Page 8 - urbanx

Land Management: Stakeholders say only 3% of land in Nigeria is registered

Against the backdrop of the belief that the
management or mismanagement of land
according to pundits serve as benchmark to
the level of prosperity of a nation, the Centre
for Housing and Sustainable Development in
conjunction with Research and Innovation
Office, University of Lagos recently hosted a
two day conference tagged “International
Conference on Land and Development in
Lagos” with a view to sensitising stakeholders
on how to manage land resource particularly
in Lagos which land mass is quite small.
Giving the reason for the conference, Prof.
Rufus Akinyele, who was the convener of the
two-day event which had stakeholders from
within and outside the academia, said that
the lingering issue of Omo’niles, access to land
and disposition, land planning and
management informed the hosting of the
conference. Keynote speakers such as Prof.
Peter Nwilo and Prof. Peter Adeniyi took turns
to address the gathering. According to Prof.
Akinyele, “You find out that land is the basis of
development and civilization. So, the focus of
this conference is to deliberate on the
He added that “Unless Nigeria has all the
problems of land.. Well, we have had problems
details of it’s land, meaningful progress in
in relation to land. If you are in Lagos, you will
terms of access to land, planning and
know about the Omo’Niles, that have been a
management of land can not be made.
daily occurrence. We have had problem on
When this happens, the level of resources
access to land . How do you manage land ?
control and the well being of the citizens
How do you dispose of land? Land is
can be put into consideration”, he said.
something that is not limited to any segment of
Corroborating Nwilo’s assertion, Prof.
academia. MultiChoice MD, Punch Chairman
Adeniyi, Chairman, Presidential Technical
counsel women on professional growth “That is
Committee on Land Reform and
why it is a conference that has brought
Management, noted that despite Lagos
together critical stakeholders from within and
being the smallest state in land mass, has
outside the university. People from dredging,
the potential of being one of the greatest
estate management, housing and banks etc
states due to its strategic position of having
are here to examine the difference aspects of
the busiest port in Africa, and having to
these problems in order to be able to chart the
accommodate over 6,000 people yearly was
way forward. In addition, it is my belief that
still be-deviled with challenges of power
the ideas to be generated here will be able to
supply, unemployment, bad roads and
help the government to develop the
growth of slums among other factors due
appropriate policies to enable everyone live
to inability to have accurate record of her
peacefully in Lagos”,the convener noted.
lands. Prof. Adeniyi added that “Since 1863
Speaking on ‘ Geometric infrastructure for the
Land Use Act was introduced in Lagos, less
provision of appropriate cadastral survey
than three percent of lands has been
works in Nigeria, Prof. Nwilo, a renowned
registered. This implies that over 97
surveyor, explained that Nigeria was unable to
percent of lands in the state are
make meaningfully progress due to her
unregistered. The question is, how do you
inability to have a proper documentation of all
develop without land registration? “Talking
the lands in the country. Comparing Nigeria to
of Nigeria, the federal government does not
Rwanda that has made remarkable success
know all the land it has in all the states.
because of having virtually all its lands
This trend and many others have to be
registered, Prof Nwilo said that, “Not up to
stopped as land is the base of other
three percent of Nigeria’s land is registered”.