FG Charge Stakeholders on Land Administration to promote National Unity

The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu on Tuesday tasked Directors of Lands at the Federal and State Ministries on professional skills and knowledge for better land management and administration in fostering unity in Nigeria.

Engr. Abubakar in his remarks at the 26th Conference of Directors of Lands in the Federal and State Ministries in Abuja, said that a good number of security issues the nation is grappling with today are all firmly rooted in the land which relates to land security, boundary disputes, conflict due to land transfer of ownership or inheritance related conflicts.

Similarly, he added that land conflicts and other emerging conflicts had come to disrupt long-standing pattern of land use and contributed to displacement of persons and even land scarcity, thus, reasons why land is a very critical resource that needs to be properly looked into and managed effectively.

According to Engr. Abubakar, “Land is not just land in a country like Nigeria but represents everything from ethnic and cultural and legitimac, to economic potential, which explains why families, neighbors, communities, and even nations, resort to easily to war over land”.

“It is therefore imperative as professionals who are charged with the responsibility of managing the nation’s most vital and coverted asset, land to critically begin to consider again how we manage, use, allocate and deploy land, to ensure that it serves as a catalyst for national unity and that nation derive maximum value from land and its resources”.

The Minister, however urge all state Government Officials and other stakeholders to continue to cooperate with the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform on finding innovative approaches that would radically improve land administration in the country.

“I urge all state government officials and other stakeholders to continue to cooperate with the PTCLR to ensure adoption and implementation of Systematic Land Tilting and Registration in all the 36 States and FCT”. He added.

Meanwhile, the Director, Lands and Housing development department, Mrs. Great Edereka while speaking on the theme of the conference “Land Use Reform As Conflict Resolution Mechanism” noted that the conference is vert apt and timely considering the fact that there has been series of conflict over ownership of Land, Land Use and boundary issues within the country.

Mrs. Edereka however affirmed that the conference will proffer solutions to various land conflicts and management challenges in the country so as to address the disputes and disagreements that often arise between individual on matters relating to land.

Ogunrinde Victoria, Abuja