Govt may review land use law, others
From Segun Ayeoyenikan, Abuja
THE Federal Government may soon review the 1979 Land Use Act, according to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo.
The minister said in Abuja yesterday that the government would also review the Trustees Investment Act 1962, Mortgage Institution Act 1989, the Federal Housing Mortgage of Nigeria Act 1993, the Nigerian Social Insurance Act 1993, among others.
The intention of the government in these reviews is to remove all known impediments to affordable housing to a large number of Nigerians.
She said that though the emphasis by the government in the provision of housing to the people is tilted towards a private sector-led initiative, the government would not fold its hands to allow the people to be exploited by potential developers.
In her paper entitled: "Sustainable Housing Delivery In Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities" which she delivered at the 2004 investiture ceremony of the Institute of Surveyors in Abuja, the minister said that the government was committed to implementing the new policy of affordable housing provisions for Nigerians.
Her words: "The Federal Government has even expanded its drive for sustainable housing delivery beyond the shores of the country by soliciting technical and financial assistance from friendly governments with well-established systems to assist in the various areas of the housing delivery project."
She disclosed that the Federal Government had approached the United States government through its Housing Development and Urban Development Department for technical assistance in establishing a permanent and self-sustaining housing delivery system in Nigeria.
The grouse of many policy analysts against the 1978 Land Use Act were "that the Act confers
excessive powers on the Federal government's ownership of Land across the federation.
The minister stated that the planned review would take the form of a system that would benefit Nigerians such that they would no longer find it difficult to own a land or acquire a house of their choice.
"The Land Act reform is also meant to be of immense benefit to Nigerians in the short and long terms, such that our citizenry would not live a life of penury and hardship, but a life of abundance and security which will lead to the creation of a bouyant economy and the general sustainable development of Nigeria," she said.
In his own speech at the ceremony, the President of the Institute of Surveyors, Dr. Francis Overare, urged the minister to encourage the institute's proposal that surveying and mapping departments be set up in relevant ministries and parastatals by the Federal Government.
The institute, according to her, also proposed the use of the surveyors' expertise in the mapping of the exploitation of oil and solid minerals, surveying and mapping for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), National Population Commission, transportation, and urban and housing development.`
