LAND ACQUISITION PROCESSES AND COMPENSATION LAWS OF NIGERIA AND INDIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The right to property is perhaps the primogenital real right of mankind. It pre-dates the models
of fundamental human rights. It has been recognized as an automatic or natural right and
derivative of nature. However, the contemporary polemics on property are certainly as old as
humanity itself. Consequently, in the revolutionary era, the right to property was reckoned as a
fundamental human right thus, embedded in the foremost international laws and Charters
including but not limited to the United Nations Convention on Human Rights (UNCHR), 1945.
It is against the backdrop of the sustenance of the right of man with respect to the right and
processes of acquiring and owning land leading to the right to receive compensation in the
event of compulsory and/or public acquisition that this article sought to contribute to existing
literature by evaluating the efficacy, sustainability and effects of the existing legal regime in
Nigeria and India on the subject matter. By adopting the doctrinal research approaches, the
author examined and compared the various ways land can be acquired and compulsorily taken
for public good within the Nigerian and Indian jurisdictions. The article reveals, amongst
others, that India and Nigeria have similar modes of acquisition of property but that the
compensation laws are very different in that the Indian LARR Act, 2013 has wide ranging
provisions which address the issues of resettlement, damages and rehabilitation of land owners
whose lands are taken by the government through compulsory acquisition which are not
provided in the Land Use Act of Nigeria. It recommended that, the Land Use Act should be
repealed and a new Act should be enacted following public consultations and, Nigeria should
borrow a leaf from the Indian template for efficiency.