Constraints in Land Use Act identified

According to the Act, the Governor of each state has the power to allocate urban lands, and local area councils have the power to allocate rural lands. Individuals and private developers must apply for certificates of occupancy that will allow them to use the land for certain period of time for a fee. In the […]

According to the Act, the Governor of each state has the power to allocate urban lands, and local area councils have the power to allocate rural lands. Individuals and private developers must apply for certificates of occupancy that will allow them to use the land for certain period of time for a fee. In the case of the FCT, there is no Governor. Legally, the president of Nigeria is the only one with the authority to allocate land in the FCT and the Minister of the FCT, who is a presidential appointee, carries this out on his behalf.
The Land Use Act makes it illegal for indigenes to allocate land without prior government`s  approval. However, some stakeholders in the housing sector have faulted the Act, citing amongst other reasons the delay it creates in making land accessible to an average Nigerians.
According to Professor Akin L. Mabogunje, Chairman Presidential Technical Committee for Land Reform, the Federal Government established a Presidential Technical Committee on April 2, 2009 to undertake the reform of the land tenure situation in the country following on the various problems emanating from the Land Use Act of 1978. He said the Act which conferred on State Governors the custodian right to issue certificates of occupancy for land holders in their states, unfortunately left out the majority already with possessory rights to their land.
He said that the present reform sets out essentially to rectify this and to provide registrable titles to all land owners in the country.
He said, “Although the Land Use Act of 1978 was meant to usher in a new land reform in Nigeria, it soon became a clog in the wheel of development over the years.
This was more so because the Military Government which promulgated it also ensured it was embedded in the Constitution of the country. Thus, any attempt to rectify its inadequacies required a constitutional amendment. There were thus many protests both to have the Act expunged from the Constitution and to amend it in very many substantial ways.”
He commended the out gone President Good Luck Jonathan for having land reform as one of the Seven Point Agenda of his administration.