?

Mr. Bolaji Adejana: The basic thing people look at is that it is very difficult to build a house. Building a house is not for the weak, it is not for the faint-hearted but for those who are able to encourage themselves. No matter what you earn, if you have it as a target, you can make it happen.

My salary was not more than 20,000 naira when I conceived the idea of building a house. It’s not a function of what you earn, it’s a function of having a goal, vision and if you are religious, you should believe in God. All things are possible for everyone that believes in Him.

I hope this story inspires you to start doing something now. There is no greater obstruction to success than procrastination. Now is the time to start working.

To sack your landlord and have a story as beautiful as this, you can contact Realty point Limited at http://www.realtypointltd.com/ or their social media handles at http://www.facebook.com/realtypointltd , @realtypointltd on twitter, and  realtypointltd on instagram for more enquiries.