Nigeria land administration system fraught with many challenges —Ogunleye

Moses Ogunleye, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners and former President of the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), is the Principal Partner at MOA Planners Limited. In this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, he speaks on the need for the review of Land Use Act and how government could intervene in the provision of low-cost housing units for the generality of Nigerians among other issues.

How has the land administration system impacted the ease of doing business in Nigeria?

Almost all the governments, especially the state government said they would make land administration easier and more efficient, but truly the system is not efficient.  It is fraught with a lot of challenges of poor access to land and long period for completing documentations. I have experienced that as a practitioner. You can’t say I need a document or title and say within this short time it will be made available. It is either there is one bureaucratic process or the other that will make the system inefficient. Ultimately, that document is not the end, it is just a means to an end, because you are going to use it and still need it for so many reasons, to carry out development as collateral for business’ deal and for other needs. So if you don’t have it at a point you need it, then what is the value?  The other point is that when government   acquired land, the need at that time is not made known, you will still find indigenous land owners laying claim to the land. Sometimes, government would claim that it has paid compensation, but indigenous land owners would deny. Developer will want to develop the land, allocate it and pay fee, yet he is not able to take possession. Taking possession of land allocated to you by government is a challenge because of disturbance by hoodlums or people that want to fight you over the land. The worse thing is that you take it in a manner you want to take possession and develop your land unhindered. The system is still challenged. In this process, government is even losing because the deficiency will not allow government to make the right profit it wants to make. It  is only when the system is efficient that more people will pay their rents, ground rents, capital development level and others. Many people feel unfulfilled when it come to land administration in Nigeria. Except Lagos, Abuja and few others, many states have not improved their processes. I am aware Lagos State is digitalising all the process to move away from old system of carrying all the documents manually.  Digitilisation will help the system, reduces the time it takes to get some of these documents from the appropriate land registration offices.  .

Don’t you think without major amendment to the Land Use Act, access to land for development will remain an issue?

The decree was promulgated in 1978. That is 42 years ago, and it has not been reviewed. That itself shows that the law cannot be realistic. The scenario of 1978 cannot be the same in 2020. The circumstance that necessitated the enactment of the law is not the same today. That is one fact. The law is due for review. I have been in many conferences where they said some sections of the law should be replaced. To review and replace of these sections became more problematic because the 1999 constitution made the Land Use Act a section of the constitution. You can review it singly. It will take the review of the entire constitution. Do we say it should be abrogated? I won’t say that because that means we must have a new law. In fact, I have problem with the name of the law – Land Use Act. It is more of Land Ownership Act. I think law should be reviewed so that we can look at various sections that should be reviewed.

I have also argued in some situations that the law itself may not be the problem, but its implementation. To review the act will take a long period to happen, but I am saying if that has not happened, let states make it more efficient. The real implementers of the law are the state governors. State governments have the registries and bureau. If you don’t involve state governments, you are just wasting time. States must realise that land will continue to be a major resource of which their economy would rely heavily.

 Most of the ‘affordable’ housing units by both government and private developers in Nigeria are out of the reach of the low income earners. What should be done to cater for the urban poor?

Government must show more commitment. Provision of low-income housing is one area where impact of government can be felt. For example, when we are talking of housing, we are looking at housing at a larger component. For example, to build housing estate, you are going to construct road, water supply and connect the location to power supply. So you are solving other problems by providing housing. You have also enhanced the beauty of the environment. Generally, we talk more of housing than doing housing. The key challenge is the issue of finance. We still don’t have developer that can build mass housing and take his time to sell through mortgage and Rent to Own. If we have these, that will enhance access to housing. Another angle is the area of social housing. Can states get involve in social housing at reduced cost, housing targeted at the low income earners, who cannot afford to bring the funds and pay outrightly. Government should take it upon itself to provide for the low income earners and no-income earners. People need to live well. Housing will continue to be a key challenge in the country. Government need to pay more attention to the issues of housing. Any governor that focuses on housing, people will notice the impact. If you are doing new housing, you should also regenerate and redevelop the old neighbourhoods. It is a system; it will grow and becomes older. You have to renew them and make them available for people to have access to. The more attention government pays to housing, the better for the country.

Considering the rising cost of cement and reinforcement bar, is there any alternative to these building materials?

It will be difficult to control the price of what you don’t produce. You can influence the price but can’t control it. Cement is a major component in building production process. There are alternatives to cement. Due to the nature of cement, you will need it. Our drive should be to reduce the quantum of cement to use when building houses. Some of the components to produce cement are imported. We are not producing locally the tools and machine you need to replace in the manufacturing process. These are some of the key challenges. We should look at how much we can produce in Nigeria. I am happy we have more cement factories and some of the producers export their products. We have other manufacturers who will produce in large quantities some other products. Such as wood items, roof and aluminum frames. What quantum can we produce in Nigeria, what quantum can we get abroad? Government can start by constructing some of its own housing projects with unpopular locally produced building materials. I know we don’t have artisans that can build with local materials. But when it is government, because government project is large, it can train those artisans and later use them for construction of the houses. Many bricklayers can work with the popular sandcerete block, but none of them were trained to work with burnt brick or clay bricks. They need special skills to do that. We need human resource for application and assembly of local bricks.

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