The recent comments by the Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, advising young workers struggling with the rising cost of accommodation to consider living with their parents, relatives or sharing apartments have generated an important conversation about the affordability crisis confronting Lagosians.

I understand the point about living within one's means. Responsible financial management is important, especially for young people beginning their careers.

But I believe the bigger question government should be asking is this:

Why has it become so difficult for a hardworking young Lagosian earning an honest income to afford a decent place to live?

That is the real issue.

We cannot continue responding to an affordability crisis simply by teaching people how to adjust themselves to increasingly difficult economic conditions.

Government must address the conditions creating the crisis.

Lagosians Cannot Keep Adjusting

The average Lagosian has already adjusted enough.

Families have adjusted their feeding.

Workers have adjusted their transportation.

Businesses have adjusted their operating costs.

Young people have postponed marriage, home ownership and other important life decisions.

Parents who should be preparing for retirement are increasingly carrying financial responsibilities for adult children who are working but simply cannot afford the cost of independent living.

At some point, leadership must stop asking citizens to make further sacrifices and begin asking what government can do differently.

Our people deserve more than instructions on how to survive an increasingly expensive Lagos.

They deserve solutions.

Housing Is Not a Luxury

Housing is one of the most basic necessities of life.

Yet across Lagos today, decent accommodation is becoming increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary workers.

The problem goes beyond landlords or tenants.

It is connected to the entire cost of developing and maintaining property.

Land is expensive.

Building materials are expensive.

Transportation is expensive.

Energy is expensive.

Financing is expensive.

Taxes, permits, levies and regulatory costs all contribute to the final amount required to construct a house.

Every additional cost introduced somewhere in that chain eventually reaches the person trying to rent or buy the property.

That is why government cannot discuss rent affordability without examining the wider economic environment.

We Must Look at the Cost of Doing Business

The challenges confronting traders and businesses across Lagos should concern every policymaker.

When businesses face excessive or overlapping taxes, levies and charges, those costs do not simply disappear from their balance sheets.

They are transferred to consumers.

If a building-material trader pays significantly more to operate, building materials eventually become more expensive.

When cement, steel, roofing materials, tiles and other construction inputs become more expensive, developers spend more money building houses.

And when construction costs rise, the eventual buyer or tenant pays for it.

It becomes a cycle.

This is why taxation must be intelligent.

Government needs revenue to provide services, but taxation should never become an obstacle to productivity.

A prosperous Lagos must have a tax system that encourages businesses to grow, employ more people and expand the economic base.

You cannot tax your way into prosperity while simultaneously making enterprise more difficult.

What Should Government Be Doing?

Instead of merely asking young Lagosians to move back home, I believe we should be asking:

How do we dramatically increase the supply of affordable housing across Lagos?

How do we reduce the cost of developing property?

How do we create realistic pathways to home ownership?

How do we increase people's earning power?

How do we help entrepreneurs build businesses capable of employing thousands of Lagosians?

How do we create an economy in which a young graduate can work hard and reasonably expect that his or her life will improve?

Those are the questions that should occupy government.

My Affordable Housing Commitment

Under our Atunto Eko — Reset Lagos Agenda, affordable housing will be a major priority.

If I am given the mandate to serve as Governor of Lagos State, we will pursue an aggressive affordable-housing programme across Lagos.

And by affordable housing, I do not mean projects that carry the label "affordable" but remain completely beyond the financial reach of the people they were supposedly built for.

We must build housing that reflects the actual incomes of Lagos workers.

We will work towards properly planned communities with supporting infrastructure and housing options for young professionals, civil servants, artisans, traders, families and low-income earners.

Government must also explore partnerships capable of increasing housing supply at scale while creating more realistic financing and ownership opportunities.

Our ambition must be bigger than constructing a few showcase estates.

We must address housing across the nooks and crannies of Lagos.

But Housing Alone Will Not Solve the Problem

We can build thousands of affordable homes, but if people remain poor, affordability will remain a problem.

That is why one of the central pillars of my agenda is increasing the earning capacity of Lagosians.

Lagos has something many economies around the world would desperately love to have:

A huge market.

We have the population.

We have the entrepreneurs.

We have the commercial activity.

We have talent.

We have creativity.

We have access to local and international markets.

What we need is a government deliberate about converting these advantages into opportunities for ordinary people.

Empowering 400,000 Entrepreneurs

One commitment I have made is that our administration will target the empowerment of more than 400,000 entrepreneurs within our first four years in office.

And I am not talking about the kind of empowerment programme where a few items are distributed, cameras are brought out, pictures are taken and everyone goes home.

We need something more serious.

We intend to provide entrepreneurs with real seed capital, business support and opportunities that can enable viable enterprises to grow.

Imagine the effect of helping hundreds of thousands of Lagosians build productive businesses.

If only a percentage of those businesses eventually employ two, five, ten or twenty additional people, we begin creating an entirely different economic environment.

People earn more.

Businesses expand.

Families become more financially secure.

And housing becomes more affordable because people's purchasing power improves.

That is how government should think.

Young Lagosians Want Independence, Not Dependency

There is dignity in being able to stand on your own.

Our young people want to graduate, find jobs, start businesses, rent or buy their own homes, raise families and build successful lives.

That aspiration should not become unrealistic simply because they live in Lagos.

Of course, there is nothing shameful about living with one's parents.

Our culture has always supported strong family structures, and many families willingly support one another.

But there is a significant difference between choosing to remain with your family and being economically forced to do so because a working adult can no longer afford basic accommodation.

Government policy should be directed towards expanding people's choices, not shrinking them.

Lagos Can Be Affordable Again

I believe Lagos can be different.

I believe we can build a state where government makes life easier rather than continuously more expensive.

A Lagos where taxation supports enterprise instead of suffocating it.

A Lagos where affordable housing exists beyond campaign promises.

A Lagos where young people can start businesses and access meaningful capital.

A Lagos where workers can aspire to own homes.

A Lagos where economic growth is measured not simply by government revenue, but by how much better ordinary people's lives become.

Lagosians are some of the most resilient, hardworking and innovative people anywhere in Africa.

They do not need lectures about how to endure hardship.

They need leadership prepared to confront the reasons life has become so difficult in the first place.

That is the alternative I intend to offer through our Atunto Eko — Reset Lagos Agenda.

We should not be building a Lagos where young people are told to retreat.

We should be building a Lagos where young people can move forward.