SECURING LAND TITLE FOR
WOMEN IN NIGERIA FROM
A PROFESSIONAL
PERSPECTIVE
BY
SURV. (MRS.) ANGELA ETUONOVBE LSM,
MNIS, FHRM, PSR, JP
PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT
ANGENE SURVEYS & CONSULTANTS
OUTLINE
− Summary
− Introduction
− Evolution of land tenure system in Nigeria
− The situation precedent to the land use act of 1978
− Summary the land use act of 1978
− Shortcomings of the land use act of 1978
− Land reform in Nigeria
− Women access to land in Nigeria
− How some women were able to secure land title
− Conclusion / recommendation
SUMMARY
• In most developing countries, land is not only the primary means for generating a
livelihood but often the main vehicle for investing, accumulating wealth, and
transferring it between generations. It is a source of wealth to those who have it and the
mother of all properties.
• Every person requires land for his support, preservation and self-actualization within
the general ideals of the society. Land is the foundation of shelter, food and
employment. Man lives on land during his life and upon his demise, his remains are
kept in it permanently.
• As valuable as this commodity, the promulgation of the Land use Act of Nigeria of
1978 has not helped matters. By the Act, the control and management of Land in
Nigeria became vested in the State.
• With the foregoing and the experience of the author who is a Surveyor with great
experience of over eighteen years of practice of surveying in Nigeria and knowing how
women and their children had been suffering from the hands of extended family
members especially after the demise of their husband had to use her professional
expertise to advise clients who own more than a single plot of land about a thousand
square meters (1000m) to share their properties to their wives and children, which
includes the female children.
• Over the years the author discovered that it yielded positive fruit as wife’s of client
came back to thank her for sustaining their lives and that of their children especially
after the death of their husband. Encouraged with these reports, the author went
further and started counseling clients even those with single plots to re-survey their
land and now including the names of their spouses so that in case of any eventuality,
the woman is not left without nothing.
INTRODUCTION
• The Federal Republic of Nigeria is located in West Africa
and it is bordered in the south by the Gulf of Guinea on
the Atlantic Ocean, in the West by the Republic, in the
east by Cameroons and Chad, and in the north by Niger
Republic. Nigeria is a federal constitutional republic
comprising thirty-six states and its Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja. This is shared into six geo-political
zones.
• Nigeria is the largest country in West Africa and the most
populous country in Africa, the eighth most populous
country in the world with a population of over 140
million. It has an area of about 923,768 km2 of which the
land area is about 910,768km2 and 13,000km2 is water. It
has coastal line of about 853 km.
MAP OF NIGERIA SHOWING THE SIX GEO-POLITAL ZONES
EVOLUTION OF LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN NIGERIA
• Pre-Colonial Era
• The pre-colonial land system in Nigeria is characterised by appropriation
and adjudication by might of warfare, occupation and rulership in which
princes and religious adventurists carved out dominions for their followers
and communities. Community leaders and warlords had great influence in the
administration of land for communal living, farming and grazing purposes.
• In the northern part, as the predominantly nomadic Fulani rare their cattle
over large expanse of land and, they found settlements and markets (as they
move) without defining boundaries for any group of communities or
settlements After the Fulani Jihad in the early 19th century, a quasi-feudal
pattern developed with Emirs claiming ultimate title to land, with fief holders.
• In the Southern Nigeria, land was held by the community, village, or family.
In the main land was owned by extended lineage, individuals having only
usufructuary rights by virtue of their member of the group.
EVOLUTION OF LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN NIGERIA CONT.
• Colonial Era
• The Colonial Nigeria was divided into colonies and protectorates where multiplicity of land
tenure systems existed. The arrival of Europeans in Southern Nigeria in the later part of 19 th
century drastically changed the land holding system. As soon as the European traders, who
were used to freehold, began to acquire land parcels in Lagos colony, they did so with the
concept that the transactions conferred on them absolute ownership and the right of
alienation. The transactions in land by the Europeans and the introduction of English
freehold system 1861 caused deep conflicts between the customary system of land tenure and
imported freehold system, which resulted in endless and bitter litigation.
• However the Northern Protectorate was saved the experience of Southern Nigeria. Lord
Lugard who occupied Northern Nigeria at the turn of 19th century used the “tools” he found
locally for the administration of land holdings. The Emirs who exercised “proprietorial”
rights were appointed or re-appointed and given “letters of appointment” which transferred
their feudal pattern of land holdings to the Crown. The Native Rights Proclamation of 1910
nationalised all land and placed it under the control and administration of the Governor in the
interest of the indigenous population.
• In 1914 Lord Lugard amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates into one
centralised Nigeria ruled from Lagos, with each region retaining its land tenure system. In
1954 under regionalisation scheme, three regions emerged with the Northern Protectorate
becoming the Northern Region, and the Southern Protectorate divided into West and Eastern
Regions. The Regions were subsequently divided into States starting with 12 State in 1968
till the current 36 States and Federal Capital City, Abuja. Each State inherited the land tenure
system from the Region it was created.
THE SITUATION PRECEDENT TO THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978
• At the beginning of the 20th century when Britain made a colony and protectorate of Nigeria,
there was a multiplicity of land tenure systems in the country. Apart from the system in the
Lagos colony where an English freehold system had been established following its annexation
in 1861, these diverse systems can be grouped broadly into two (Meek, 1957). The first
obtained in northern Nigeria where the colonial administration had placed all lands under the
control and subject to the disposition of the Governor. This was on the basis that the Maliki
Law operated by the Fulani over much of Hausaland in the 19 th century confers on the
colonial conquerors rights to the land of the conquered. Without the consent of the Governor,
no title to occupation and use of land was valid.
• An Ordinance of 1910 (GoN, 1953: 105) directed that the Governor shall hold and administer
the land for the use and common benefit of the native peoples. Any native or native
community lawfully using and occupying land in accordance with native law and custom
enjoys a right of occupancy protected by the Ordinance and no rent is paid in respect of such
rights. In the case of all other persons, no title is valid which has not been conferred by the
Governor, who is empowered to grant rights of occupancy for definite or indefinite terms, to
impose conditions and to charge a rent. The Ordinance lays down maxima of 1,200 acres for
agricultural grants and 12,500 acres for grazing purposes.
•
By contrast, in southern Nigeria, the second system recognized that land was owned by
lineages or extended families. Individuals have only right of use on such family land. The
only land held at the Governor’s disposal was that which had been expressly acquired for
public purposes as Crown land. The only control imposed by law on the lineages and other
local land ‐ holders was an obligation to seek the consent of Government when rights are
being conveyed to aliens. This land tenure system of southern Nigeria created a number of
problems for land management in the country. First, it encouraged the practice of multiple
sales of the same land to different buyers by land ‐owning families in the absence of a titling
and appropriate registration mechanisms for transactions in land. Second, particularly after
the nation’s political independence, it led to tremendous land speculation and a sharp rise in
the prices of land for urban and infrastructural development.
THE SITUATION PRECEDENT TO THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978 CONT.
• Poor farming families were encouraged to part with their land for relatively small amount compared
with what the speculators made from laying the land out for sale. This promoted increasing inequality
in land ownership and increasing landlessness among the poorer segments of the population. Even
after government had invoked its rights of eminent domain to compulsorily acquire and pay
compensation for land for public purposes, the tendency grew for some owners of land to refuse to
vacate their land. Based on the open system value of land which required cash compensation for land
compulsorily acquired by government for public purposes, the increasing intervention of land
speculators made the cost of acquisition to rise phenomenally.
• However, whether in northern or southern Nigeria, land was considered by the people themselves
largely within the nexus of a pre ‐ capitalist social formation. For such social formations, not only
kinship but allegiance to a local sovereign determines man’s relation to land. This is why in most
Nigerian society; the position at the beginning of the 20th century was that land was not sold. To sell
land to a stranger or migrant is to render the security of the community concerned a hostage to
fortune. Hence, when the colonialist came, everywhere he went he was told that there was no tradition
of alienating land. Indeed, such was the situation that the British Colonial Office (Colonial Office,
1916) had to set up a special Lands Committee to investigate the land tenure systems in all of its West
African colonies in 1912 to confirm the general customary laws and practices with respect to land.
• Yet, the extensive labor migrations that colonialism set in motion could not go on without land being
alienated to strangers and migrants. Whether in the urban or rural areas, transactions in land gradually
emerged in all parts of the country. Unlike in pre ‐ capitalist society, such transactions also entailed
the individualization of land. Such land remained in individual ownership until the demise of the
owner when, through the inheritance law, it again became subject to multiple ownership claims. The
introduction of perennial crops such as cocoa, rubber, planted oil palms, all of which meant fixed
cultivation, replaced the transient traditional shifting cultivation under group control by an enduring
right of individuals. By the same token, building a house in an urban area entailed establishing an
enduring right on the particular plot of land. Thus, as the colonial era progressed, land alienation and
sales not only grew in volume and geographical spread but also became the cause of considerable
litigation and communal strife, often resulting in violent confrontation.
• In an attempt to halt the contrasting land tenure systems the country and the attendant litigations,
fraudulent practices, and difficulty being experienced by various governments in accessing land for
public good that the Federal Military Government promulgated the Land Use Decree (now Act) of
1978.
SUMMARY THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978
• The Land Use Decree (now Land Use Act) was promulgated on 29th of
March 1978 following the recommendations of a minority report of a
panel appointed by the Federal Military Government of the time to advice
on future land policy. With immediate effect, it vested all land in each
State of the Federation in the Governor of that State (Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1978).
• The Act vests all land comprised in the territory of each State (except land
vested in the Federal Government for its agencies) solely in the hands of
the Military Governors of the State who would hold such land in trust for
the people.
• The promulgation of this Act was as a result of two main factors:
• Firstly, was the diversity of customary laws on land tenure and difficulty
in applying the various customs of the different people.
• The second factor was the rampant practice in southern Nigeria with
regards to fraudulent sales of land. The same land would be sold to
different persons at the same time giving rise to so many litigations.
SUMMARY THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978 CONT.
• The Act distinguishes throughout between urban and non-urban (rural) land. In
urban areas (to be so designated by the Governor of a State), land was to come
under the control and management of the Governor.
• In rural areas it was to fall under the appropriate Local Government.
• “Land Use and Allocation Committees”, appointed for each State by the
Governor, were to advise on the administration of land in urban areas.
• “Land Allocation Advisory Committees” were to exercise equivalent functions
with regard to rural land.
• The Act envisaged that “rights of occupancy”, which would appear to replace all
previous system or rules of inheritance to land, would form the basis upon which
land was to be held. These rights were of two kinds: statutory and customary.
• “Statutory rights of occupancy” were to be granted by the Governor and related
principally to urban areas.
• “Customary right of occupancy”, according to the Act, means the right of a
person or community lawfully using or occupying land in accordance with
customary law and includes a customary right of occupancy granted by Local
Government under this Act.
SUMMARY THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978 CONT.
• Local Governments were empowered to grant customary rights of occupancy
to any person or organisation for agricultural, residential and other purposes
with the proviso that grants of land for agricultural or grazing purposes should
not exceed 500 or 5000 hectares respectively without the consent of the State
Governor. With the minor exception of land subject to Federal or State claims,
the Act also empowered the local government to enter upon, use and occupy
for public purposes any land within the area of its jurisdiction and to revoke
any customary right of occupancy on any such land. The approval of the Local
Government was to be required for the holder of a customary right of
occupancy to alienate that right.
• The Act prohibits the alienation by assignment, mortgage, transfer or
possession, sub-lease or otherwise, of customary right of occupancy without
the consent of either the Governor or the Local Government as the case may
be. It also prohibits the alienation of statutory right of occupancy without the
due consent of the Governor (Land Use Act, 1978: section 21 subsections a
and b).
• Governors were empowered to revoke rights of occupancy for reasons of
“overriding public interest.” Such reasons included alienation by an occupier
without requisite consent or approval; a breach of the conditions governing
occupancy; or the requirement of the land by Federal, State, or local
government for public purposes. Only in the last of these cases would any
compensation be due to the holder, and then only for the value of unexhausted
improvements on the land and not for the land itself.
SUMMARY THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978 CONT.
There are four main objectives derivable from the act
and these are:
− To effect structural change in the system of land tenure.
− To achieve fast economic and social transformation.
− To negate economic inequality caused by the
appropriation of rising land values by land speculators and
land holders, and
− To make land available easily and cheaply, to both the
government and private individual developers.
SHORTCOMINGS OF THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978
The following, inter alia are the major shortcomings of the Land Use Act 1978:
− Technical Issues
The lack of prerequisite maps for determining who owns what land; the non-explicit demarcation
of urban and rural areas, and the assumption that the prerequisite national cadastre and geospatial
data infrastructure, which are very essential for any land tenure reform, were available.
− Lack of Political Will by Government
Each succeeding Federal Government since the promulgation of the Act had exhibited lack of
political will to implement various provisions of the Act to make it succeed. The Act made
allowance for transitional provisions for the orderly assimilation of the land tenure systems it
hoped to replace, but 30 years, after these other land tenure systems are still being operated.
− Operation of the Land Use
The operation of the land Use Act by its “trustees” – the State Governors and local government
Chairmen had been characterized by its use as political weapon, lack of transparency, arbitrary
and selective administration of its provisions.
− Lack of Security of Tenure
The Act has not succeeded in removing the uncertainties in title to land; instead, it seems to
accentuate it. It does not protect small scale peasant farmers who continually lose their farm
lands through acquisition for urban expansion and large-scale acquisition of land for commercial
agriculture, most of which are speculative, without paying adequate compensation.
SHORTCOMINGS OF THE LAND USE ACT OF 1978 CONT.
− Consent Provision
The requirement of obtaining consent of the governor for statutory right of occupancy
or local government for customary rights of occupancy holders before transaction in
land can be effected is cumbersome and expensive. It is antithesis to a dynamic
market land economy.
− Land Titling
The process of obtaining title to land is expensive and tedious, consequently 30 years
after its operation less than 3% of land in the country, mainly in the urban areas, is
covered by title deeds.
− The Philosophy of the Act
The philosophy of the Act, that all land belongs to the state; all undeveloped land has
no value and hence has no market value; and that there is no freehold of land deterred
the development of market land economy in Nigeria. The Act abolished freehold and
nationalised all lands in Nigeria.
− Abolition of Freehold Title to Land
The Act abolished the existing freehold title to land and limits the title that can be
granted under it to leasehold interests not exceeding 99 years. Thus under the act all
allottees of state land and owners of properties covered by a Certificate of Occupancy
became tenants of the State.
LAND REFORM IN NIGERIA
• Nigeria is mainly an agrarian society and until oil was discovered some 50
years ago, agriculture used to be the principal foreign exchange earner for
the country. Even now that the economy is dominated by the oil and gas
sector, 60% of the workforce is employed in the agricultural sector largely
dominated by non-commercial farming.
• The land use pattern is estimated as follows: arable land is about 33% of
the total land area, permanent pastures cover 44%, permanent crops cover
3%, forest and woodlands 12%, and others 8%. Thus land is still the main
asset of the rural Nigerians where over 80% are peasant farmers; however
this asset has not been fully utilized for economic empowerment because
they do not have proper records and titles that can be used as collateral to
raise capital.
• It is in an attempt to economically empower the vast majority of Nigerians,
who are rural dwellers, by turning their land holdings to economic capital,
that the current Federal Government of Nigeria initiated the Land Reform
Agenda.
WOMEN ACCESS TO LAND IN NIGERIA
• Throughout the world, women constitute a large port ion of the economically active population
engaged in agriculture, both as farmers and as farm workers, and play a crucial role in ensuring
household food security, despite enjoying very limited rights to land. In many countries, the role
of women in agricultural production has increased in recent years as a result of men’s migration
to urban areas and absorption in nonagricultural sectors. However, in many parts of the world,
women have little or no access to resources such as land, credit and extension services.
Moreover, women tend to remain concentrated in the informal sector of the economy. In
plantations, they often provide labour without employment contracts, on a temporary or seasonal
basis or as wives or daughters of male farm workers
• In many developing countries and particularly in Nigeria, women have few choices in life- going
into marriage and the resultant child bearing. Their rights as individuals are most often denied
because they are women. The society actually considers them as 'second class' citizens who
should not have a say in the decision affecting the family, the society and the nation of which
they form integral part. And so the women has no access to land; a culture fostered by reasoning
that the woman will be married out to another family and ‘take’ the land when she goes.
• Women’s access to land in Nigeria is especially limited in the Southeast and South where
cultural norms and traditions forbid a woman to own land. In spite of the increased awareness
about gender equality issues in the past three decades, these cultural dictates have been largely
unchallenged at the local level where it matters most. More advocacy and knowledge on gender
equality is needed to change the status of women in local communities many of whom are
suffering needlessly as a result of ignorance and discrimination.
• Land rights are usually conceived of as the rights to use, enjoy and exploit land including
information about, decision – making around and benefits from the latter. Women’s land rights
are fragile and transient, being dependent upon age and marital status (including type of
marriage and the success of that marriage), whether they had children (including the number and
sex of those children) and their sexual conduct. And, inspite of the Nigerian Land Use Act of
1978, which restructured the property rights system in the country from a mixed private property
rights system into a collectivist framework, concerns about women’s land rights persist. Thus,
the impact of inequality in land rights has aggravated women’s socio – economic status.
HOW SOME WOMEN WERE ABLE TO SECURE LAND TITLE
• Most families originated from polygamous marriages because in the past most men
married more than one wife, in fact some men laugh at those who married only one wife
that they are weaklings. The polygamous practices carried along with it numerous
problems that is still affecting peoples lives today.
• There was a man who married fifteen wives and had seventy children. He had only two
bungalows what he did was to keep each wife in a one room apartment with her
children. He was not concerned about the welfare of the children the responsibility was
left for the women to carry. When the died, the issue of who owns the land arose and the
children had to fight to the point of almost killing themselves. Their mothers had to
intervene pleading with the children that the room that belong to each one should be the
property of the children belonging to that particular women. The eldest son felt that his
right was been infringed on and was ready to sell all the fathers property irrespective of
the number of children the man had before he died. This is just one of thousands of
cases that occurs regularly in Nigeria.
• My inspiration was drawn from a man whom I termed a ‘wise man’. His first wife died
after seven children and he re-married and the second wife had eight children. The man
had fifteen children in all. Being an enlightened man and knowing the problems that
could occur from extended family and even his children after his death did not want his
family to go through any form of hardship at age seventy five called all his children
(who by now were very successful, not minding their position in the society) for a
meeting. In that meeting he brought the documents of all his properties and asked each
one to pay a token fee of Five thousand Naira which is about thirty five dollars. He then
drew a deed of transfer for each of them indicating that the property belong to him or
her, of course his wife was not left out. The man died at the age of eighty five and was
buried.
HOW SOME WOMEN WERE ABLE TO SECURE LAND TITLE CONT.
• As with the custom of place his of origin, when a man dies and he is buried after twelve
calendar months the family gathers to celebrate the one year remembrance and then the
man’s property is shared by his kinsmen among his children. This was what happened in
this case. When the kinsmen called the children to share their father’s property according to
them for peace to reign the children patiently waited for the elders to complete their
mission. The kinsmen not knowing what their father did, started distributing the property
the way they deem fit. To their utmost surprised everyone brought out his or her did of
transfer and asked the eldest of the kinsman what property the wanted to share. One could
imagine the surprise on the kinsmen faces who by now would have allotted some properties
to themselves. Knowing that there was no property left to be shared and that their brother
has bequeathed his properties to his children left the meeting downcast raining abuses on
their late brother saying that he was a foolish and stingy man who refused to leave anything
for his kinsmen.
• With the foregoing and the experience of the author who is a Surveyor with great
experience of over eighteen years of practice of surveying in Nigeria and knowing how
women and their children had been suffering from the hands of extended family members
especially after the demise of their husband had to use her professional expertise to advise
clients who own more than a single plot of land about a thousand square meters (1000m) to
share their properties to their wives and children, which includes the female children.
• Over the years the author discovered that it yielded positive fruit as wife’s of client came
back to thank her for sustaining their lives and that of their children especially after the
death of their husband. Encouraged with these reports, the author went further and started
counseling clients even those with single plots to re-survey their land and now including
the names of their spouses so that in case of any eventuality, the woman is not left without
anything.
PLAN SHOWING THE SURVEY BELONGING TO MR. DAVID UMOLO
OTOBO
PLAN SHOWING THE SURVEY BELONGING TO MR. & MRS. ELIJAH
IBINAYIN
CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION
Enhancing women’s land rights requires that they become a political priority
and a legal possibility; it also requires administrative viability, social
acceptability, and moral legitimacy.
− Therefore, complementary policies must address women’s limitations in
exercising and enjoying their land rights. Even with assured land rights,
investments in property require access, financial markets and information,
extension, and other services.
− Women must know what rights to land they can claim arid how to claim
those rights.
− The land professional do not have a say in policy development in Nigeria as
they are not in positions where policies are made. As a result land
professionals should involve themselves in politics so as to be in position to
make policies about land that will be of benefit to the people.
− Land professionals should see themselves as a bridge itself and not bridging
the gap. To do this effectively, communication is the key.
− Also, the land professional should act globally and think locally by
advocating, mediating and arbitrating properly. This could save thousands of
lives from hardship and poverty thereby making the world a better place to
live in.