SAN FRANCISCO, June 08, (THEWILL) – A massive lobby may have begun in Abuja, the nation’s capital, as land speculators, worried by the suspension of debates on the recommendations of the National Conference Committee on Land Tenure and National Boundaries, have stormed the city. Their aim is to lobby delegates with cash and other inducements for them to support the abrogation of the Land Use Act from the nation’s constitution.
Raising the alarm on Sunday in a statement entitled: “Land speculators are here,” was the Ondo State Commissioner for Vocational and Technical Education and member of the Confab Committee on Political Parties and Electoral Matters, Mr. Remi Olatubora.
“I wish to get this information across to the media houses to relay same to other delegates to be wary of uninvited visitors to their hotel rooms. Land speculators are here to influence Confab delegates towards the removal of the Land Use Act from the Constitution”, he stated.
The delegate disclosed further that the land speculators have been going from one hotel to the other lobbying delegates into making recommendations to expunge the Land Use Act from the Constitution.
“I have been noticing the presence of some individuals in the lobby of the hotel where some delegates and I are lodging consistently for some two days. I had thought that they were part of the individuals that have for some weeks been having series of seminar in the hotel’s conference centre.
“To my surprise, one of these individuals badged into my room early this morning and introduced himself as Gbenga. I asked for his mission and he informed me that he is a member of a team of professionals that came around Abuja to educate and lobby delegates into making recommendations to expunge the Land Use Act from the Constitution. His demeanour is suggestive of somebody willing to offer a bribe but I quickly dispatched him and reported the intrusion to the hotel management, ” Olatubora said.
He said from the short discussion he had with the intruder, it was evident that the fellow has been following his interviews in newspapers and noticed that he (Olatubora) had “offered opinions against the interest of whatever establishment he (the lobbyist) represents.”
It will be recalled that Olatubora, on behalf of the ‘pro-poor’ delegates in the Confab, had about two weeks ago, vowed to resist surreptitious attempts to remove the Land Use Act from the Nigerian Constitution.
The group of delegates also threatened to ensure that the “draconian recommendation” by the Conference Committee on Land Tenure Matters and National Boundaries does not sail through at the plenary on the premise that the poor masses of Nigeria would further be pauperised if the Land Use Act was eventually removed from the Constitution.
“This particular draconian recommendation of the committee is against the poor masses of this country; it is a coup against the poor masses of this country and we must all stand against it,” he had said.
Describing the recommendation as a plot for the few rich persons in Nigeria to take over the entire land space and make the poor owners of land their laborers, Olatubora had said: “The only way the poor masses of this country could have access to land is that the land title has been statutorily vested on the State Governors who are the trustees in each state of the Federation. This made it easier for individuals to acquire land through the Governors.”
According to him, “One important thing is that the Land Use Act limits the quantum of land that any individual can hold in any state of the Federal Republic of Nigeria per time. If not because of the control the Land Use Act imposes on the quantum of land any individuals can purchase, the few rich people of this country would have bought the entire land belonging to Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, it is only a few us that are speaking for the poor people of this country in the conference. The conference is made up mostly of bourgeoisies but the few of us representing the poor masses of the country were able to cause a stalemate on the debate last week.
“I know about few individuals that can buy the entire land space in Nigeria from Niger Republic to Atlantic Ocean, and Benin Republic to Cameroon. These few individuals can buy everything and drive the entire masses of this country to the Atlantic Ocean. We don’t want that one to happen.
“We are against the removal of the Land Use Act from the Constitution. I think, for anybody to remove it is a coup against the masses of our people. The few rich people should know that the poor masses of this country are angry and we should not cause more anger in them by trying to inflict more injury into their psyche and their well-being by taking away from them the right that the Constitution has guaranteed for them.”
He had also warned that if the recommendation eventually sails through at the conference, the few delegates speaking for the poor people at that conference and in the country would rise against the parliament and the President to drop the draconian recommendation.
“There will be mass campaign against it such that that recommendation will never see the light of the day in this country. Whatever is not in favour of the poor masses in this country at that conference is a nullity.
“Those working for the expulsion of the Land Use Act from the Constitution, are individuals who are doing commercial farming in America and want to come and take over the entire land space in Nigeria for their mechanised farming.
“The poor indigenous owners of the land will become labourers in their farms in the next five to six years if that particular recommendation is allowed to pass. This would certainly exaggerate the insecurity in Nigeria and make more serious than it is now if Nigerians do not rise against this harsh recommendation,” he said.
The debate on the recommendation by the committee to expunge Land Use Act from the Constitution had caused serious uproar at plenary, forcing the leadership of the conference to suspend debate on it. While some delegates applauded the recommendation, others condemned the report of the Committee, arguing that some of the recommendations were not implementable as they were drafted to favour certain classes of people or ethnic groups against the others.
The committee, headed by General A. B. Mamman with Oba Michael Adedeji as deputy, viewed the controversial Land Use Act as an attempt at codification of all laws in Nigeria pertaining to land administration.
It said before the Act came into effect, land belonged to specific owners or group of owners, families, or communities that could alienate, sell and dispose same without the requirement of obtaining any authorization or ratification by the state government.
The committee noted that the original land tenure systems, in which the community exercised management and control powers, guaranteed that community members have access to land for farming and habitation and other economic activities.
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