BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA—AS the National Conference resumes plenary today to continue consideration of reports of its various committees, some delegates have begun moves to prevent the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution.

The Conference Committee on Land Tenure Matters and National Boundaries recommended the removal of the Act.
Leader of the anti-Land Use Act removal group and a delegate from Ondo State, Remi Olatubora, told journalists in Abuja, yesterday, that they would ensure that the recommendation did not sail through.

He said: “This particular draconian recommendation of the committee is against the poor masses of this country. It is a coup against the masses and we must all stand against it.”
Debate on the controversial recommendation by the General A. B. Maman-led committee created anxiety last Thursday, causing the conference management to abruptly adjourn to today.

While some delegates applauded the recommendation, others condemned it, arguing that some of the recommendations could not be implemented as they were drafted to favour certain classes of people or ethnic groups.
The committee viewed the controversial Land Use Act as an attempt at codification of all laws in Nigeria pertaining to land administration.

Before the Act
It said before the Act came into effect, land belonged to specific owners or group of owners, families or communities that could alienate, sell and dispose same without the requirement of obtaining any authorisation or ratification from the state government.

The committee noted that the original land tenure systems, in which the community exercised management and control powers, guaranteed that community members have access to land for farming, habitation and other economic activities.

‘It’s a decoy’
However, Olatubora said the recommendation was a decoy for the few rich to take over the entire land, adding “the only way the poor masses of this country could have access to land is that the land title has been statutorily vested on the state governors who are the trustees in each state of the federation.

“One important thing is that the Land Use Act limits the quantum of land that any individual can hold in any state.
“But for the control the Land Use Act imposes on the quantum of land any individual can purchase, the few rich people of this country would have bought the entire land.”