Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said the time is ripe to reform Nigeria’s land laws, saying existing legal provisions on land can no longer meet the aspirations of the people.
“When at any point in the life of a nation or a people, the administration of land no longer meets their aspirations, it becomes incumbent upon the State to take the lead in initiating and overseeing some form of improvement or reform to the system. Even if that reform is one that will ultimately end in less State control,” he said at the National Stakeholder Dialogue on Land Reform in Nigeria at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja on Monday.
In a press statement issued by his spokesperson, Laolu Akande, Professor Osinbajo said in order to be relevant to the wealth creation process, land, almost like money, must be a medium of exchange, especially in its role as collateral.
“This is the only sure pathway to sustainable economic empowerment for all, especially the rural poor, where so much of our land is untitled,” the Vice President stated.
He also posited that for Nigeria to maximise the potential of its land, there must be consistent operation or implementation of considered policies and laws.
The Vice President advised stakeholders at the meeting not only to concentrate onbuilding a consensus around the necessity for land reform but also to fashion out the best way to proceed in implementing the reforms, considering the importance of land in our society.
“In many cases, land is not just land, it represents everything from ethnic and cultural capital and legitimacy, to economic potential. Which explains why families, neighbours, communities and even nations, resort so easily to war over land,” he warned.
He urged the stakeholders “to pay full attention to how we maintain, use, allocate and deploy land” in order to ensure that the country derives maximum value from it. He added that land should serve as a catalyst for lasting prosperity and abundance rather than the cause of anguish and tension.
He attributed dispute over land as the factors responsible for “a good number of the security issues facing us today as a nation – whether they are clashes between herdsmen and farmers, or boundary and border disputes, or the debates around resource control and fiscal federalism.”
He charged the stakeholders to work towards using land reform as a tool for the creation of a better and more prosperous future for our country.
The Vice President said in spite of the best efforts, only about 3% of Nigeria’s land area of over 923,768 square kilometres is documented in land registries since the Land Use Act was promulgated in 1978. He announced that the National Economic Council (NEC) has recently endorsed a number of regulations on land reforms including: (i) Systematic Land Titling and Registrations (SLTR); (ii) Regulations on Registries, (iii) Regulations on Mortgages; and (iv) Regulations on Sectional Titles.


Source: https://www.makeitglobal.biz/land-ownership-policies-must-favour-poor-vp-osinbajo/

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