OPINION BY LUKMAN SHOBOWALE: Rethinking the land use act for improved outcome | TheCable
An assessment of Nigeria’s modern history, reveals that land administration in Nigeria has gone through major inflection points, pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence. During the pre-colonial period, the land tenure system can be described as customary land tenancy. Under this communal arrangement, land administration was under the control of families, community and village heads.
Down the line, the Treaty of Cession was repealed and replaced by the land proclamation ordinance 1900, which consolidated the outdated treaty, by conveying all land control to the high commissioner/governor-general. Other landmark legislation that came to life during this period also includes the Land and Native Rights Act of 1916, the State Lands Act of 1918 and the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947.
The Land Use Act 1978 was recognised as a landmark for vesting the control and administration of land in the hands of state governors who would hold the land in trust for the people. The act however had a provision that placed a burden of “responsibility” on the state governors by charging them with the responsible allocation of land. The purpose of such allocation is residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial or even economic activities.
It is therefore believed that if Nigeria must make any dint of progress on closing the current housing gap, the first port of call is to review the Land Use Act, which has been criticised as outlandishly archaic and not in tandem with realities. It is also believed to be over-regulatory in approach, especially in the flexibility of the use of land and the total control it places in the hands of state governors.
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