EXAMINATION OF SOME LAND LEGISLATION IN NIGERIA AND THE OWNERSHIP RIGHTS CONUNDRUM

Abstract

Land ownership, before the received English property model was customarily communal. But, after the Cession Treaty of 1861, and the eventual spread of British influence, the control and management Olall lands became a legislative issue. The Public Lands Act, 1903, the Land Tenure Law, 1962, the Minerals Act, 1914 and later, the Minerals Act, 1945 (mutatis mutandis), and now, the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, and the Land Use Act, 1978, all vest the ownership Of immovable property (land) in the Government Of the Federation. Land property rights was entrenched in the 1963 Republican Constitution for the first time, same as it is extant under sections 43 and 44(1) of the 1999 constitution. But those provisions are textually subservient to the limitations under section 44(3) of the same instrument, hence the problems Of property ownership. This article critically examines some Of the land legislations, as they affect property ownership rights under the constitution. This article shall trawl through some relevant statutes, case-law and the opinion of erudite publicists in critically examining the extent Of land ownership rights.