• They are absentee land owners, says LG boss
Some prominent Nigerians, among them former President Olusegun Obasanjo, may lose their choice plots of land in Gembu in the North Eastern State of Taraba, with the locals alleging that the big shots deprive them of livelihoods.
Other retired generals and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar are also among those accused of grabbing fertile land in that remote part of the country and trampling on the little people.
Saduana Council Chairman, Gabriel Daniel, said they acquired large expanses of land in an axis rich in minerals but fail to put them to economic use.
He told TheNiche in an exclusive interview that the council is reacting to the agitation of youths because of the neglect of the area by successive governments.
No farm or grazing land for residents
Daniel said the big men who acquired the plots of land do not live in the council and do not allow indigenes to use the land for agriculture or grazing cattle.
His word: “We have so many absentee land owners in this place. That is the reason we sometimes come under pressure from our people, especially with the issues of farming lands and gracing areas.
“A larger chunk of the land has gone to the people who are not living here. We have made efforts to approach some of these big shots in Nigeria who have occupied large parts of our land. They are not actually developing the land.
“When they came, they said the place is good, we want to have lands here. We believed that they would bring development.
“We thought they would establish industries, hotels and many other things. We need those facilities so that our people will be gainfully employed. There are other things that can be done to help our people, like the establishment of diary industry.
“But unfortunately, some of them just took the land, they are not developing it, they are not using it for anything. At the end of the day, they will lease the land to our people at higher costs to graze their cattle or farm.”
Pitch for land certificate revocation
Daniel vowed that the certificates of occupancy will soon be revoked, saying the problem has been tabled before the state government.
“We as a local government are thinking of revoking all land certificates that were given either by the local government or the state government so that we can redistribute the lands on equitable basis for the use of the people of this place and people who are ready to contribute to the development of this place.”
He confirmed that he had held discussions with one of the absentee landlords.
“Since I came into office, I have been planning to pay all of them visits, but it is only one of them I have been able to talk with. If you go to where Obasanjo, Atiku and the others have houses, they own big lands there.
“I was able to talk with one of them, a very well known person in this country. He accepted immediately. He came and cut down the trees. We have discussed with him, he is yet to come back.
“We asked how much are we going to pay so that we can plot out the land and give it to people for residential buildings. That is the only one for now and we are very grateful to him”.
Beautiful land in sorry condition
Gembu, a very fertile swathe of land, is 1,830 metres above sea level within the popular Mambilla Plateau. It has enormous tourism and agricultural potential but lacks every modern facility.
It takes an average of nine hours to travel from Jalingo, the capital of Taraba, to Gembu, which has a similar weather condition to Europe, including snow fall.
The town is not connected to the national grid so it does not even benefit from the epileptic power supply in the country. There is no industry to employ the army of youths who are becoming restive.
A lady who hails from Gembu but lives in Lagos told TheNiche, the residents of the council are contemplating going back to the Cameroon since Nigeria does not seem to have plans to provide them the good things of life.
“We are fed up with the condition of things here. See what you suffered to get to this town. We have no electricity, no good road, we don’t have access to any Nigerian radio or TV station.
“In fact, some people are already agitating that we go back to Cameroon. It is that bad,” lamented the lady who gave her name as Vivian.
Gembu boasts some of the best environmental conditions in Nigeria. Apart from all round cool, temperate weather, it has no mosquitoes or flies.
It is best suited for animal husbandry as the cattle grazed there are very healthy.
The Land Use Act (called the Land Use Decree when it was promulgated in 1978 when Obasanjo was military Head of State) is one of the divisive issues in the national conference going on in Abuja. Some want it retained in the statute books, others want it yanked off.
The Gembu saga is one of the undoings of the decree which makes it possible for all lands to belong to the government and criminally-minded officials taking advantage of it to grab people’s lands.
Yakassai argues for Land Use Act
A Northern delegate, Tanko Yakassai (Kano), is among those in support of the Act. But a Southern delegate, Daniel Aluko (Ekiti), is one of those against.
Both are members of the Land Use Act Committee of the national conference.
Yakassai said the Land Use Act has been the law governing land administration in the entire North, where any land belongs to the entire people, unlike in the South, where its implementation varied from place to place.
“The decision to entrench it in the Constitution was taken by Northerners and Southerners together. To change it, you need to change the provision in the Constitution.
“What we are saying is that [collective land ownership] has been the practice all along; long before even the British came to Nigeria.”
Yakassai recalled that when the Act was made, the military hierarchy was largely in the hands of both Southerners and Northerners; Obasanjo, then Head of State, is a Southerner and a farmer.
“And if people infer that it was because of his interest in farming that he allowed it to happen, I will not agree with them because he was not the only person at the Supreme Military Council who took the decision on the matter.”
Aluko wants Land Use Act abrogated
But Aluko countered that it is necessary to remove the Land Use Act from the legal defence and protection of the Constitution to have a new legal regime that would make land accessible, affordable, and also guarantees adequate compensation.
“This is a total departure from the Land Use Act where the power is just invested in governors who just manipulate the process to suit their interests,” he stressed.
He said even when someone acquires land for public use, “he must make adequate compensation to the people before he takes possession of the land, and it should revert to the people after 10 years if it is not put to use.
“This is a new paradigm shift in the issue of land use. If we put it to use, it will guarantee that the Nigerian people, not just a few privileged individuals, will have the benefit of utilising land.
“What people are claiming today as the Land Use Act was never a Northern Native Authority Law; it was under the Crown Law that was adopted and imposed on Northern Law.
“The Land Use Act was even a minority report that was not accepted. At the committee that was set up on that, the majority said no, this is not what Nigerians want; we really want to make land accessible. It was just vested interest that made the government then to push for it.
Land grab made possible
“That is why, today, Obasanjo has the Ota Farm land. And that was why the late Shehu Yar’Adua had over 10,000 hectares of land in the North.
“Strictly speaking, it was meant to serve the military apologists. Even up to date, those who benefited from it and who want to have it preserved at all costs are also appendages or beneficiaries of the military era.
“But we must get to a point in this country where it must be tilted in the best interest of Nigerians.”
In Aluko’s view, it is just people playing out their survivalist instincts and people borrowing either religious or ethnic or regional sentiment to justify it.
“If you are talking about the Land Use Law that was operational in the colonial era and immediately after, who benefited from it?
In quest of fair access
“I worked mostly in the North. The North has not benefited from it, just like a good number from the South. But when people start trumping up North or South sentiments, in most cases, what matters is their selfish interest.”
He argued that the fear people have is the issue of resource control, but it goes beyond that because “every community is established or is living upon land. We must take adequate measures to protect that land because if you don’t have land in the first place, you cannot go anywhere.
“What we are saying is, make the process a transparent one; that nobody, not even the governor or the president, can hold sway on the issue of land. Let us have what I call resource democracy, where the people also have a stake in taking decisions.”