Housing Ministry Wants Land Use Act Amended
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has emphasised the need for an amendment to the Land Use Act of 1978 so that it becomes compulsory for land to be registered.
The Minister in charge of the Ministry, Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo, who disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents, said amending the Act would translate to "doing away with the area of consent once you know that a property is yours.
"We want something that the Federal Government can say that once you have a C of O we can guarantee that that document is yours. So, we are bringing in some experts from England very soon to help us look at the problem of land registration in this country and we need to go places", she added.
Osomo, who stated that a National council on Housing workshop in October would facilitate the drafting of a bill on the Housing and Urban Acts, stated that the Land Use Act which came up to arrest the difficulty people encountered in acquiring land "has not given us 100 per cent problem- free because people still come in to set aside the C of O that has been granted and they can easily do that. I do believe that in this area, we need some amendment. So we believe that we should come in with a compulsory land registration. It is done all over the world."
"So, in the village where you are, people would know the extent of their village. For example, if you live between Shendam and Yelwa, then you should know your boundary so that you know exactly which one is yours. At the end of the day, if anybody comes from Kano and wants land, he or she can easily apply to that particular area and get land.
"Then once documentation is done, it would bring peace to Nigeria. And if within a period of time you do not raise any objection, then it would be taken for granted that this title is good, free and investors can come into the country and invest, unlike in a situation where you take a piece of land, develop and start a project and then somebody appears to say this piece of land belongs to my great great grand father and you cannot do what you are doing", she noted.
While emphasising that all stakeholders would make input into the bill, the Minister recalled that "the Land Use Act came in to solve a problem because before 1978 it was very difficult for people to acquire land. You acquire land, you end up with litigation and it goes on and on and sometimes by the time it gets to the Supreme Court most of either the plaintiffs or defendants are dead."
"You find out that at the end of the day, it is an exercise in nullity. Most especially when communities are involved, when they get Supreme Court judgement, they end up with the use of force. They go for the cutlasses," he said.
Giving insight on how people could acquire land to build houses, Osomo said "it is possible that you form a community of your own within a location. For example, we have an area called Kuje in Abuja and we intend it for the low to middle income and it is possible that people could be accommodated as a group. We believe that type of housing range from N2.5 to N3.5 million for the low income and for the middle income, N3.5 to N5 or N8 million." She added, however, that the funding was expected to come by way of mortgage arrangement.
She also noted that "housing is a major issue in this country. Some of these houses which were either built by our grand parents have had their life span and something drastic has to happen. You will notice that most of our city centres have gone derelict. So, they need to be overhauled. You need to redesign them and people will have to probably be moved. This is the new concept of urban regeneration in the country and all over the world. We do believe that if we can put the structure before the end of this administration, then we would have left something tangible for Nigerians."
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