Author(s): ANUGBUM ONUOHA, PHD. | Volume 21 (1)Feb., 2024
Abstract
At the individual or communal level, a well-defined property rights and a well-administered legal regime of land is critical to circumvent socially detrimental outcomes and conflicts. Protection of property rights comprise one of the most complex and challenging array of concerns that societies have to resolve in logical technique. There are three basic elements of private property as follows: Exclusivity of rights to decide the utility of the property; Exclusivity of rights to the services of the property; and, the rights to interchange, transfer or convey the rem on reciprocally congenial terms. In order to sustain property rights, it is crucial for the property right holder to acquire the title to it, to legally hold and protect it. It is against the backdrop of the sustainability of property rights that this paper seeks to determine whether the mode of protection of land rights in Nigeria through the statutory land registration and land titling systems is justified and sustainable. The paper suggests that the current legal regime in respect of registration and titling is sustainable to the extent of the subsistence of the very controversial Land Use Act. The paper further provides new acumens from the rule of law perspective in an attempt to create scholarly consensus on the critical question of formalizing property rights in Nigeria. It concluded that, the acquisition of title to land through registration does not warranty imperishability of land rights because all lands in Nigeria are held by way of term of year absolute. Consequently, land titles in Nigeria are extinguishable in time because the titles only confer the right of occupancy for a term of stipulated number of years. It is recommended, amongst others, that digitization of land registers should be made compulsory.
Keywords: Land Rights, Land Registration, Land Titling, Land Use.