By YINKA KOLAWOLE

The controversial Land Use Act (LUA) has been described as a socialist policy which cannot work in a capitalist economy as being operated in Nigeria.

Prof. Bioye Aluko, lecturer in the Department of Estate Management, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, stated this while delivering a paper on “Legal Framework for Land Market Regulation in an Emerging Megacity”, at the Mandatory Continuous Professional Development workshop organised by the Faculty of Land Administration and the Lagos branch of Nigerian Institution Estate Surveyors Valuers (NIESV).

Aluko noted that said Nigeria, being more of a capitalist economy and moving towards a private-driven economy, would require legislative instruments that tend towards free enterprise market. He said the Act should be repealed because, according to him, it is a socialist policy in a capitalist economy, adding that it had been criticised as an urban legislation, which only superficially touched the land tenure problem in the country.

The university don wondered why government should regulate the land market, while other factors of production are being deregulated with the economic liberalisation policy, noting that even in urban areas, government estates were the most expensive and inaccessible. He added that land holding institutions, including federal, state and local governments, as well as communities, families, stools and individuals know their holdings and limitations, and as such, a repeal of the Act would not generate any controversy.

Aluko further said that the Act showed that the vesting of land in the Governor was meaningless if subject to the remainder of other provisions of the Act and more especially all the existing interests saved under sections 34 and 36 of the Act.

The Land Use Act of 1978 effectively vests ownership of all lands with government, which can declare any land public domain, and designate as such for the purpose of promoting public interest. It empowers State Governors to grant statutory rights of occupancy within his State, while Local Government chairmen may grant customary rights of occupancy essentially for agricultural purposes. By implication, no land transaction can be concluded without the consent of the Governor.

On the Lagos Tenancy Law 2011, Aluko said although the law is meant to guide the relationship between the landlord and the tenants, a provision whereby the state intends to be controlling rent, what it does not own would fail. “Whether the rent restriction period and some other provisions will work depend on the level of social and economic relations in the state; otherwise, it will promote fraudulent practices or lead to development of black market since no socialist policy can work in a capitalist market,” he said.

This assertion was supported by another university lecturer, Dr. Modupe Omirin of the Department of Estate Management, University of Lagos. She said the Tenancy Law should be abrogated to remove the inherent disincentive and allow the market adjust freely as experienced in other commodity markets.

“This is because it discourages investment in housing and is probably responsible for the recent hike in residential rents by as much as 200 per cent in some parts of Lagos. Rather than continue with counterproductive legislation, the state government should enquire into producers’ problems and seek to mitigate them,” she argued.