Guides To Effective Land Acquisition In Nigeria By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Esq.

The general title of the Land Use Act itself shows the intention
of the drafters as targeted mainly to deprive land owners of their
claims to land in any part of Nigeria.

Little wonder then that it is “an act to vest all land comprised
in the territory of each State solely in the Governor of each
State, who would hold such in trust for the people and would
henceforth be responsible for allocation of land in all urban areas
to individuals resident in the State and to organisations for
residential, agriculture, commercial and other purposes …”. As can
be seen from this piece of very inelegant drafting, the short title
of the Act has given it away, namely a smart venture by government
to ‘steal’ land from the people. The motive behind the Land Use Act
itself can be for another day, in so far as the drafters have by
now succeeded in smuggling it into the Constitution, as a way of
protecting their deals.

Legally speaking, land is a kind of real estate, or the solid
surface of the earth that is not permanently covered by water and
includes the natural resources therein. Part of the reasons why
land ownership has become very fundamental is because of the legal
principle of quid quid plantatur solo solo cedit, which means that
‘whatever is affixed to the ground belongs to the ground’. This
maxim was applied under Roman law to determine that trees and crops
were sold with, and formed part of the land. In a country like
Nigeria where so much dependence is on mines and minerals,
including gold, oil and gas, there has been a lot of disputes and
court cases on ownership of land.

This is the spirit behind the theory of compulsory acquisition
of land, where government has perfected the style of divesting
traditional ownership of land from the people and then turn around
to re-allocate same to others, under the guise of overriding public
purpose, which has now been extended to commercial development of
estates. This is what the courts must tackle and resolve on the
side of the people, as any purpose that does not bear general
utility value, such as land acquired for building schools, roads,
hospitals or such other public infrastructure, should not in any
way count as ‘overriding public purpose’. How do you take over
land, acquire it compulsorily and then turn around to allocate the
same land to a private company, who then develops a layout plan and
begins to sell the same land to members of the public, who are not
part of the land-owning family? The original land owners and their
coming generations are then thrown into the streets and at times
rendered completely homeless. It is injustice of the highest order,
which must stop. How do you rob Peter to pay Paul?

Suffice it to say that presently, the principles governing the
determination of ownership of land are fairly well settled under
Nigerian law, at least from the decisions of the Supreme Court in
the cases of Idundun v Okumagba, Ogunleye v Oni and Abioye v
Yakubu. Indeed, it has been suggested that part of the method of
decongestion of cases in the Supreme Court is to stop land cases
from proceeding to the apex court, except where there is a landmark
request to depart from the known principles. The summary of my
foray into the origin and operation of the Land Use Act is to
emphasize the point that the best land in Nigeria today is
government land, that is land allocated directly by the government.
For in such allocation, there is no dispute as to traditional
ownership, government having ‘stolen’ the land from the original
land-owners. So, if you want to buy land and you have the
resources, search out for direct government allocation. Following
that is land with global title, such as gated estates, properly
laid out and allocated strictly based on the lay-out plan. It
becomes very rare to run into individual crises in such
acquisition. In these cases, the land is expensive but with
assurance of good title. Then again, verification of title is easy,
as title documents are properly kept and documented with the
relevant government agencies and the process of approval becomes
fairly predictable and easy.

That then leaves one with land covered by customary title, in
which case the vendor is relying on traditional history of the
family to market the land. In some States, this has become like a
gold mine for land-owners, due mainly to some kind of collusion
with some government officials. As far as the government is
concerned, virtually all land in the State has been acquired
compulsorily, with minor cases of excision of few portions to the
hapless land-owners. On the other hand, the land-owners themselves
have perfected the style of denying any compulsory acquisition,
with court cases upon court cases. In most judicial divisions in
Lagos State, at least about 70% of the cases relate to and
disputes, principally by land-owners to challenge government
acquisition. To determine title in such circumstance becomes
extremely difficult, as most land-owners go far beyond the excised
portions or even sell the acquired portions outrightly, with all
manner of claims of pending allocation.

So, if you want to acquire land therefore, the first issue you
must determine is the title of the vendor, as every other thing
depends on that factor. Title is the beginning and ending of land
ownership, being the foundation of any claim to land. A quick guide
in this regard is to avoid land transactions laced with subtle
pressure, as where land-owners claim competing multiple interests
by many supposed buyers. If such were to be the case, the land
should have been sold ever before you got there. So, you don’t give
in to self-induced urgency of land-owners, but rather take your
time to visit the relevant organs of government to confirm
title.

Where the title is registered, then your next assignment is to
visit the appropriate Land Registry, to confirm ownership and the
existing transactions on the land, to search out for any possible
encumbrance, such as pending mortgages, etc. You then proceed to
the office of the Surveyor-General, to determine the actual
location of the land. In some cases, the survey plan attached to
the title document is in a totally different location, as many of
the so-called ‘surveyors’ engaged by land-owners are not the
licensed surveyors and they just cook up land from nowhere. The
Lagos State Government has developed a new style of confirming the
authenticity of certificates of occupancy upon payment of a token
fee, as many certificates have been cloned in the past, leading to
huge loses. The other commendable aspect is the online search for
land with pending court cases. When you are satisfied with all
these, you then conduct a ‘social search’, by going around the
neighbourhood to secretly investigate the land, through security
men, market women, shop owners, Community Development Associations,
vigilantes, etc, who all have the history of the area and will
reveal a lot to you that may not be contained in any land
registry.

When you have satisfied yourself with the title and other
searches, you then discuss the price of the land and agree on a
figure. Thereafter you will engage your own competent and licensed
surveyor to take the accurate measurements of the land to produce a
survey plan, as you cannot claim to buy land without its clear
identity, as to its accurate size and location. The surveyor will
also help to determine that the land being offered is within the
land owned by the vendor, so that you don’t end up paying for
another person’s land, unknowingly. If you are satisfied to proceed
to payment, then you must perfect all documentations, as to
purchase receipt, contract of sale or deed of assignment, as
appropriate. At the point of execution, you may do well to engage
photographers and even video recording of the event, at times just
for record purposes.

You must proceed to the point of possession immediately, by
gathering your workmen to commence immediate development of the
land, such as clearing it, erecting a shed or store for building
materials, security house, fencing the land, or such other make
shift developments that will show clearly that the land has been
acquired. In practice, possession of land is classified as
constituting 90% title, as once land is developed and occupied, you
need a court order to evict the occupier, even though he is a
squatter or trespasser.

Part of the problems being faced in the quest for genuine land
acquisition is the probative cost of free land, which factor has
turned many into victims, leading to huge loss of money in some
cases.

From all that I have discussed above, it becomes clear that to
successfully acquire land, you need the services of experts, like a
lawyer, a surveyor or an estate agent, be ready to pay for their
fees and then allow time for proper search and due diligence.
Whereas the Lagos State Government is commended for all efforts to
simplify the process of land acquisition through seamless search
procedure, the solution is to release all acquired land to their
owners and allow them to freely dispose of or negotiate
transactions genuinely. Land ownership is mostly historical and it
constitutes some form of customary heritage for the people, so they
should not be robbed of their customary inheritance, only to pass
same to others for a fee. Government should help regulate the
process of sale and charge some fee thereafter, but the current
regime of total and absolute acquisition cannot be of help to
anybody, at least judging by the volume of court cases pending
against the government by land-owners, who are bent on recovering
their heritage.