By Kayode Anthony Oluyinka

The importance of land as a resource for human existence and development cannot be overstated. The most fundamental component of our planet, land plays a crucial role in various natural processes and provides a home for countless species. Land is essential not only for the survival and prosperity of humanity, but also for maintaining terrestrial ecosystems. It is the foundation of the economy, providing life-support structures and systems for the realization or acquisition of the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. Everything on earth, every technology and invention takes off from land. It is a major factor of production.

Land so pervasively underpins human activity. A very essential means of transportation, without land, it would have been impossible for people to move from place to place. For infrastructure and construction, roads, flyovers, stadiums, and all manners of structures, land is required. All the minerals we have today, crude oil, gold, coal, limestone and several others have their source from land. in a nutshell, land is more than just a property, it is a source of life, heritage and sustainability.

In a world where urbanization continues to expand, the value of land remains timeless, its availability and supply are fixed, and cannot be increased because it wasn’t made by man, but rather, given freely by nature to him. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, the late American writer and essayist in one of his famous quotes on land said, “Buy land, they are not making it anymore.”

It is not surprising therefore that land has been at the centre of most conflicts in human history, with land-related issues figuring into many violent disputes around the world. Disputes over access to land and valuable mineral resources has led to wars, loss of lives and property, destruction of the economic base of belligerent communities, high crime wave, and historical revisionism of the areas. Even when the conflict seems to have ceased, the issues at stake remain unresolved.

Land issues underpin development goals, hence the increasing awareness over the years of the relevance of land tenure issues to food security, agriculture, housing, transport, energy and extractives, climate change, rapid urbanization, informality and indigenous people’s rights. Governments across the world reacted to this by putting in place structures and measures to regulate land ownership, its allocation for various purposes of development and more importantly measures to balance the interests of the government, the land-owning class and the class that is landless.

During the pre-colonial epoch, land was regarded as common properties, but in the post-colonial era, land in Africa became socio-political and economic issues, and the quest for the expansion of the prevalent land markets and the pressures of modernization explained the conversion of customary lands into leasehold lands. Land administration and policies are intended to play a crucial role in reducing conflict over ownership rights and environmental degradation, as well as ensuring efficient land use, and management. Like other countries in the world, Nigeria realized the need to engage on land resources reform, efficient administration and management of land ownership. Land policy became an essential tool to ensure accessibility of land to citizens of the country, as well as protection of their interests.

The Land Use Decree (Act) which was promulgated in March 29, 1978 by the then Federal Military Government abolished the existing land tenure systems and vested all land in each state of the federation solely in the governor. The uniform land administration system was supposed to encourage proper, productive and efficient use of land and its allocation for development, as against the previous land tenure systems which encouraged land holding without any obligation to develop them. It was also meant to discourage fragmentation and uncoordinated alienation, hoarding speculatively for value appreciation and without precise documentation. Government, through the Land Use Act envisioned rapid national economic transformation through rational land use and administration of land for the benefit of all Nigerians.

Policies do not succeed or fail on their own merits; rather their progress is dependent upon the process of implementation. The Land Use Act has over the years incited a lot of controversy. It has become a major hindrance to housing development. Contrary to the purpose of the Act, which was to make land available to all for housing and economic development, the Act has rather prevented access to land for majority especially for development, as many state governments are holding on to land under the guise of compulsory acquisition for proposed development. This has also denied the original land owners like families and communities’ access to their land for farming or other forms of improvement, thereby limiting economic growth. The leasehold interest on land conveyed under the Act by the state, also reduces the investment potential of the land to prospective investors and promotes a cash and carry ideology, as a title holder is usually looking at making immediate gains on the land.

The most contentious aspect of the Act is enshrined in Section 3 which assigns to the governor of a state seemingly enormous power to designate by order parts of non-urban areas of the state to become urban area and, by so doing, extend the frontiers of urban area. The implication is that it enlarges the governor’s area of influence, thereby making some ambitious governors semi gods in their domains. Some overzealous governors have hidden under the power conferred on them in Section 3 of the Act to harass and intimidate perceived political opponents by either revoking their Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) or confiscating their title deeds on land acquired legitimately.

The process of acquiring title has been so prolonged that it has become discouraging and disincentive to land ownership, especially for investment. The process of registration of land under the Act takes cumbersome procedures and time. Rather than being a catalyst to socio-economic development in the country as originally planned, the Act has become a hindrance to the growth of the sector.

These and several other issues are the reasons why the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers have been calling for a comprehensive review of the Act. In the interest of Nigeria, the Land Use Act should be reviewed without any further delay.

•Oluyinka, an estate surveyor and valuer, writes from Lagos