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Stakeholders identify flaws in Land Use Act

The Land Use Act (LUA), passed 45 years ago, has flaws that legal experts pointed out at a public lecture in memory of a legal moron named Alhaji Femi Okunnu (SAN). They blamed these flaws, among other things, on poor drafting. Separate papers titled "Land Use Act:" were delivered by eminent attorneys including Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN) and Remi Olatubora. Some Reflections, 45 years After’ and ‘Land Administration in Nigeria: 45 Years After, the Enactment of the Land Use Act, 1978’ respectively, held that Nigerians have failed to get the expected benefits from the LUA. According to them, the Act's main goals included, among other things, ensuring that all Nigerians could easily access land, preventing speculative land purchases, streamlining and making ownership and management of land more simple, making land available to government at all levels for development, and establishing a system that would increase tenure security. However, they concluded from their evaluation that the goals had not been attained, and they blamed this, among other things, on the Act's shoddy and awkward draft. The senior attorney also criticized the issuance of two certificates of occupancy, one by the federal government and the other by the state. Only states should run registries, he claimed, and the expansion of land registries should be skewed. 

The lawyer advocated, among other things, that operational rules should be completely up to the stat when determining the terms of engagement.In his opinion, the membership of the Land Use and Allocation Committees should be specified in the applicable laws and given statutory tenure after being approved by the House of Assembly. This, he claimed, would checkmate the governors' absolute and excessive powers. He also believed that there should be no distinction between state and local governments in terms of the ownership of land. while a single authority deals with all the lands in the State to avoid the reigning confusion in this regard. Olatubora stated that although each state is responsible for managing the land on its soil, there should be a national integrated electronic platform or registry where people can access information about the land. To aid in the creation of an integrated, uniform, and consistent land management policy, the attorney also suggested that land-related issues be added to the Concurrent Legislative List. As part of his recommendation, he said the present dichotomy between land in urban and nor-urban, where land under LUAC/Governor’s management and LG Council’s management should be abolished. He argued that representatives of traditional institutions, community development organizations, and civil society organizations should all be allowed to join the LUAC. Olatubora opined that candidates from professional organizations should be LUAC's professional members. Additionally, the court should have the authority to decide on the amount or sufficiency of compensation in the event that the State is forced to acquire land through compulsory acquisition. He argued that technology should be used to streamline the bureaucracy involved in managing and administering land in land registries.

45 years after, stakeholders identify flaws in Land Use Act | The Guardian  Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News — Features — The Guardian Nigeria  News – Nigeria and World News

“The poor and inelegant drafting of the Act is worthy of note. If the opportunity presents itself in the future, it might well be best to get the most qualified draftsmen to handle the drafting of legislation of this nature.” - Banire. “All land in every state should come under the management of the governor/LUAC with uniform C of O granted by the governor,” he said.

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