Some of the current perceptions of on the nation’s land titling, ownership, possession and administration in Nigeria are that it is fraught with so much uncertainty, insecurity and bureaucracy that leave it operating at below optimal level for the substance of man and the nation’s economy.
Till date, land as it relates to titling has continued to generate controversy between the Federal and State government across the country because of lack of clearly defined legislation.
A legal icon and former Federal Commissioner for Works Alhaji Femi Okunnu while tracing the genesis of the problem of land administration in the country noted that the former Military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida promulgated a decree on Lands Title Vesting which empowered the Federal Government to appropriate or confiscate lands within 100 metres of the shore of the Atlantic Ocean belonging to whoever, whether states, firms or individuals.
He said, “For example, any land from Benin Republic border to Cameroun border, within 100 metres of the sea shore, was simply expropriated without compensation. The decree vested the title on the Federal Government. It affected all the coastal states: Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
“The one that affected Lagos in particular was the land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean for the lagoon. In effect, the whole of Victoria Island, Lekki, Lagoon shore of Lagos Island or any land reclaimed up to Ikorodu, Iddo, Apapa on to Badagry were affected. So what was left of Lagos?”
He added that the illegality snowballed further when the Federal Government,” established land registry in Lagos supposedly to register Federal lands in Lagos and probably it is being done in other states. It has no legal basis. It has no backing in law. Land is a state matter.
“When we talk of land administration, we are talking of physical planning which is a state function. Federal Government should have no land registry in any region or state. Since the federal government was established in 1954, federal state lands in any region or state are used to be registered in land registry in the state capital.
“All I have said about land registration do not apply to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja. Federal Government owns the land in Abuja as it used to own the land in Lagos before the creation of Lagos State.
“But since the creation of Lagos State in May 1967, Titles to State Lands in Lagos was transferred to Lagos State Government. That is why the Title of a place like Ikoyi which used to be vested in the Federal Government was transferred to Lagos State Government.”
In the ensuing legal loopholes in the nation’s land administration, experts believe that the system will be further compounded if it is laden with much human
interface and operated manually cannot but be corrupt and inefficient, especially in the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) age.
For any state that wants to revolutionize its land administration, professionals affirmed that information and communication technology ought to be deployed to fast-track service delivery.
This is based on the premise that the provision of these services will not only give satisfaction to the citizen and people doing business with the state, but will also generate tremendous income for the state by way of taxes, fees and levies paid for these services.
The argument is that anything short of this will not only result in the delay and uncertainty, Lack of transparency, Corruption and Mistrust but decrease in productivity of the citizen and their businesses.
Thus, emphasis is been placed on e-government because it has the potentials of providing high quality government services to citizens.
Thinking in this direction, Lagos State Government had since computerized its land registry and launched cadastral mapping and Geographic Information Survey (GIS) scheme in the office of the surveyor General of the State .
Though all these are geared towards providing better and effective service to the citizens and the business community at large, it is believed that it falls short of what is expected by the citizens and the business community in the ICT age considering the strategic and important position land occupies in the life of the individual, community and the state of large.
According to Akintunde Basir Otubu, in one of his vital contributions on the subject matter, Lagos land use management system could borrow a lead from the company corporate practice in the United State, Canada and other European countries by providing an internet interface on information depository and retrieval system on land use, accessible to members of the public and the business community dealing with the government.
“In these countries an internet interface has been put in place in respect of filing of records and returns which has substantially reduced the human component in the discharge of administrative functions to the betterment of the state, business and citizen relationship.
“Under the current legislative and administration regime, virtually all aspects of land management are done manually. Even where the system has been computerized it is still shrouded in myth and mystery as the operation of the system is not transparent enough to curry the confidence of the citizen and the business community.
“Land registry, it is claimed has been computerized yet it takes days if not weeks to access land information. This scenario will remain the same until the system is made transparent and members of the public are allowed to publicly access it.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): George Okojie
Quelle/Source: Leadership, 09.03.2016
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