BusinessDay 29 Mar 2018

Thursday 29 March 2018
COMMENT
CHUDI UBOSI
Ubosi is Principal Partner, Ubosi
Eleh+ Co, (A firm of Estate Surveyors
& Valuers)
•Continued from yesterday
The same thing applies
to using the
land for economic
activity. Many who
own land cannot
pledge them to the financial
institutions for facilities to engage
in commercial or manufacturing
activities because
of the torturous process of
obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy
as spelled out by the
Land Use Act.
Thus, the rich continue to
accumulate more and more
lands to the detriment of the
dominant poor. The situation
has been complicated by the
politicisation of almost all
public affairs and institutions
in the country.
The fact that all land in the
state is vested in the Governor
of the State makes it very easy
for land and title revocation
C002D5556
Land Use Act at 40: Time for abrogation
(Section 28) to be used as a
political weapon not minding
the investments on same or
the adverse consequences of
such a decision on the investment
climate of the country,
state, economy or financial
sector.
This singular power in Sections
1 and 28 of the Land Use
Act has made many financial
institutions wary of accepting
real estate as a collateral asset
in extending facilities to their
customers.
The amount of compensation
and method of calculation
of same under the
Land Use Act also leaves a
lot to be desired. Section 29
(4) (a) allows for an amount
equal to the rent paid to the
Government as well as cost
of improvements to the land.
This negates or ignores the
fact that the allottee could
have acquired the land from
its original allottee at a huge
cost on the open market.
Even more, costly improvements
may have then been
undertaken on the land to
increase its value from which
ordinarily, the land holder
should benefit.
Section 6 of the Act which
states that the Local Government
authorities can grant
land for agricultural purposes
is in reality not practicable.
the objectives of the Land Use
Act were no doubt lofty and
well-intentioned but it has
turned out to be defective in
many respects. The time for
a review in tune with current
realities is long overdue.
Fettered with institutional
failure, dearth of political will
and inherent defects, the law
has not been able to achieve
most of its set objectives
Many local governments exist
today in Nigeria and function
as appendages or extensions
of the Governor of the State.
They cannot grant such lease
as envisaged by the Act to any
agricultural concern without
the consent of the Governor.
Where such leases are granted,
and a Customary Right of Occupancy
is granted virtually no
financial institution in Nigeria
recognizes same as a legal
document strong enough to use
as a collateral.
The impact of the current
policy on land may directly or
indirectly be one of the major
reasons why agricultural production
has not moved from its
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current subsistence and basic
level after nearly 60 years as
a nation. The statistics indicate
that nearly 80% of land
in Nigeria is agricultural land
and are being put into various
types of agricultural production.
Of this 80%, less than 5%
is held by large scale farmers
or farm holdings. The rest are
owned by small families and
individual holdings engaged
in small scale cultivation of
the lands using very archaic
technology and sometimes
no technology at all - just the
basic hoe, cutlass and hired
labour.
Output is therefore very
limited and even with that low
level of output, nearly 70% of
harvest is lost before it reaches
the markets and targeted consumers.
Yet, each of these small
farm holdings own their farm
lots but because of the Land
Use Act they can hardly obtain
proper legal registered
title to same to enable them
access credit facilities with
the financial institutions using
these same farm lands as
collateral. As a result of their
inability to access financing
they cannot employ technology
by way of tractors etc to
farm larger expanses of land,
improve and increase output.
Because of the lack of access
to finance the small farm holdings
cannot invest in technology
to preserve harvest until
it reaches consumers and the
result is huge wastage and
losses annually.
In conclusion, the objectives
of the Land Use Act were
no doubt lofty and well-intentioned
but it has turned
out to be defective in many
respects. The time for a review
in tune with current realities
is long overdue. Fettered with
institutional failure, dearth
of political will and inherent
defects, the law has not been
able to achieve most of its set
objectives.
Notwithstanding, the desire
for economic development
through effective, fair and equitable
utilisation of land and
land resources can still be attained
if the law is holistically
amended to overturn certain
anachronistic and antithetical
provisions and replaced with
realistic and effective policies
that would put Nigeria on the
part of economic progress.
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BOLU OJEWANDE
Ojewande writes from Lagos
It is easy to underestimate the
challenges of leading a state
like Lagos. Governor Akinwunmi
Ambode took office in
May, 2015 on an promise of ‘Continuity’
– an apt message considering
that his party, the All Progressives
Congress (APC), has been the ruling
party in Lagos since 1999.
But it was not just ‘Continuity’
for its own sake, instead, ‘Continuity
with Improvement.’ Taking what
he inherited and making it progressively
better for the good of all. In
the governor’s words, “We want to
run a government of continuity,
but continuity with improvement,
to make life easier for the people. In
a nutshell, that is what our goal in
the next four years will be.”
This is a governor that is determined
to consolidate on the
achievements of his predecessors,
while also making his own unique
mark on the city – leaving it better
than what he met. And that has
guided every vision, action and
innovation of his, since 2015.
There has been the occasional
baseless accusation that Ambode
has been dismantling the legacies
he inherited. Wrong. In fact, what
he has been doing is acknowledging
those legacies, building on
them, taking into account the fact
that changing times require new
and better approaches.
Ambode’s goal has been to
A better Lagos today, tomorrow, and for generations to come
bring fresh thinking and innovative
technology to bear on the solid
legacies he inherited, to reposition
them to meet the evolving needs
and demands of Lagos and Lagosians
at large.
Let’s start with security. The
Rapid Response Squad (RRS)
has seen significant investments,
to upgrade and rebrand it, and
provide more equipment: power
bikes, patrol vans, communication
systems and helicopters.
Connected to security are the
emergency services. A state-ofthe-art
LASEMA Response Unit
(LRU) has been launched to deliver
speedy response to emergencies
and situations requiring
evacuation and safety, and there
are a growing number of testimonials
to the speed and efficiency
of this service.
In transportation, the introduction
of lay-bys – the best known
being the one at Oworonshoki
end of the Third Mainland Bridge
– has eased traffic gridlocks, and
resulted in increased productivity
forthose who work in the city.
In the Lekki area, the removal of
roundabouts from the Lekki-Epe
Expressway has proved to be an
inspired decision, smoothening
the flow of traffic and making commuting
times more predicable for
residents and visitors.
Lagos is showing Nigeria and
the world that, sometimes, the
seemingly minor decisions – a
layby here and a traffic light in
place of a roundabout there -- are
as important as bigger stuffs. Little
tweaks like these are helping to maximize
the potential of the legacies
Ambode inherited, and Lagosians
are benefiting.
And in the ‘bigger’, grander stuff
as well, the government has been
just as prolific. New flyovers in the
Abule Egba and Ajah have transformed
the cityscape and its traffic
situation. Pen Cinema, Agege, will
sime time this year be the latest
beneficiary of an overhead bridge.
One of the most pressing problems
that Lagos has had to deal with,
on account of its population, is waste
management. On the surface, it has
felt like the existing system had been
working. But in reality, it was grossly
inadequate; a system that had never
quite found answers to the question:
what happens to the mountains of
waste after they are collected from
homes, offices and industries?
Until recently, much of Lagos’
waste ended up in unregulated
dumpsites like Olusosun, posing a
health and environmental hazards
to the city’s dwellers. Today, we can
see the results of that approach: the
raging fire that has in recent weeks
poisoned the city.
Ambode has been very clear
about what needs to be done. Olusosun
will be decommissioned and
redeveloped into parks and gardens
for the benefit of the people of Lagos,
while the designated landfill sites at
Owu Elepe in Ikorodu and in Epe
will be fully operationalised.
Landfill sites can be seen as the
wholesale end of the waste value
chain. The retail aspect, the collection
from homes and offices, is also
undergoing reforms for improvement,
bringing in new partners,
modern technology and updated
processes, under the Cleaner Lagos
Initiative.
Reform is never easy, never
without challenges. But the new
system being introduced will,
building on the reforms made by
previous administrations, result
in a solution far more robust and
sustainable than anything the city
has ever witness do.
What else does the future hold
for Lagos, under Ambode? More
off-grid power, to make the state
self-sufficient in electricity and
land reform that will include the
creation of an electronic Geographical
Information System (e-
GIS) that will make it impossible
for land-grabbers and fraudsters to
operate. It will soon be possible to
take advantage of all services rendered
by the Lands Bureau online,
without the need to visit any offices
anywhere.
There is also a complete reform
of the bus transportation system to
replace the existing rickety ‘danfos’
with modern, comfortable and
efficient buses befitting of a 21st
century metropolis, in a manner
similar to what previous administrations
did via the bus rapid
transport.
In 2016, Lagos was selected to
join the Rockefeller Foundation’s
100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Network.
At that time, the governor
said, “As a new member of 100
Resilient Cities, we can work with
the best in the private, government
and non-profit sectors in developing
and sharing tools to plan for and
respond to the challenges ahead.”
In a nutshell, that is the Ambode
vision for Lagos: working with partners
within and outside Nigeria for
the good of Lagos.
That collaborative vision has
already produced LAKE Rice from
a partnership with Kebbi State,
and the inaugural Lagos Kano
Economic Summit, between two
of Nigeria’s leading state economies
and commercial nerve-centres. It
has also earned votes of confidence
from business leaders in Nigeria.
Just recently, a number of business
moguls announced fresh
contributions to the Lagos Security
Trust Fund. Many other partnerships
are taking shape.
The future of Lagos is bright.
There will be challenging times,
and reforms will, sometimes, mean
that things look harder before they
become easier. But ultimately, it is
important to realise that Lagos is on
the path of progress, and Lagosians
will be the better for it.
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