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Delegates that attended the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development advised government to conduct a needs assessment to determine the design of houses required by Nigerians as well as the evolvement of new plans and policies for the implementation of social housing and public rental housing.They equally want the authorities to ensure compliance with the provisions for understudies in the expatriate quota guidelines which require that two Nigerians must be attached as understudies to every expatriate with a view to taking over from him within 10 years, after which his expatriate quota will not be renewed.

The council, in a communiqué issued at the end of its annual meeting held in Ilorin, Kwara State recently, equally noted that progress in the sector could only be achieved through the provision of free, unencumbered land for mass housing projects. The body has thus set January 1, 2017 as commencement date for the adoption of Exchange of Letters for the transfer of interest in land between Federal and state governments.

The council also requested the various tiers of government in the country to underwrite the cost of infrastructure through mortgage discount financing in partnership with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).The communiqué stated: “The relevant bodies should waive registration fees for mass housing projects, to reduce the selling prices of such houses and enhance their mortgage affordability.

Also,government at all levels should embark on sustainable training and capacity building of professionals, artisans and tradesmen in the built environment.“With a view to developing adequate capacity of professionals, artisans and tradesmen in the built environment, all tiers of government should be encouraged to revive or set up sustainable vocational training centres in the industry. Also, the attention of relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should be drawn to ensure compliances with the provisions for understudies in the expatriate quota guidelines, which require that two Nigerians must be attached for understudies to every expatriate with a view to taking over from him within 10 years after which his expatriate quota will not be renewed.

Announcing the approval for use of the recently launched Building Efficiency Guide for Nigeria by all relevant stakeholders in the nation’s building industry, the body urged the Federal Government to commit to projects towards up scaling its urban renewal and slum upgrading programmes. The conduct of sensitization and education
programmes at different levels of government on the activities of Shelter-Afrique in order to benefit from its services was also emphasised.

They also advised government on the need for an affordable mix of housing schemes through the public private partnership initiative in the country, while Local governments and corporate bodies, which had withdrawn from the National Housing Fund (NHF) should return to facilitate their access to the fund and home renovation loans.

The communiqué stressed other issues including: A comprehensive physical development plan for the redevelopment of areas devastated by natural and man-made causes in order to improve the livability and sustainability of such areas.The review of the existing urban and regional planning laws to make them more responsive to new threats to urban lives such as crime, climate change and high energy demand.

A follow- up process to a law enforcing compliance with the provisions of the National Building Code by the National Assembly to be domesticated by the Houses of Assembly of the various states; relevant agencies that offer rebates and incentives should be requested to grant incentives for solar panels and solar hot water
systems in residential and commercial building projects;On urban development, the council approved that states and local governments be encouraged to vigorously implement the existing urban and regional planning laws.

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Examples of Bad lands people purchased from Omoniles include lands under Government Acquisitions, Lands Government intend to build estates, drainages, roads, Government Schemes, pipelines, high tensions, bad layouts and general lands or property that do not conform with the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Regulations .

Because of the sale of these bad lands, it has been very very difficult for the purchasers of this lands to Get even a simple Survey Plan approved or lodged at the Surveyor General’s office, talkless of owning a Certificate of Occupancy ( C/O) or an Approved Building Plan Or the Right to claim proper Ownership of the Land legally and they live in constant fear everyday of an impending Demolition or Revocation.

Also it is pertinent here to explain two concepts that affect the issue of Ratification or Regularization before I move on And it has to do with the differences between Owning Lands Under Government Acquisition and Committed Lands .

A Land under Government acquisition is a land acquired by the Government for its own specific use and there are plans for these lands in the nearest future depending on what the Government intends to do with the land. These lands have been acquired for years by the government and its at the Government’s discretion to release those lands to people or not depending on if they need to use the lands for a specific purpose or not and if the release of those acquired lands to the people will not disrupt any regional or urban planning regulation and the Government can cover eye to that Land.

Meanwhile A Committed Land is a land the Government already has Plans for and nothing in this life will make the Government alter its mind to give up that land. Such lands include lands earmarked for Government estates, Roads, Government Schemes etc. In fact if you buy a land in a committed Area, Your on your own because they will never approve the papers and if you build a property there, it will most certainly be demolished.

So because of these problems land owners who bought lands illegally from The Dreaded Omoniles under Government Acquisition, the Lagos state Government decided to take an Inventory of all unlawful structures erected in areas under Government acquisition and endorsed a decision that all prohibited structures erected on Land under Government acquisition which were not blocking roads, drainage and not located in Committed Areas should have the opportunity to process their papers and be granted building plan approvals and also assist the Government to provide for more housing developments for low income earners. This decision of approving the processing of getting their papers in Lands under Government acquisition gave birth to the process of Ratification and Regularization of owning lands within Non committed Government Acquisition.

Today it is now known as Regularization officially at Alausa instead of Ratification and Regularization is a process whereby illegal owners of lands in places Under Government acquisition that are not Committed lands are given the opportunity to obtain a legal title to the land encroached or trespassed upon from the State Government.

To simplify it, it means the process of allocating Government Land to someone who had previously occupied landed property without lawful authority from the State Government but it is subject to 7 Conditions:

1. That the property must not be situated in a Government Scheme, Estate or Committed area

2. The Property must be situated within an Area that conforms to Urban and Regional Planning Regulations and Standard of the State.

3. The Appropriate Set back of the Land must be observed.

4. The Appropriate distances from drainages, Canals, NNPC pipelines, Gas Pipelines, NEPA transformers, High Tension Wires, Water Pipelines and other restrictions laid down by the Physical Planning and Town Planning.

5. The land must not fall on road Alignment

6. The land must not fall within a Committed Government Area

7. The Land must fall within the Permitted Regularization Areas

These days it has been extended to areas without development schemes/layout plans and areas without Unplanned Developments. Example of such areas include: Okota, Ketu, Ikorodu, Badagry etc.

So if you have bought a land that runs afoul of these 7 Conditions You have yourself to blame because you refused to do a proper Land Search and Your land will either be revoked or the House on it will most certainly be demolished.

The Procedure for Regularization or Ratification of Title

(Important Notice) If your land is under Government Acquisition, you must do a survey plan and take it to the Surveyor General’s office to chart it to know if it is under Government Acquisition to know if it falls under the lands that can be ratified. If you haven’t done so please do so to know your land status.

So the Procedure to ratify your land includes thus:

1. The Applicant submits an application for processing to the Directorate of Land Regularization under the Ministry of Land also known as the DLR.

2. The DLR will chart the Survey plan and thereafter carry out a physical site inspection of the Land

3. If the Report of the Site Inspection is approved, the DLR processes the file further by raising a demand Notice for payment for land charges.

4. Upon payment of land charges by the Application (evidenced by the Treasury Receipt) the DLR Prepares the Letter of Allocation (Including the C of O) and forwards the Letter of Allocation to the Executive Secretary Land Use and Allocation Directorate for endorsement. The Letter of Allocation is thereafter released to the applicant.

5. The Applicant’s file containing the C/O is sent through the Permanent Secretary to the Honourable Commissioner for Land for Execution and after it has been executed the C/O is processed for Stamp Duty and Registration and released to the Applicant by the Honourable Commissioner for Lands.

Below are the Documents and Requirements of the Applicant for the Regularization of His Land

1. A Covering letter by the Agent or person filing the application for Regularization must accompany the Application and must contain all the personal details of the Applicant.

2. A duly completed application form to be sworn to before a magistrate or notary public duly signed and dated.

3. Submit 4 Passport sized Photographs of the Applicant

4. Land Information Certificate

5. Photocopy of Purchase Receipt duly stamped

6. N100 Current Special Development Levy

7. Tax Clearance Certificate

8. Sketch Map of the Site Location

9. Original Survey Plan (Which must have the Consent to Survey Number and Stamp) >>>> Will address the meaning of this with examples in my Next Article

10. Photograph of the Property

11. One Original Copy of the Deed of Assignment

12. Administration Fee: N4000

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The workers also lamented that the rich hardly pay taxes in the country, urging the government to step up its game in the area of tax collection.

Reviewing activities of last year in Abuja, its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba lamented that there are several estates built all over the country unoccupied, adding that such estates were proceeds of illicit deals.

He said: “Our business elite and multinational companies are notorious for evading taxes. The federal and states revenue services need to step up their game by identifying those that had not been paying taxes and get them to do so efficiently in the New Year.

“Government needs to impose property tax on the several hundreds of flashy estates and other structures in Abuja and several state capitals across the country. Some of these structures have laid unoccupied for years, making us to believe that they are properties developed with laundered funds.”

He lamented that it was regrettable that the effort of the leadership of the Senate to review downwards their wages and allowances was shut down by the entire Senate, adding that business in the National Assembly, as in virtually all other tiers of government, is continuing as usual with the political elite not willing to make any sacrifices that will affect their comfort zone.

Wabba said if the legislators failed to reduce their jumbo pay, the Congress will mobilise mass protest against them.

He said: “It is shocking that our lawmakers at the national level – Senators and members of the House of Representatives – would continue with the bizarre ostentatious standards they have set for themselves, for spending our collective patrimony.

“The planned purchase of 496 exotic cars costing several billions of naira, after getting car allowances, is not only outrageous but a mark of the manifest insensitivity of our legislators in the period of severe famine in the land.

“How can we, poor working people, millions of the unemployed and the poor masses, be expected to tighten our belts, while those supposedly elected by us to manage and provide succour for our collective wellbeing intend to live like emperors at a time that our economy is facing serious challenges?

“We call on the leadership of the National Assembly to remove this item from the budget for the National Assembly, and in the spirit of accountability and transparency, begin to make public the budget of the legislature. Failure to do this, NLC will in the New Year mobilise mass action against the National Assembly on these issues.”

The NLC said the 50 kobo reduction in the price of petrol announced by the government is a gimmick and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) inspired fuel price deregulation which will, in the long run, hurt the people.

Wabba said while the NLC commends the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration at getting the refineries capacity utilisation levels increased, he urged the government to be more creative in expanding local refining capacity by building decentralised modular refineries.

He said: “The current 50 kobo reduction in fuel price is obviously a gimmick. The pathway of international financial institutions which the current fuel subsidy removal act is taking will lead to increases in fuel pump price and attendant worsening of the hardships of poor working people.

“The state of Texas alone in the United States of America, has 26 refineries with a capacity of refining 4.72 million barrels per day. As a national priority, we must work to establish without any further dragging of our feet, modern refineries that will provide 100 per cent of our national needs.

“What we are against is the IMF-inspired fuel price deregulation.”

The NLC said the fate of the Chibok girls will always remain a litmus test of the victory of the state in the war against Boko Haram and expressed concern that there is no information about their possible whereabouts, asking the government to redouble its efforts at finding the school girls.

The Congress lamented that certain political and judicial office holders who are far less than 18,000 persons are earning an astonishing N1.126 trillion annually, pointing out that it is unfortunate that the National Assembly have refused to reduce their allowances as a way of reducing the cost of governance.

Wabba lamented that only eight of the 36 states of the federation are complying with the provisions of the Contributory Pension Act by paying the Retirement Savings of their workers, while another six states have commenced funding of their retirement benefit bond redemption fund accounts.

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Most, however, are Federal Government buildings which have remained empty since the government moved from Lagos to Abuja. These buildings include the 25 storey Federal Secretariat, that was later known as Defence House, the Cabinet Office at Moloney Street, the Legislature Buildings in Race Course, NET Building on the Marina, Federal Secretariat which was to be turned into flats so that our foreign domiciled professionals could come home and would have somewhere to stay. They were to be sold to returning Nigerian professionals. There are so many others that I do not wish to list all of them here.

Lagos State Government is making a reversionary claim on these and other federal properties. The Muhammadu Buhari Administration is almost unique in having a good working relationship with Lagos since both the government power in Abuja and Lagos State administration are APC. But it will be invidious if these properties went to Lagos State and ended the way many Lagos State properties have so far ended: especially in Ikoyi where the properties have ended up in private hands of members of the ruling party in Lagos. It cannot be beyond the imagination of both the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government to find a transparent way to deal with these matters. Mr. Dimeji Bankole, the former Speaker, at less than 40 years old, was able, according to him, to buy the NET building on the Marina. There are too many politicians who use office to feather bed their nests. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Bankole, a former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, about his source of funds: i.e. that it came from his father. There are well tested methods of proving such a claim.

President Buhari-led Government should be able to make simple rules about selling these buildings or forming co-operation with private estate agents or investors, first, to restore the buildings and let them out at commercial prices. This will end the constant rumours that private well placed political juggernauts have cornered this aspect of land acquisition in Lagos. Commentators point at the old Ministry of Works at the junction of Kings Way and Glover which is going up now as a five star hotel. It is suspected that this and other buildings on choice sites have been ‘sold’ to political leaders.

Nigeria is short of nurses. Yet two of the buildings which used to be used as Nursing Schools, one opposite the Island Maternity Hospital, the other opposite Creek Hospital, are no longer Nursing Schools. The buildings are empty waiting for further development by politicians who have acquired them. I cannot think of a better site for Nursing Schools than these two sites and the land surrounding them. These buildings should be returned and used for their original purposes.

Now, to the question of reversionary rights of Lagos State for Federal Government Buildings. I do not know what the legal position is but I can guess at the political implications. Nigeria is not the only country where its capital has moved from one city to another, Philadelphia was once the capital city of the United States, Sydney of Australia, Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire, Johannesburg of South Africa, etc. Justice Akinola Aguda, who recommended the move of the capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja, had suggested a joint committee on the disposal of assets. When a new state has been created from existing ones, an asset committee is usually set up (I must say that sometimes these committees cause more problems than they solve). There was such a committee set up between the Federal and Lagos State Government when Abuja was created. The Federal Government attitude was governed by a concern that Lagos, a fledgling state, should move its focus to Ikeja and other environs or so the Federal Government thought. It soon became clear that the Federal Government was wrong and that Lagos had every intention of taking up any and every property not in use by the Federal Government, including areas which by law and long practice had also been federal territory i.e. the littoral areas of Lagos, the areas adjacent to NEPA Electricity pylons, areas of either side of rivers, the Federal Government had declared to be waterways and a plethora of regulations which no doubt gave the Federal Government rights in areas that were to be contested by the Lagos State government and indeed by other littoral states.

A federation is made up of the three arms of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, each working independently of one another yet curiously dependent on one another. When issues of jurisdiction arise, the judiciary settles the matter where the law may not have been as precise as necessary: or may, by its pronouncement, reinforce an existing practice or order a new one. These cases of jurisdiction and ownership have been through the law court but we still have a problem. Has Lagos State a reversionary interest in Federal Government property left unoccupied in Lagos? How about the other 35 states comprising the federal government on whose behalf these properties were developed? A Federal Government property in Lagos belongs to the 36 federating units and when decisions are made about its disposal, it is the decision of all the states. But Lagos claims a peculiarity not common in other states. Lagos claims that the land of the government never belonged to the Federal Government, that all land belongs to the Idejo White caps Chief and their claim of reversionary interest is on behest of the chiefs. There is some merit in this argument but most of it is sophistry. Lagos was a colony seized by war. Land rights diminished after any conquest. Moreover, the claim of Lagos State for reversionary interest is in no way different from claims other states could make after the 1914 Amalgamation. There are other enclaves in Nigeria which were also colonies – Degema, Calabar – and land rights in these colonies were not dissimilar to those of Lagos.

When a problem arises, the best thing is to find a solution not to compound the problem by raising other complexities. The government should set up a task force to clear up the mess; give the tax force clear guidelines, for example, avoiding selling to politicians and their allies. A task force should rehabilitate most of the buildings and let them out at commercial rates; (and avoid the obvious temptation of buying land and property at cheap prices and making a killing from such purchases). The APC and the PDP are full of such men; for example buying places such as the schools of Nursing, dentistry, radiology, etc. These properties should be returned to their former function. They must not be subject of high rise hotel, etc. Where is the housing development for low and medium income earners? Lagos now has workers who leave home at 4a.m. and return by midnight. What kind of life is that? Those who have used their position in power to acquire more than one property should be stripped of the excess. The Federal Secretariat should be completed as flats and sold to those who are chosen by lottery at reasonable prices. People forget that Alhaji Lateef Jakande sold houses in Lagos and Abuja at N30,000 each. We may laugh at the quality of those houses (which have all been improved) but not at their location or their utility or their purchase pulling whole families out of poverty.

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