By Wesey Titilayo Folashade

Land is a unique gift of nature to mankind. Everything existing on this planet earth has its genesis in land. All human activities and endeavors takes place on land. Land is crucial for human existence and survival. Its variety of factors, such as its function of making food available to the people, shelter, and natural resources, its support for economic and cultural activities makes it the most valuable resource.

All living and non-living organisms derives life and livelihood from land, while the unique gift of nature also meets all basic human needs, creating space for growth and development of mankind on this planet. Land is required for construction of homes, construction of infrastructure, such as transportation, communication, other structures, services and amenities needed to support daily activities and enhance the quality of life.

And to the extent that land is crucial for human survival because it hosts all economic and productive activities, to the extent that it is often associated with a sense of identity, belonging, and history, to the extent that it is often used to mark cultural and political boundaries, to the extent that it is the most required resource, but limited in supply, land becomes the only thing in the world that amounts to anything. And because it is the only thing in this world that lasts, people consider it worth working for, worth fighting for, and worth dying for. 

It is not surprising therefore that issues bothering on land has been at the centre of several conflicts in the society. Across the world today, issues related to land ownership and boundaries figure into many violent disputes, and usually play some roles in war and civil violence. Disputes over access to land and valuable mineral resources has led to wars, to loss of lives and property, destruction of the economic base of communities and nations, high crime wave, and historical revisionism of the affected areas. Perennial violence across communities in Africa is tied to competition and poor governance over land.  

Even when the conflict seems to have ceased, the issues at stake in many instances remain unresolved, prompting nations and governments all over the world to put in place structures and measures to regulate land ownership, land allocation for various purposes of development, and more importantly measures to balance the interests of the government, the land-owning class and the landless class. This is also because land issues underpin development goals, and there have been 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. Its rational planning and optimal use holds the key to sustainable development and to addressing perennial conflicts around it, as well as majority of environmental challenges facing this planet including; global warming,  creating heat island, depletion of ozone layer, increasing carbon footprints etc.

The Federal Military Government in 1978 promulgated the Land Use Decree (Act), putting an end to the existing land tenure systems which encouraged land holding without an obligation to develop them, fragmentation and uncoordinated alienation, hoarding speculatively for value appreciation and without precise documentation. The Act which also encouraged proper, productive and efficient use of land and allocation of land for development in Nigeria. A uniform land administration system across the country, the Act vested all land in each state of the federation solely in the Governor of the state who would hold such land in trust for the people and who would be responsible for the allocation of all land in all urban areas to individuals residing in the state and to organizations for residential, agriculture, commercial and other purposes.

Government sought promotion of rapid socio-economic transformation of the country through rational land use and administration of land for the benefit of all Nigerians. After all, land as a basic economic resource is fundamental and critical to economic development, when used for agriculture, it produces means of subsistence, and when used for urbanization, it modulates cities, defining patterns how they evolve, devolve and perform.

The Act, through effective implementation has substantially succeeded in reducing conflict over land ownership rights and environmental degradation, as well as ensuring efficient land use, ownership, and management. It has enhanced physical, infrastructure and economic development of the nation, while also ensuring land accessibility to Nigerians, as well as protection of their interests.

However, the process of obtaining Certificate of Occupancy and the consent provisions under the Land Use Act makes land transactions tedious, time consuming and expensive. In order words, the Act which was enacted to make land easily available for development and home ownership seems to have become an obstacle to housing development. Housing has been identified world-wide as one of the basic necessities of life. For the survival of man, provision of shelter, refuge, comfort, security and dignity is required. And this is expected to be functional, attractive and identifiable within a neighborhood setting, enabling of family needs, aspirations and preferences. Accelerated land titling program for all states of the federation that will release plots with value for housing development would be a good incentive for the sector.

That is why the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers have been advocating for a comprehensive review of the Act, without which we might wait much longer for housing delivery and sustainability. 

Sections of the act which are not in tandem with modern trends, and the ones which have become a clog in the wheel of progress should be thrown out. If this is done, it would go a long way in bringing about sanity in land tenure, ownership and acquisition as well as housing provision in Nigeria. The government must take urgent steps to remove this aspect of our laws which still wears a military helmet.

Wesey, an estate surveyor and valuer, writes from Lagos