Time for land reform is now

The freefall of oil prices in the international market and its implication for the Nigerian economy is no longer a major discourse either at sectoral or national level. This is because such a discourse would amount to emphasising the obvious.

The decision of the Federal Government to begin to pay more attention to growth areas in the economy with emphasis on agriculture and housing is quite instructive and this is where the issue of land and its reform have become not only imperative, but also urgent in the circumstance.

To succeed in leveraging housing to hedge the negative impact of the oil price fall, the country has to elevate the importance of land and also straighten out all the rough edges associated with land tenure system and the ill-conceived Land Use Act.

From traditional, economic and industrial perspectives, land is very important and as a factor of production, it is the most unique and strategic of all the other factors including capital, labour and enterprise. Its availability plays a pivotal role in the development of any economy and it increases investment inflow.

Industrialisation, housing development, agriculture, mining, oil exploration and other economic and productive activities that lead to improved standard of living, job creation, economic growth, among others, are possible only when land is available and harnessed for such purposes.

Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a World Bank Report on ‘How Africa Can Transform Land Tenure, Revolutionise Agriculture, and End Poverty’, is home to nearly half of the world’s usable, uncultivated land but, so far, Africa as a whole has not been able to develop these unused tracts, estimated at more than 202 million hectares, to dramatically reduce poverty and boost growth, jobs, and shared prosperity.

In Nigeria, land is a big issue because of the Land Use Act promulgated by the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1978 which vested ownership of all land in a state on the governor, meaning that the governor holds the land in trust for the people.

The problems this Act has created in the nation’s housing sector are more than those it has solved, if any. In many stakeholder-gatherings on housing, experts have made strident calls for the review or outright abrogation of the Act, and also for the reform of the land tenure system, believing that, by that action, Nigeria could grow significantly more food, build more houses and grow its economy.

Another World Bank report on ‘Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity’ argues that if African countries and their communities could effectively end land grabs and modernise the complex governance procedures that govern land ownership and management over the next decade, it would bring about improved well being and standard of living of their people.

We agree totally with this submission, just as we also align with the agitation that the Land Use Act should be excised from the constitution for thorough review. We equally share the view of Fortune Ebie, chairman of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) when Festac Town was built in 1977, that the review of the Act is the only way to solve the issue of the governor’s consent that tends to be punitive on property developers and other investors requiring land to set up their businesses.

We are pained that despite abundant land and mineral wealth, Africa, and in particular Nigeria, remains poor. We agree with the World Bank’s advice that “improving land governance is vital for achieving rapid economic growth and translating it into less poverty and more opportunity for the people”.

In Nigeria, it is disheartening to note that over 90 percent of rural land is undocumented and in the urban areas where land commands immense value, much of it is unbankable because of the high charges imposed by the state governments.

We call for comprehensive land reform that will free land for real estate activities. And given the present economic challenges coupled with the growth potential of this sector, as revealed by the rebasing of the gross domestic product (GDP) earlier in the year, the time to do that is now.