Nigerian Land Policy: Issues, Challenges and The Way Forward (Published)
Efficient administration and management of land ownership, holding and uses cannot be adequately achieved without sound land policy and its effective implementation. Land policy is essentially aimed at ensuring land accessibility to citizens of the society as well as protection of their interests. The contemporary land policy in Nigeria is the Land Use Decree No. 6 of 1978, now Land Use Act (LUA), Cap L5, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004. This paper aims at undertaking a contemporary review of the issues and challenges of land policy in Nigeria in order to proffer ways to ameliorate them and ensure that land is accessible to citizens at reasonable ease. The issues and challenges of Nigerian land policy include: the abrogation of freehold interest which affect the free market economy; excessive bureaucracy in obtaining Governor’s consent and approval for land transactions and issuance of certificate of occupancy; underdeveloped or bare land not having commercial value according to the LUA which limits the use of land for mortgage and some other purpose transactions; insecurity of private land ownership, etc. National sustainable economic development and growth depend largely on the land policy in operation; hence it should be inclusive and responsive to the needs of all land users. It is therefore recommended that the LUA, should be excised from the 1999 Constitution to ease requisite amendments to address these contemporary issues and challenges of the land system and use.
Keywords: Administration, Challenges, Issues, LUA, Management, Review, land policy
The Problems and Prospects of Child Adoption in Nigeria (Published)
It is not in dispute that children are an integral part of every family. More often than not, the absence of children in a family is viewed as problematic, especially in a place like Nigeria where indigenous customs and traditional practices still largely govern the beliefs of people. It is expected that every marriage should produce biological children; however, some couples are not that fortunate for various reasons ranging from barrenness to loss of pregnancy or non-survival of children. To this end, adoption offers such couples an alternative which makes it possible for them to have children which they can legally call their own, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities over such children as if they were the biological parents. Although adoption is not a novel practice in the Nigerian Family Law, many challenges have hampered the smooth running of the process, particularly in recent times. Sadly, chief among these challenges is the bizarre reality of “baby factories” that the social welfare system has had to grapple with. Hence, in order to aid a proper interrogation of relevant issues, this paper is divided into five sections. Section I deals with introductory matters in relation to adoption; section two considers the legal framework regulating adoption in Nigeria; section three which is the thrust of the paper, considers the problems facing the child adoption system in Nigeria; section four takes a look at the position of intercountry adoption as well as the future of adoption in Nigeria; while section five concludes with meaningful suggestions that could uncurl the adoption system in Nigeria.
Keywords: Challenges, Islamic Law, child adoption, customary law