An Act to Vest all Land compromised in the territory of each State (except land vested in the Federal government or its agencies) solely in the Governor of the State , who would hold such Land in trust for the people and would henceforth be responsible for allocation of land in all urban areas to individuals resident in the State and to organisations for residential, agriculture, commercial and other purposes while similar powers will with respect to non urban areas are conferred on Local Governments.(27th March 1978) Commencement.
1. Repeal the land Use Act.
In simple terms, the Land Use Act places a government official between a legal contract of ownership and sale of land. It places all land in the hands of government and specifies that future transfers or sale of land must be authorised by a government official irrespective of the value of the transaction. "It shall not be lawful for any customary right of occupancy or any part thereof to be alienated by assignment, mortgage, transfer of possession, sublease or otherwise howsoever -
(a) Without the consent of the Governor in cases where the property is to be sold by or under the order of any court under the provisions of the applicable Sheriffs and Civil Process Law; or
(b) in other cases without the approval of the appropriate Local Government."
Land Use Act
The main issues of the Land Use Act of 1978 is that it transfers title and ownership of land from individuals and communities to the Governors of the states who hold the land in trust. It also makes acquisition of land by individuals and corporate bodies for commercial, agricultural and economic development purposes extremely difficult.
This leads to transaction bottlenecks, cumbersome and tiresome processing of title documents and negative wealth as all land without a C of O cannot be brought into any formal transaction. Consider that if a client wanted to buy or sell a Rolls Royce or an oil Refinery, the transaction would involve both parties' legal teams, but crucially it would not need the consent or accent of any government official before the sale is approved.
Another contentions issues is the changing of the legal status of the Nigerian land "user" from ownership to that of statutory occupancy. In effect no Nigeria owns any land, we simply have a statutory right to use it, this limits the rights of the "user" i.e. your proprietary interests are extinguished.
The argument against repel will rest with the issues government has in securing land from private citizens for the greater public good e.g., building a road over private land. These concerns can be address by passing a bill to give the Federal and State Government the power to acquire land under the Right of Eminent Domain, i.e. the superior dominion of the sovereign over individual property rights. The Land Use is in fact a universal application of this Eminent Domain right.
The repeal of the Land Use Act will immediately give millions of Nigerians "equity". They can own, transfer and/or sell the land they live on, put up that land as collateral, bring the land into the formal market place and make property transactions easier to finance via financial institutions.
The Repeal will boost Nigeria mortgage market, it will create jobs as realtors, surveyors, estate agents, and builders will have more opportunities and more property to bring into the market.
Most importantly, the repel of the Act will open agricultural land otherwise "locked" up in administrative red tape in the Local Governments. Farmers can negotiate directly with the local community for sale or lease of hectares of arable land to grow food, considering that 70% of Nigerians labour is agricultural based, the bottle neck of ownership of land if removed will instantly increase the acreage of land available to agriculture.
Its important to note that that Late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had sent 14 Amendment clauses (titled Land Use Act (Amendment) Act 2009 or the Constitution (First Amendment) Act 2009) to the National Assembly for the purpose of amendment.
So i would like the president to push the 7th congress to consider and pass these 14 amendment clauses or simply sponsor a new bill to repel the Land use Act.
Without land, there is no wealth.
Its our Problem, we will fix it.
