NIGERIA'S CONTENTIOUS LAND USE ACT (1978) MUST BE MASSES - ORIENTED TO FAVOUR AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 6. NO 214. 17th September, 2017.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

NIGERIA'S CONTENTIOUS LAND USE ACT (1978) MUST BE MASSES - ORIENTED TO FAVOUR AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION!

The Federal Government's drive to ensure food security in Nigeria is yielding positive and accelerated results through the strategic financial policy of the Central Bank's Anchors Borrowers Programme (ABP), which has offered greater financial incentive to farmers for all-year-round agricultural farm projects!
As at the last quarter of the year 2016, Nigeria expended a whooping N1.0 trillion in foreign exchange on importation of food items including rice and wheat which fuelled domestic inflation, depleted foreign reserves, displaced local production and created massive unemployment, but the story has now changed according to CBN Governor who noted that import dependency especially on commodities of comparative advantage was neither acceptable nor sustainable.

Presently, RICE has been excluded from forex eligibility list, and replaced with the establishment of the ABP Initiative with huge investments in 40 integrated rice mills but not without challenges, of which the "NON-UTILILIZATION OF AVAILABLE CULTIVABLE LANDS", is the most prevalent! However, millions of Nigerian farmers are currently enrolled in ABP.
It is no longer news that the Military Government of Nigeria in a very suspicious 1978 Palace "coup de tat," grabbed all lands in the country through a very controversial Land Use Decree which suppressed any traditional claims by other citizens but gave the soldiers and subsequent governments absolute authority as the new LANDLORDS!
That controversial land policy - which is now almost 40 years in existence - has now become an albatross to the green revolutionary agrarian drive of diversification from the crude oil mono product foreign exchange earner, to the better option of massive agricultural produce that would ensure food security and influx of the hard currencies through regular exportation and an increase in the Small and Medium Scale Industries participation.
Is it not a disservice  to the evolving economy that interested entrepreneurs are now being hampered by the stringent, arduous and very costly processes of acquiring lands in their own country because those who should amend the necessary offending clauses which are detrimental to the Change Agenda mantra, are the very interested parties who are feeding fat through the unfavourable and masses unfriendly policy?

Chapter 202 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990, the Land Use Act is stipulated as: "An Act to vest al. 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".
It on record that this obnoxious decree was promulgated during the tenure of General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was Military Head of State between1976-1979, before he handed over to the democratic government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, but was it a patriotic policy intended to ease the housing challenges of the Nigerian masses or a further opportunity to boost the ELITES EGO through acquisition of landed properties above their legitimate portions!
NO! We do not believe so for the following logical and credible reasons:
(1) General Obasanjo retired from the Nigeria Army in 1979 and wasted no time to acquire by proxy, massive land areas for pastoral farming, in Otta Ogun State, from the indigenous owners who knew nothing about Land Use Decree, 1978 - the brain-child of the retired General.
(2) With his highly exalted position, he was issued the Certificate of Occupancy, rolled earth-moving equipments into the grabbed land to possess it by force with the succinct support of armed military personnel who flooded the area in a show of power which was stiffly resisted by the RIGHTFUL OWNERS!
(3) After a prolonged "battle", which stalled every move by his agents to cultivate the land, the retired General had to pay some monetary compensation (fall below the worth of the property), which was reluctantly collected following intense arbitration by the Royal King, traditional chiefs and elders of the Otta town.
(4) We do not totally condemn the Land Use Act because there are a lot of advantages to be enjoyed by the masses if it is transparently and faithfully executed. For instance, any Nigerian citizen can possess landed property anywhere in the country and dwell in safety as if he/she were an indigene thereby promoting unity in diversity!

In view of the flaws noticed in the controversial Land Use Decree, late President Umaru Yar 'Adua and  ex- President Ebele Jonathan, tinkered with the idea of removing the Act from the Constitution and operating it as an independent Act of Parliament for regular amendments from time to time without success, but it is very certain that the time is now ripe for the APC ruling government to re- visit the CONTROVERSY once and for all, for the benefit of all Nigerians -especially FARMERS whom the Anchors Borrowers Programme, is set to support with huge finances.

The stringent processes of Land acquisition must be relaxed; land fees for both commercial and residential purposes must be considerably reduced for the working class and LAND should be considered as a fundamental right for all bona fide citizens while the National Housing Scheme for low income workers which is in deficit of about 170 million units recorded since 2013, should be resuscitated without further delay to alleviate the sufferings of the people in that area of the very basic necessity of SHELTER and eliminate the humongous institutional corruption that have infested the sector for decades! The Military claimed their unilateral action was prompted by patriotic ZEAL, to protect the land from land grabbers/speculators but have, ( inadvertently ?), escalated conflicts to murderous dimensions since the promulgation of that unpopular/masses unfriendly decree!
Presently, land disputes have degenerated into frightening human fatalities of national dimensions unlike in the past when communities mostly settled such challenges through mutual dialogue and agreements in village and town hall meetings.

BEFORE THE LAND USE DECREE OF 29th March, 1978 - People, families and communities possessed the LAND through the traditional ownership of ancestral inheritance and had freedom to sell to both public and private enterprises at will in areas of historical domicility.
THE CASE IS DIFFERENT NOW - No individual can claim rightful ownership of any land anywhere in Nigeria without govt authorization. A prospector now has to purchase any portion of land from government whom the decree describes as the LANDLORD collect a receipt, survey the land, before collecting the legal document describe as the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)!

The Land Use Act as it is now described has its root firmly entrenched in the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution - A LEGAL STATUS THAT HAS METAMORPHOSED INTO AND ALBATROSS, because it has become strenuous to AMEND ( because of vested interest of both govt and "INDEGENOUS OWNERS",AND EXCEPT IT IS EXPUNGED TO STAND ALONE LIKE OTHER ACTS OF PARLIAMENT FOR REGULAR AMENDMENTS, THE ACT (as presently crafted), WOULD CONTINUE TO CREATE A CLOG IN THE WHEEL OF THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION OF THE APC GOVT.!

WE RECOMMEND AN EXECUTIVE BILL BE FOWARDED TO PARLIAMENT AS THE LAND USE ACT NOW POSES OBSTACLES TO BOTH REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY AND DIVERSIFICATION TO AGRICULTURE!

SECURITY OF PROPERTY RIGHTS: Legal /registered and proper land documentations like Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), must be issued and obtained to qualify the land as good collateral document to secure loans from any private or financial institution.  CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY GOES FOR AS MUCH AS N500.000, IN SOME STATES OF NIGERIA AND IT MUST CARRY THE BONA FIDE SIGNATURE OF GOVERNORS OR LOCAL GOVT CHAIRMEN OF RESPECTIVE RURAL AREAS - WHICH CUMBERSOME PROCESSES GENERATE HIGH-LEVEL CORRUPTION AMONG GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AT ALL LEVELS!
LAND IS AN IMMOVABLE PROPERTY WHICH APPRECIATES MORE WHEN CONVERTED TO REAL ESTATE, INDUSTRIAL OR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES. INDEGENOUS LAND TRUSTEES AND GOVERNMENT MUST HAVE A MIDDLE GROUND!

Nigerians need unfettered farming lands to the economy on track" For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? " Mark 8:36 (KJV)

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

Please look forward to divine revelations in  The Sure Word Gospel Tracts, Our divinely inspired books on the Amazon KINDLE Store Namely: The Unbroken Chain of Grace, Nigeria’s Pot Pourri (Volumes 1-5), Godly Politicking For World Peace,  and The Wedding Mascot Died. 

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.