By Gbolahan Ghadamosi

Few days before the nation was engulfed in the controversy over the health of President Umaru Yar'Adua, one issue that was about to rear its head was the issue of the Land Use Act. Specifically at the Vanguard South-South Legislative retreat on Constitution Review in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last month, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan spoke the mind of the Federal Government on the vexed issue.

He disclosed Government's desire to review a variety of laws, which according to him, have not helped the country to develop.

Jonathan said, "Prominent among these laws is the Land Use Act. Let me use this opportunity to reaffirm the administration's commitment towards amending or repealing of such laws that are not in sync with aspiration for a society government by rule of law and respect for human dignity".

Four months before the Federal Government pronouncement, Lagos State, one of the leading states in the agitation for true federalism, called for the review of Land Use Act.

Speaking at a two-day executive legislative parley at the Peninsula Resort, Ajah, Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) called for the repeal of some laws, which he considered inimical to the development of the state.

According to Fashola, the Land Use Act, National Sports Lottery Act, Decree 28 of 1998, Value Added Tax and the National Inland Waterways Act are "vestiges of unitarism."

Given reasons for the enactment of the Law Use Decree 6, 30 years ago, Federal Military Government among others said "it is in the public interest that the rights of all Nigerians to the land of Nigeria be asserted and preserved by law."

Land Use Decree now in Cap 20 2 of the Law of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) as Land Use Act in Section 1 vested all land comprised in the territory of each state on the federation in "the Military Governor of that state and such shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians in accordance with the provisions of this decree".

For the best reason known to the Military Government, Land Use Act, National Youth Service Corps Decree 1993, Public Complaint Commission Act and the National Security Agencies Act were brought into the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria via Section 315.

Informed commentary on the Land Use Decree did not just start now.

In his inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Lagos on January 17, 1980, Prof. Michael Iyiola Jegede, now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria titled: 'Land Laws and Development predicted that 'By and large the Decree contains many more controversial issues of substance and procedure which would surface themselves in the process of implementation."

Although the learned professor described the decree as "the most revolutionary legislation of our time as far as land tenure law in the Southern States is concerned, he added that "the Decree is not entirely new to the country as most of his provisions are substantially re-enactment of the Land Tenure Law applicable to the Northern States."

Controversy over the implementation of the Decree as rightly noted by Jegede did not take time to surface in the celebrated cases of Savannah Bank of Nigeria as Ajilo (2001) All F.W.L.R 428 (Pt 75) and that of Awojugbagbe Light Industries Ltd, as Chinekwe (2004). All F.W.L.R. (Pt 229 943.

These two cases brought out the efforts of late Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN) and the late Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Jelili Adebisi Omotola (SAN) their deep research over the Land Use Act.

It is a matter of regret that even Prof. Jegede in his lecture, which was three years after the promulgation of the decree in 1978 made reference to the intention of the government to amend and to date nothing has happened, except in the words of Jegede, the military government was so convinced of the goodness of the decree that they their dictational power to entrench it in the constitution, to the extent that the decree cannot be altered or repealed except in accordance with the provision of Section 9(2) of the 1979 Constitution."

He however sympathized with the Supreme Court in these words, and so, the end of the controversy as to what is two-thirds of 19 may not be other after all in sight. My sympathy goes to the Supreme Court while we continue with our research into our Land Law and Development.

Twenty-seven years after Jegede's inaugural lecture, the issue of land law came back to the front burner when the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Prof. Amos Utuama (SAN) linked the success of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals to the review of the and Use Act.

Delivering the first national lecture in honour of Omotola, in Lagos this year, Utuama, who spoke on "The Land Use Act and the Millennium Development Goad", quoted copiously from Omotola's inaugural lecture "Law and Land Rights, Whither Nigeria".

According to Utuama, "The Act represents and ambitious attempt to create an egalitarian society through a public Land Holding System that is intended to assure, protect and preserve the right of all Nigerians to use and enjoy land fruits thereof in sufficient quantity to enable them provide for the sustenance of themselves and their families.

On the insecurity of Certificate of Occupancy, Utuama referred to the case of Ogunleye vs Oni (1994) 2 NWLR (Pt 136), saying that "The Act has therefore not made any positive contribution to the security of title to land but is essential to realizing the overall benefits of land as a tool for effective implementation of the new development goals."

Should the Act be allowed to stay? Utuama did not hesitate to state that "After 30 years of its operations, it has become clear that the Act is unable to fulfill as objectives of assuring, protecting and preserving the rights of all Nigerians to use and enjoy land and the natural fruits thereof to provide for the sustenance of themselves and their families."

"In the light of the foregoing catalogue of constraints, the Act has become an albatross that is impending economic development and therefore a candidate for repeal if the people-oriented strategy of poverty reduction under MDGs is to be realized," he advocated.

It is to be noted that agitation for the repeal of the Act is not restricted to legal circle. It is on record that the immediate past President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr. Emmanuel Ofere called for the amendment of the Act, describing it as a "bane of housing development in most states of the federation." He therefore, urged that the governor's consent should be watered down or expunged.

Rising from its two-day retreat in Ilorin, Kwara State recently, Directors of Lands in the federal and state ministries and parastatals called for the removal of the Act from the constitution.

To them, "if the Land Use Act Cap 15 2004 is scrapped from the Nigerian Constitution, the law would be more flexible to accommodate the ongoing land reform programme in the country."

The debate on the repeal or otherwise of the Land Use Act could not have come at a better time when the National Assembly is preparing to thinker with the 1999 Constitution.

*Gbamamosi is Assistant Publicity Secretary of NBA.